In what way the treaty of the year 261 granted to the Latin state independence and equality; how the greater part of it fell, afterwards, into the power of its enemies, and the remainder lost the form of a confederacy, and separately took shelter under the supremacy of Rome; how they became separated from one another after their star had set; and at the same time how, from the dissolution of the Æquian state, Latin towns which formerly had only been equal to those contained in the number of the thirty townships, again come to light as states:—all these things have been described in their proper places in the course of the second volume.

After the consulship was shared with the plebeians, Latium still contained the same isolated states, as appear after the devastations of the Gauls. Tibur and Præneste stood apart from the others, each soverain of a district; those places, which had remained as Latins after the extension of the Volscians, must again have formed a league with one another, but still without preventing separate places, such as Tusculum, from forming an equally close connection with Rome: Antium was an entirely forein state, and so were Velitræ and Privernum also. One would seek in vain for compact territories: for Roman districts, either assigned or occupied, lay mixt among the Latin ones.