In Roman tradition, the battle of Aricia happened around the fourth year of the
Roman Republic, when
Spurius Larcius and
Titus Herminius were
consuls. The precise year of the battle varies in the sources: the historian
Livy has 508 BC, and the antiquarian
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (5.36), using Greek
Olympiads, dated the events to 504 BC, while the traditional
Varronian chronology has Larcius and Herminius as consuls in 506 BC. Dionysius narrates the conflict from the point of view of
Cumae and its tyrant,
Aristodemus, which has led
Andreas Alföldi and other historians to believe that he used an independent Cumaean source instead of a Roman one. If true, this "Cumaean chronicle" (as it has been termed) provides an independent confirmation of the general accuracy of traditional Roman chronology, which dated the beginning of the Republic to the late 6th century BC.
Arnaldo Momigliano wrote, "this synchronism with the history of Cumae is the strongest single argument for the correctness of Roman republican chronology'. Alföldi's argument has been attacked by Andrew Gallia, who argues that there was no contemporary writing or tradition behind the Cumaean point of view in the conflict, and that Dionysius's date for the battle of Aricia should not be regarded as more accurate than Livy's. Wiseman was unconvinced by Gallia's arguments and accepted the existence of a Cumaean chronicle narrating the historical period in question. ==Endnotes==