ABSTRACT
The general evolution of the Italian peninsula in the fourth century B.C. was governed by three fundamental facts: the retreat of Etruria, the decline of Hellenism, and the Gaulish invasions. These events, which in magnitude and scope overflow the framework of the Roman annalistic tradition to an exceptional degree, exerted by themselves, and still more by their interaction, a decisive influence upon the destinies of Rome, and they alone render her extraordinary fortune intelligible.
