The Social War
Rome's Italian allies revolted in 91 BC and fought a war to become Roman citizens. The allies — Marsi, Samnites, Picentes, Lucanians and others — supplied more than half the soldiers in every Roman army and had done for two centuries. They paid for their own equipment, took the same casualties, received a smaller share of the plunder, and had no vote, no protection against a Roman magistrate's summary punishment, and no say in whether they went to war at all. Proposals to enfranchise them had been made repeatedly and defeated each time, chiefly because existing citizens did not want their votes diluted or their share of public land reduced. The tribune Marcus Livius Drusus proposed it in 91 BC and was assassinated in his own house. The revolt began at Asculum with the murder of a Roman praetor. The allies were not trying to leave. They set up a federal state called Italia with a capital at Corfinium, a senate of five hundred and its own coinage — which shows an Italian bull goring a Roman wolf — and what they wanted was the citizenship they had been refused. They fought well, because they had been trained by Rome, and Rome lost armies. Rome then conceded what it had refused. The Lex Julia of 90 BC offered citizenship to any community that had not revolted or would lay down arms, and the Lex Plautia Papiria extended it further. The fighting continued to 87 BC and the enfranchisement was real. Italy south of the Po became Roman.
- Category: Military
