Most of the Latin communes in Etruria, Latium, the territory of the Marsians, and northern Campania -- and so in those very districts of Italy which directly had suffered least from the war--announced to the Roman senate in 545 that thenceforth they would send neither contingents nor contributions, and would leave it to the Romans themselves to defray the costs of a war waged in their interest.

The consternation in Rome was great; but for the moment there were no means of compelling the refractory.
Fortunately all the Latin communities did not act in this way.

The colonies in the land of the Gauls, in Picenum, and in southern Italy, headed by the powerful and patriotic Fregellae, declared on the contrary that they adhered the more closely and faithfully to Rome; in fact, it was very clearly evident to all of these that in the present war their existence was, if possible, still more at stake than that of the capital, and that this war was really waged not for Rome merely, but for the Latin hegemony in Italy, and in truth for the independence of the Italian nation.

That partial defection itself was certainly not high treason, but merely the result of shortsightedness and exhaustion; beyond doubt these same towns would have rejected with horror an alliance with the Phoenicians.

But still there was a variance between Romans and Latins, which did not fail injuriously to react on the subject population of these districts.