battles
entries
the battle of lake regillus
the last military attempt to restore the kings. the latin coalition clashes against rome at lake regillus around 496 bce, with the mystical legend of the dioscuri castor and pollux saving the legions.
the darkest day of rome
the tide of gallic warriors crashes against the romans at the river allia. psychological panic dissolves the formations, leaves the legions massacred and the capital defenceless. 18 july was marked forever as a day of ill omen.
the great coalition against rome
in 295 bce, samnites, gauls, etruscans and umbrians joined forces to annihilate rome on the plain of sentinum. the consul publius decius mus repeated his father's devotio and offered himself to the gods of death; the victory sealed roman hegemony over italy.
the oath of the linen legion
at aquilonia, in 293 bce, the samnite aristocracy shut its best men inside a linen enclosure and made them swear to die before they fled. the consul lucius papirius cursor discovered that fanaticism does not stop a well-drilled legion.
the pike wall of heraclea
in 280 bce the manipular legion smashes for the first time against the macedonian pike phalanx and against twenty war elephants. pyrrhus of epirus wins the field at heraclea, but discovers among the dead an enemy who does not know how to surrender.
the pyrrhic victory at asculum
in 279 bce pyrrhus of epirus defeats rome again at asculum, but loses thousands of his finest soldiers, irreplaceable so far from home. from that day comes the phrase "pyrrhic victory" and the lesson that a tactical success can lose an entire war.