The Old Republic

Far from putting an end of the city's attempt to dominate its neighbors, the young republic expanded even more aggressively. Over the next 200 years, Augusta spread along the western coast of the Tyrrian Sea and then east to seize control of the coastal towns of the Sea of Illyria. Within another 25 years, the ambitious Republic had penetrated northward into the hill country east of the Thybrine River, driving a wedge between the coastal regions of the Targonian city-states. At the same time, Augusta's influence had spread southward to the coastal region surrounding the Gulf of Tarentis, a loose confederation of mercantile towns long dominated by the free city of Tarentum. Hostilities between the two cities came to a head in BCY 282, resulting in war. The Tarentines forged an alliance with the formidable warlord Gorgias the Molossian, who led them in a series of victories against the legions of Augusta. But the cost of these victories was too high; the men of Tarentum soon found themselves suffering under Gorgias' despotic rule. In the end, they expelled the tyrant along with his mercenaries and in BCY 272, Augusta's legions took the city. By BCY 265, the last of the Targonian city-states fell to Augustan forces, completing its domination of the Tilean peninsula.