Steele Brand

So that sets them up for what's kind of the magical fourth century.

And what happens after that is they start consolidating control in Italy.

And then we've got three more big events that happened before Alexander I.

would have come.

So if he's coming around 321 or thereabouts, so he doesn't die in Babylon, if he's coming in the 320s or 310s, there are a couple of other big things that have happened.

The first thing is that Rome has fought the Samnites in their first war.

Now, they've been allies with the Samnites, and the Samnites are these people that are in like the lower portion, the lower center of the Apennine Mountain, that spine that goes along Italy and

And they figure out these guys are really good at fighting in the mountains.

We're used to fighting people in like the Latins or the Etruscans and pseudo hoplite style warfare in the plains.

And they fight really well in the mountains.

And so we can't, neither of us can defeat the other.

It's kind of like the Peloponnesian war.

Athens has the fleet and Sparta has the land force.

Neither side can defeat the other.

And so they decide the only way to beat the Samnites is we've got to totally reform our military.

And we'll get into that later.

So they start reforming their military in the 340s and 330s.

Then the other big thing that's almost simultaneously is their system of alliances breaks down.

And they go into a war with their number one allies, the people who are just like them.

They're like brothers or cousins, the Latins.