Battle of Veii

Battle of Veii
Part of theRoman-Etruscan Wars
Date c. 396 BC Location Veii,nearRome Result Roman victory
Belligerents
Roman Republic	Veii(Etruscancity)
Commanders and leaders
Marcus Furius Camillus

Thebattle of Veii,also known as thesiege of Veii,involvedancient Rome,and is approximately dated at 396 BC. The main source about it isLivy'sAb Urbe Condita.

The battle of Veii was the final battle between theRomans,who were led byMarcus Furius Camillus,who had been electeddictator,and theEtruscancity ofVeii.Veii had resisted the Romans in a long and inconclusive war with victories and defeats on both sides. The Romans besieged Veii and dug a tunnel beneath the city. Camillus attacked the city on all sides so as to distract the Veientines. The Romans thenemerged from the tunneland their forces quickly overwhelmed Veii.

The siege

TheRomanswere led byMarcus Furius Camillus,electeddictator(in the Roman Republic, this was an emergency general rather than a tyrant) after Rome had suffered defeats. Their opponent, theEtruscancity ofVeii,was a large city about 16 km (10 miles) fromRome.When Camillus took over command, Veii was under siege, and the Veientines had already destroyed a large quantity of siege equipment prepared by the Romans. In order to break into the city, the Romans dug a tunnel through the softtufarock on which the city was built.

Livydescribes the scene with the Veientines holed up in their city, the main Roman force encamped outside and a second force set to attack from within via the tunnel. After Camillus had taken theauspices,he had uttered the following prayer:

Pythian Apollo,guided and inspired by thy will I go forth to destroy the city of Veii, and a tenth part of its spoils I devote to thee. Thee too, QueenJuno,who now dwellest in Veii, I beseech, that thou wouldst follow us, after our victory, to the City which is ours and which will soon be thine, where a temple worthy of thy majesty will receive thee.

Relying on the superior size of theRoman army,Camillus attacked the city on all sides. The intent of Camillus' attack was to distract the Veientines from the mine by forcing their soldiers to defend the walls.

The Veientines wondered "what had happened to make the Romans, after never stirring from their lines for so many days, now run recklessly up to the walls as though struck with sudden frenzy".

As the unsuspecting Veientines rushed to defend their walls from the sudden attack of the Roman army, picked Roman troops emerged from the entrance of the tunnel inside the temple of Juno. They quickly overwhelmed the Veientines and began a general massacre. As the fighting slackened, Camillus gave orders to spare the unarmed who began to surrender as the soldiers gathered loot.

The wealth so impressed Camillus that he gave a speech, during which he turned and stumbled, which was seen to be an omen of his later condemnation and thesack of Rome,which followed a few years later after thebattle of the Allia.

The survivors were enslaved. The city was subsequently repopulated by Romans. This destruction of the Etruscan stronghold secured Rome's growing place in central Italy.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Livy (1905).From the Founding of the City.Translated by Canon Roberts – viaWikisource.(print:Book 1 as The Rise of Rome,Oxford University Press,1998,ISBN0-19-282296-9)

Secondary sources

• Grant, Michael(1993).The History of Rome.Faber and Faber.ISBN0-571-11461-X.