nearly worn out, when Umbrians, Etrurians, and Senonian Gauls came to
the rescue. About sixty thousand men fought on each side. The battle of
Sentinum determined the fate of Samnium and Italy, gained by Fabius and
Decius, and the Samnites laid down their arms and yielded to their
rivals. Their brave general, Pontius, was beheaded in the prison under
the capitol,--an act of inhumanity which sullied the laurels of Fabius.
The Roman power is now established over central and lower Italy, and
with the exception of a few Greek cities on the coast, Latium, Campania,
Apulia, and Samnium are added to the territories of the republic.

[Sidenote: Works of Appius Claudius.]

In the mean time the political inequality between Patricians and
Plebeians had been removed, and a plebeian nobility had grown up,
created by success in war and domestic factions. The great man in civil
history, during this war, was Appius Claudius the Censor, a proud and
inflexible Patrician. His, great works were the Appian road and
aqueduct. The road led to Capua through the Pontine marshes one hundred
and twenty miles, and was paved with blocks of basalt; the aqueduct
passed under ground, and was the first of those vast works which
supplied the city with water.

About ten years elapsed between the conquest of the Samnites and the
landing of Pyrrhus in Italy, B.C. 280, during which the Romans were
brought in contact with Magna Grecia and Syracuse.

[Sidenote: Tarentum invokes the aid of Phyrrus.]

The chief of the Greek-Italian cities was Tarentum, a very ancient
Lacedaemonian colony. It was admirably situated for commerce on the gulf