Roman–Hernici conflicts
For most of the 5th century BC, the Roman Republic had been allied with the other Latin states and the Hernici to successfully fend off the Aequi and the Volsci.
The rebellious Hernici were incorporated directly into the Roman Republic, while those who had stayed loyal retained their autonomy and nominal independence.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus says the terms were similar to the Foedus Cassianum, a mutual military alliance among the Latin cities with Rome as the leading partner.
[6] Debate about the distribution of that land amongst Romans and the Latin allies caused discord in Rome, which in turn led to the trial and execution in 485 BC of the three-times consul Spurius Cassius Vecellinus for high treason, ironically having been the person who negotiated the treaty with both the Latin allies and the Hernici and for whom the treaty was named.
During the 5th century, the Latins were threatened by invasion from the Aequi and the Volsci, as part of a larger pattern of Sabellian-speaking peoples migrating out of the Apennines and into the plains.
The sources records the founding of several Roman colonies during this era, while mention of wars against the Aequi and Volsci become less frequent.
[12] However, the Latins and the Hernici, no longer threatened by the Aequi and Volsci, could also have seized the opportunity of the Gallic Sack to abandon their alliance with an increasingly dominating Rome.
[14] While it is possible that this led to some Latin and Hernician warriors fighting for the Volsci, these could also be inventions by Livy to provide a literary motif to his narrative.
[19] In 363, to ward off pestilence, the Romans nominated L. Manlius Imperiosus dictator to perform the ancient ritual of "driving in the nail" at the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
Manlius, however, attempted to use his appointment to secure command in the war against the Hernici, but, faced with public resentment and resistance from the tribunes of the plebs, he was forced to lay down his office.
[21] As usual, Livy makes Rome the offended party, but Roman designs on Hernician land might well have been real cause of this war.
[26] Livy's extended narrative of this campaign is full of standard annalistic features and very little of the detail provided can have been derived from authentic records.
The first military command ever held by a plebeian consul and the subsequent dictatorship of the conservative patrician Appius Claudius ties Livy's account into the Struggle of the Orders.
Oakley (1998) does not consider these arguments decisive, but believes the basic notice of a Roman victory against the Hernici in 362 to be historical, and perhaps also the dictatorship of Appius Claudius and the involvement of Signia as well.
In response, part of the Hernici, under the leadership of the city of Anagnia, rose in rebellion in 306, but were easily defeated by the Romans that same year.
Aletrium, Ferentinum and Verulae were allowed to retain their autonomy and enjoy similar political rights as the Latins.
[39] Marcus Tullius Cicero later claims in his treatise De Officiis that the Hernici were granted "full rights of citizenship" after being conquered.
