Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 217 



We first read of them, indeed, soon after the expulsion of 

 the Tarquins, as having formed a confederacy against Rome 

 with two Latin cities, Pometia and Cora, when, being defeated 

 with great slaughter, they are said to have taken refuge with- 

 in the walls of Pometia? The following year Pometia was 

 besieged without success, and one of the consuls being se- 

 verely wounded, the invading army sounded a retreat. 



A second army was, however, quickly dispatched, and Ro- 

 man perseverance at length triumphed, Pometia being taken 

 by assault, after which it was so completely destroyed, that 

 though it had ranked as the principal town in the Pontine 

 Marshes, to which, indeed, it gave its name, no vestige of it 

 can now be discovered, and its very position is unknown. 



Still the Aurunci remained unmolested in their capital on 

 the summit of Rocca Monfina, to which the Romans, as it 

 would appear, did not think it prudent to pursue them ; and, 

 although a few years afterwards, when this same people, in 

 consequence of the taking of the town of Suessa by the Ro- 

 mans, joined the Volscians, they were again defeated in bat- 

 tle, their independence was still preserved to them within 

 the range of the mountain fastness alluded to. 



For the next century and a half the Aurunci appear to 

 have kept aloof from collision with the Roman power, but in 

 the year A.U.C. 410, they made a predatory incursion into 

 the Roman territory, which excited so much alarm, from the 

 fear lest, if unchecked, the whole Latin nation might rise, and 

 make common cause with them, that a dictator was appointed 

 to head the army sent to oppose their march. They were 

 indeed promptly repulsed; but nevertheless, in the great Latin 

 war which commenced about five years afterwards, they again 

 took part against the Romans, and shared in the defeat 

 which attended the arms of the confederates. 



At the peace which followed, they were admitted in the 

 alliance of the Romans ; but from this moment may be dated 

 their ruin ; for soon afterwards the hostile nation of the Si- 

 dicini, either by surprise or treachery, effected that which the 

 Romans appear never to have attempted, namely, the expul- 

 sion of this people from their stronghold on the summit of 

 Rocca Monfina, which, with its walls and fortifications, was. 



