The Aequi are classified as ITALICS, probably a branch tribe of SABINES of the central Apennines in present-day Italy. The Aequi came to inhabit hill country in northern parts of the region of ancient Latium (part of modern Lazio) in present-day west-central Italy north of the Hernici and Volsci. They were early enemies of the ROMANS.
ORIGINS
The Aequi migrated from the central Apennines into northern Latium during the sixth century B. C.E., as the power of the Etruscans began to wane.
LANGUAGE
The Aequian language was one of the Sabellian subgroup of the Oscan group of italic languages, related to Marrucinian, Marsian, Paelignian, sabine, Vestinian, and Volscian.
HISTORY
In about 500 b. c.e. the Aequi in Latium moved to the south, threatening Roman settlements, including Praeneste (modern Palestrina) and Tibur (modern Tivoli), which they may have razed. By 493 b. c.e. they had allied themselves with other Italics in Latium, the Volsci; the Romans responded in kind, securing an alliance with the Hernici and Latins.
In 486 b. c.e. a period of continued warfare began between the Romans and the Aequi and Volsci. In 457 b. c.e. the Roman army was routed at the hands of the Aequi at Mt. Algidus. Archaeology has given indirect evidence of the seriousness of the threat the Aequi posed to Rome, as there is a discernible drop off of public building projects in the mid-fifth century b. c.e., a sign that the economy was suffering. According to perhaps legendary accounts the Roman general cincinnatus was called off his farm to lead the Romans as dictator and rescue their army. sixteen days later, his mission accomplished, cincinnatus is said to have resigned, returning to his plow (his action long serving as an example of ideal Roman behavior). In 431 b. c.e. the Romans under A. Postumius Tubertus fought another engagement with the Aequi, at the pass at Mt. Algidus, and this time they triumphed.
Although the power of the Aequi was broken, they continued to resist Roman expansion, but with little effect. In 304 b. c.e. Rome successfully defeated the Samnites and their allies, ending the second samnite War and gaining complete control of Latium. During this war, in a campaign lasting 50 days, numerous strongholds of the Aequi were systematically taken one by one and their inhabitants slaughtered en masse. The Aequi were granted limited Roman citizenship, and under Roman rule, their culture and language disappeared.
CULTURE (see also Italics)
Little is known of pre-Roman Aequi culture, other than that they subsisted on herding and agriculture and were warlike. The colony established by the Romans at the Aequi town of Alba Fucens in 304 b. c.e. signaled the gradual intrusion of the Latin language and culture into Aequi territory.
The Aequi were one of many peoples of the Italian Peninsula whose history is tied to that of the Romans. Knowledge of them has been filtered through the Roman point of view.
Aernici See Hernici.
World History
