[4] The Aequi were not finally subdued until the end of the second Samnite war,[5] when they seem to have received a limited form of franchise.
[6] During the period of popular discontent in Rome which led to the First secessio plebis in 494 BC, the Volsci, Sabines, and Aequi each took up arms at the same time.
The Roman consul would have preferred to delay any attack, because the Aequian army's camp was situated on a position which was difficult to approach.
However, the Roman troops demanded that there be no delay, because of their anxiety to return to Rome as soon as possible because of the political events that had been fomenting there.
The Roman army captured the Aequian camp, and took from it an abundance of booty, thereby securing a bloodless victory.
[8] In 488 BC the Volsci, led by Gaius Marcius Coriolanus and Attius Tullus Aufidius, laid siege to Rome.
However, the Aequi refused to accept the leadership of Aufidius, and as a result a dispute broke out and the two armies fought, diminishing the strength of each of them such that they were no longer a threat to Rome.
The consul Quintus Fabius Vibulanus incurred the anger of the plebs by lodging the spoils of victory with the publicum.
In 481 BC they laid siege to the Latin town of Ortona, and the Romans raised an army and placed it under the command of the consul Kaeso Fabius.
When word arrived that the other consul Titus Verginius Tricostus Rutilus was threatened by the Veientes, Fabius took his army to rescue his colleague.
In contrast to his colleague Claudius who had offended the plebeians and therefore lost the discipline of his troops, Quinctius suffered no military ill-discipline.
[17] In 466 BC the consul Quintus Servilius Priscus Structus led a Roman army into Aequian territory to continue the war.
[18] In 465 BC Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, Roman consul for the second time, was given a special command against the Aequi.
News of this fresh attack, at a time when both consuls were still absent from the city, caused panic in Rome.
Meanwhile the other consul Fabius successfully ambushed the Aequi and routed them, recovering all the bounty that had been taken from Latin territory.
Postumius remained at Rome to levy troops and Titus Quinctius, consul the previous year, was granted command of fresh Roman forces as proconsul.
A number of portents were witnessed in Rome at the conclusion of this war, and a solemn festival of three days was declared to appease the gods.
[26] In 390 BC a Gaulish war band defeated the Roman army at the Battle of Allia and then sacked Rome.
The ancient writers report that in 389 BC the Etruscans, the Volsci, and the Aequi all raised armies in hope of exploiting this blow to Roman power.
Bolae was a Latin town, but it was also the scene of much fighting between Romans and Aequi, and it changed hands several times.