Battle of Lake Vadimo (283 BC)
| Battle of Lake Vadimo | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Roman-Gaulish Wars | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Roman Republic |
Etruscans, Gauls |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Publius Cornelius Dolabella | |||||||
The second Battle of Lake Vadimo was fought in 283 BC between Rome and the combined forces of the Etruscans and the Gallic tribes of the Boii and the Senones. The Roman army was led by consul Publius Cornelius Dolabella. The result of the battle was a Roman victory.
The previous battle was fought in 310 BC during the Second Samnite War (327-304 BC) between the Romans and a large coalition of Etruscan city-states. It was said to have been the largest battle between the two nations.
Unfortunately, this battle occurred in a period for which the books in The History of Rome by Livy, the most thorough ancient historian who wrote Roman history, have been lost and we do not have his thorough coverage. The best text is by Polybius, but this lacks important details. A fragment from Appian is confusing. There are many details about how the battle was fought.
According to Polybius, the battle followed events which started with the siege of Arretium (Arezzo, in north-eastern Tuscany). Unspecified Gauls besieged Arretium and defeated the Romans who came to the aid of the city. The praetor Lucius Caecilius Metellus Denter died in the battle and was replaced by Manius Curius Dentatus. This places the event in 283 BC because Lucius Caeculius was a consul in 284 BC. Dentatus sent envoys to negotiate the release of Roman hostages, but they were killed. As a result, the Romans marched on Gaul and they were met by the Senones who were defeated in a pitched battle. The Senones were one of the Gallic tribes which lived in northern Italy. Polybius used the highly generic term Gaul. He meant Gallia Cisalpina (Gaul this side of the Alp from the Roman geographical viewpoint) which was the name the Romans gave the area of the Gauls of northern Italy (as opposed to Gallia Transalpina, Gaul the other side of the Alps, which referred to what is now southern France). It can be assumed that this clash with the Senones occurred in the ager Gallicus (the name the Romans gave to the area which had been conquered by the Senones), on the Adriatic coast (in modern Marche) as Polybius wrote that “the Romans invaded the territory of the Senones, killed most of them and drove the rest out of the country and founded the colony of Sena Gallia (Senigalia). Polybius did not specify who led this Roman campaign.
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