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Social War (bellum sociale) was one of the most serious internal conflicts in the Roman Republic. The revolt that broke out in the Apennine Peninsula resulted from the fact that Italian allies (the so-called socii) were in a worse political situation than ordinary Roman citizens. Despite the fact that they paid the same tribute to the state, they did not have full political rights and could not have a real influence on the fate of Rome. The death of one of the representatives of socii interests led to the uprising.
These were one of the bloodiest fights in the history of Rome, the defeat of which could mean the annihilation of the Republic. This is how Plutarch described it:
This war, terrible in its dimensions and very changeable in its fate, brought on Rome countless misfortunes and the most dangerous dangers.
– Plutarch of Cheronea, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, VI
Background of events
Worse than Roman citizens
The conquest of Italy by the Romans during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE resulted in numerous alliances, the terms of which depended on whether they were entered into voluntarily or whether the allies were forced into them by defeat in the war. The allies, though burdened with taxes and military aid (in the 2nd century BCE, allies were between half and two-thirds of the Roman army), did not have Roman citizenship. Rome also controlled their foreign policy completely, forbidding it from having any other allies other than itself. For years, the policy of “divide and rule” was kept under the rule of many cities and peoples of Italy. The allied states, however, maintained the form of systemic distinctiveness.
Agrarian projects did not take into account the Italians in the distribution of land, envisaging plots of ager publicus only for Roman citizens. This led to vehement opposition from allies who wished to obtain Roman citizenship and full political rights.
The question of allies could not, however, remain unresolved and be forever ignored. Political parties began to notice in the socii population the actual electorate. In addition, along with the Roman financial strata, their Italian counterparts played an important role in the economy. Wealthy allies more and more often visited Rome and established valuable relations with great Roman families, which resulted in their integration into Roman society. There was also a rapid rapprochement at the lowest social levels. The prospect of receiving land, opened by the Saturnin reform of 100 BCE (the possibility of receiving land after military service), was to transform the lives of both. Entry into the army was made possible by Marius’ reform, which allowed people without wealth (the so-called proletarians to join the army). All these aspects meant that sociiItalians increasingly identified with Rome and felt the need to extend their rights. Although the attachment to local autonomy still existed, most inhabitants also considered themselves to be the inferior part of Roman society – they did not have citizenship and did not have full public rights.
Evidence of the worse treatment of non-Roman citizens was the story that Gaius Gracchus presented in his speech at the end of the 2nd century BCE. The brothers Gracchi (the aforementioned Gaius and Tiberius) demanded as tribunes of the people that Italics be granted Roman citizenship; which was an unpopular decision among the elite. Gaius told the story of a Roman aristocrat, the wife of a consul, who stopped during a trip in the Italian city Teanum, in Campania, where she also wanted to use the services in thermal baths. For this purpose, it was demanded that the object be carefully cleaned and the people visiting it left the sanctuary. As it turned out, however, according to high-born Roman guests, the whole process of preparing the baths took too long; Therefore, the Italian owner was tied to a post in a forum in the city and padded with sticks. This situation was only to be a drop in the ocean of similar events in Italy and universal injustice.
In 98 BCE, populations led by Gaius Mariusbegan applying for these citizenships for a larger group of Italian allies. Marius’s followers – censors Marcus Antony and Valerius Flakkus a year later granted the first citizenships to Italian allies present in Rome. Such a policy was opposed by consuls Lucius Licinius Crassus and Publius Mucjus Scewola, representatives of the Optimates, who in 95 BCE forced a law depriving Italians of citizenship and expelling them from Rome. In Rome, there was a regular political war between the senatorial class and the