ABSTRACT
The earliest treaty between Rome and Carthage shows clearly that Republican Rome claimed to uphold the hegemony in Latium which her kings had exercised. The Latins were willing to conclude an agreement, not because of any fictitious military disaster, but the Volsci and Aurunci were pressing hard upon them and had perhaps recently destroyed two Latin cities, Cora and Pometia. The Sabines had mingled with the Romans from the days when the inhuming Sabine's of the Quirinal and Esquiline joined with the cremating peoples of the Palatine, and Titus Tatius was a Sabine. The story of Camillus' exile was perhaps invented to save the conqueror of Veii from blame for the catastrophe and in order that he might be able to rally the survivors outside Rome; doubtless he played a leading part in the story of Rome's recovery. Rome avoided levying tribute; she fought her battles side by side with her allies who thus felt the reality of their alliance.
