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WAR OF THE ALLIES

Death toll: 300,000¹

Rank: 96

Type: ethnic civil war

Broad dividing line: Romans vs. Italians

Time frame: 91–88 BCE

Location: Italy

Traditional translation of the name: Social War (bellum sociale)

Who usually gets the most blame: Romans

Another damn: rebellion against Rome

THE PEOPLES OF CENTRAL ITALY HAD FOUGHT AS ALLIES OF THE ROMANS IN their wars of conquest, supplying as much as half of the manpower in their armies, but all of the power and the glory of the conquests went to the City of Rome. Allied officers serving in Roman armies were subject to draconian Roman punishments without the right of appeal that Roman citizens had. Roman magistrates passing through allied towns exercised dictatorial authority, and only citizens of Rome had any say in Roman policy or protection from Roman power. So the Italian allies petitioned to be recognized as citizens. They found an ally in Marcus Livius Drusus, a Roman tribune who argued their case in city politics, but every time the vote came up, the Senate shot it down. When Drusus was assassinated as part of the cutthroat politics of the city, the Italian allies abandoned the cooperative approach and went to plan B. Eight tribes, notably the Samnites and Marsi, set up a rival republic (“Italia”) with its capital in the town of Corfinium, east of Rome.

Rome immediately mobilized its army to put a stop to this. With enemies in all directions, the two Roman consuls in 90 BCE split the 150,000-man army and headed off separately. Publius Rutilius Lupus went north, Lucius Julius Caesar south. In the north, Rutilius bungled several battles and was eventually killed, but his adviser, the veteran general and alpha Roman of the era, Gaius Marius, took over and led this army to victory over the Marsi. In the south, the Roman army took a beating but managed to hold the Italians to a draw.^a

For the first time since Hannibal’s day, Rome had enemies within reach of the city gates. Realizing that winning the war would be harder than they had anticipated, Rome granted concessions to any allies who remained or resumed being loyal. The next year, both consuls took their armies north together and scored a conspicuous victory over the rebellious Italians.

Eventually, the war was extinguished when Rome granted the rebellious allies the right to vote for the Roman government. The catch was that the votes had to be cast in person in the city of Rome itself. At first glance, this was not quite the compromise that Rome claimed because most allied citizens couldn’t be bothered to trek all the way to Rome on election day. Early on, most of their votes were never cast; however, candidates eventually learned it was worth the cost to have their supporters carted in from distant communities for the election season, and in time it became quite a rowdy holiday.²