TheAequi were anItalic tribe on a stretch of theApennine Mountains to the east ofLatium in centralItaly who appear in the early history ofancient Rome. After a long struggle for independence from Rome, they were defeated and substantial Roman colonies were placed on their soil. Only two inscriptions believed to be in theAequian language remain. No more can be deduced than that the language wasItalic. Otherwise, the inscriptions from the region are those of the Latin-speaking colonists inLatin. The colonialexonym documented in these inscriptions is Aequi and alsoAequicoli ("colonists of Aequium"). The manuscript variants of the classical authors presentEquic-,Aequic-,Aequac-.[1] If the form without the -coli is taken as an original, it may well also be theendonym, but to date further evidence is lacking.
The historians made many entries concerning the wars between the Aequi and Rome; the geographers scarcely mention them.Pliny the Elder andPtolemy both make the same brief statement: the towns of the Aequiculi wereCliternia or Cliternum andCarsoli or Carsiolirespectively.[2][3] Pliny places them in Augustus'Regio IV; Ptolemy adds that they were to the east of theSabini. By the time of the earlyRoman Empire, all vestige of the Italic Aequi was gone. The two cities mentioned had been Roman colonies. The forms mentioned in inscriptions from there are Carsioli and Cliternia.[1]
They occupied the upper reaches of the valleys of theAniene, Tolenus and Himella, the last two being mountain streams running northward to join theNera river.
According toStrabo, the Aequi were in existence when the city of Rome was founded.[4] They are first mentioned byLivy as an ancient nation from which the Romans borrowed the rites of declaring war.[5] Livy also mentions that the last king of Rome,Tarquinius Superbus, made peace with the Aequi.[6]
They foughtseveral wars against the Romans, among which was theBattle of Mount Algidus (458 BC). Their chief center is said to have been taken by the Romans about 484 BC.[7] and again about 90 years later.[8]
Records of fighting between Romans and Aequi become much sparser in the second half of the 5th century BC. Likely the Aequi had gradually become a more settled people and their raiding petered out as a result.[9]
In 390 BC, a Gaulish war band defeated the Roman army at theBattle of Allia and then sacked Rome. The ancient writers report that, in 389 BC, the Etruscans, Volsci, and Aequi all raised armies in the hope of exploiting this blow to Roman power. According to Livy andPlutarch, the Aequi gathered their army atBolae. However, the Roman dictator,Marcus Furius Camillus, had just inflicted a severe defeat on the Volsci. He surprised the Aequian army and captured both their camp and the town.[10] According toDiodorus Siculus, the Aequi were actually besieging Bolae when they were attacked by Camillus.[11] According to Livy, a Roman army ravaged Aequian territory again in 388, this time meeting no resistance.[12] Oakley (1997) considers these notices of Roman victories against the Aequi in 389 and 388 to be historical, confirmed by the disappearance of the Aequi from the sources until 304. Owing to the dispute in the sources, however, the precise nature of the fighting around Bolae cannot be determined. Bolae was a Latin town, but it was also the scene of much fighting between Romans and Aequi, and it changed hands several times. Either an (unreported) Aequian capture followed by Roman recapture, or a failed Aequan siege, are therefore possible.[13]
The Aequi were not finally subdued until the closing phase of the SecondSamnite war.[14] With the intention of securing control of the Apennine corridor and facilitating Roman access toward the Adriatic while tightening their grip on Samnium, the Romans initially offered the Aequicivitas sine suffragio, a form of citizenship without voting rights.[15] Following the Aequian rejection of this settlement, Rome conquered the Aequi and subsequently established two Latin colonies designed to impose permanent Roman control on the region (Alba Fucens in 303 BC andCarsioli shortly thereafter between 302 and 298 BC).[15]
The initial colonial body of Alba Fucens consisted of approximately 6,000 settlers. The colonial foundation was met with hostility by the surrounding Aequian population. In the year following its establishment, the Aequi launched an unsuccessful assault on the colony, apparently unwilling to accept the implantation of a fortified Latin citadel within their former lands.[16]
All we know of their subsequent political condition is that after theSocial War the folk ofCliternia andNersae appear united in ares publica Aequiculorum, which was amunicipium of the ordinary type[17] located in what is now the municipality ofPescorocchiano. The Latin colonies in former Aequian territory would have spread the use of Latin all over the district; through it lay the chief (and for some time the only) route (Via Valeria) toLucera and the south.
At the end of the Republican period, the Aequi appear under the name Aequiculi or Aequicoli, organized as a municipium, the territory of which seems to have comprised the upper part of the valley of theSalto, still known asCicolano (from LatinAger Aequicolanus). It is probable, however, that they continued to live in their villages as before. Of these,Nersae (modernCivitella di Nesce) was the most considerable. Remains include largepolygonal terrace walls.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aequi".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.Authority control databases: Geographic |
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