Outbreak
Livy writes that when the Romans learnt of the Latins secret talks with the Campanians they sent for the ten leading men among the Latins to come to Rome and receive instructions, pretending to be concerned for the Samnites. At this time the Latins had two praetors, L. Annius of Setia and L. Numisius of Circeii, both colonies. Through their efforts the colonies of Signia and Velitrae and also the Volsci were convinced to take up arms against Rome. As there could be no doubt what the real reason for summoning these men to Rome were, the Latins held a council meeting to decide what their leaders should reply to the questions they expected the Romans to ask. At the meeting Annius complained that Rome were treating the Latins as subjects rather than allies and proposed that the Latins should demand that henceforth one consul and half the senate should be elected among the Latins, and so give Latins and Romans an equal share in the government. This measure was adopted and Annius appointed spokesman for the Latins. The Roman senate received the Latin delegation in an audience in the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill where they advised the Latins not to make war on the Samnites with whom the Romans had a treaty. In a speech to the senate Annius presented the demands of the Latins to which he received a furious reply from the consul, T. Manlius Torquatus. Livy writes that according to tradition, while the senators were invoking the gods as guardians of their treaties with the Latins, Annius was heard dismissing the divine power of the Roman Jupiter. However when storming out of the temple, Annius slipped on the stairs and was knocked unconscious in the fall, or according to some, killed. When Torquatus saw Annius lying there, he vowed to strike down the armies of the Latins just as the gods had struck the Latin envoy. This speech was wildly cheered by the people of Rome and war was declared.
Modern historians consider Livy's account of the outbreak of the Latin War unhistorical fiction, filled with invented speeches written, as was common practise among ancient historians, so as to present the arguments of both sides. There is a general resemblance between rhetoric of the speeches Livy has written for L. Annius and the complaints and demands made by Rome's Italian allies in the years before the Social War. Several of the writers Livy is known to have used for Roman history during the 4th century lived through the Social War, and it would have been natural for them to see parallels between the Latin and contemporary events. Like the Roman senate rejected an embassy from the Italian insurgents in 90 BC, so is also the Latin embassy of 340 BC rejected. Later, in his account of the Second Punic War, Livy mentions that some of his sources claimed that the Capuans, after the Battle of Cannae, had similarly sent an embassy and demanded to receive an equal share in the government of the Roman Republic. He however rejected this as a duplication of the demands made by the Latins at the outbreak of the Latin War. Modern historians do not believe the Latins made any demand for a consul and half the senate in 340. It is possible that Capua really did so in 216, but most likely Livy was correct to consider this a duplicate of accounts of the Latin War. Instead they have proposed that historically these were political demands made by the Italians at the outbreak of the Social War. No ancient attestations of such demands exist today however. By the early 1st century BC Rome had risen to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean and Roman citizenship was a highly desired favour. However such sentiments are considered anachronistic for the 4th century. In 340 Rome was still only a power local to Latium, but whose aggressiveness and recent expansion into Campania was an increasing threat to the independence of the smaller Latin communities who risked becoming entirely surrounded by Roman territory. Rather than being caused the Roman refusal to share their government with the other Latins, the Latin War was a final bid by the Latins to preserve their own independence. In this endeavour they were joined by the Volsci, who were much in same situation as the Latins, and the Campani, Sidicini and Aurunci, three peoples who all risked being squeezed between the growing powers of Central Italy, Rome and the Samnites.
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