Ancient Rome had many foes during her 1,200 years of history. In the early days when Rome was still only a regional power the enemies were the neighbouring Sabines, other Latin cities, the Aequi and the Volsci. The Etruscan cities of Tarquinii and Vulsci in southern Etruria fought against the Romans. The main Etruscan enemy of Rome was the city of Veii (which was only 10 miles from Rome) until the Romans destroyed it in 396 BC. Rome was at war three times with the Samnites of Southern Italy. During the last of these wars Rome also fought the Umbrians and the Senone Gauls. Thy Etruscan cites of Ortona Clusium, Volsiniiand Perusia and Arretium fought the Romans in 310 BC, 294 BC and 283 BC. The Greek King of Epirus tried to invade southern Italy, but Rome defeated him. The Gauls of northern Italy tried to attack the Romans, but they were conquered.
In 9 AD, the Cherusci of north-western Germany led and alliance with the, Bructeri, Marsi, Sicambri, Chauci and Chatti . They defeated three Roman legions.
Rome's main enemy in the 3rd and 2nd century BC were the Carthaginians. From 113 BC to 101 BC the Romans Cimbrian War fought a war against the Cimbri and the Teutones, two Germanic peoples who attacked the empire. The main enemy in the early 1st century BC was Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus (in north-eastern Turkey. From the late 1st century BC and through the rest of Roman history the most powerful enemy were the Persians.
In From 88 to 105 BC the Dacians (who lived in Romania and Moldova) attacked the Roman Empire. The emperor Trajan conquered Dacia. The Jews rebelled against the Romans several times
From the late 2nd century AD onwards other enemies were Iranian speaking peoples (the Scythians and the Iazyges) who lived east of the Roman empire and Germanic peoples (the Franks, Alemanni, Marcomanni, and Quadi) who lived north of the empire and the Visigoths (a Germanic people who lived to the east of the empire). These peoples carried out many invasions into the empire in the late 2nd century BC and in the Third century BC. They were all repelled, but at a great cost. In the fifth century BC the Huns attacked the Balkan Peninsula (south-eastern Europe) three times and tried to invade Gaul. Later in that century, the Vandals, Sueves, Burgundians (Germanic peoples) and the Alans (an Iranian speaking people) invaded the western part of the Roman Empire. The Alemanni took advantage of this to take over Switzerland and north-eastern France. The Franks soon pushed into northern and central France. The Angles, Saxon, Jutes and Frisians(Germanic peoples) migrated to Britain in waves.
