Historical sources on the Roman Social War

"The murder of C. Gracchus and his adherents left the Nobility undisputed masters of the state, till their scandalous conduct in the Jugurthan War provoked a reaction against them, and raised to power a more terrible opponent than the Gracchi had ever been. This man, who took such signal vengeance upon the Nobility, was the lowborn MARIUS. He was a native of Arpinum, and was said to have worked for wages as a common peasant before he entered the ranks of the army. He first served in Spain, and was present at the siege of Numantia in B.C. 134. Here he distinguished himself so much that he attracted the notice of Scipio Africanus, and received from him many marks of honor. Scipio indeed admitted him to his table; and on a certain occasion, when one of the guests asked Scipio where the Roman people would find such another general after his death, he is said to have laid his hand on the shoulder of Marius, and said, 'Perhaps here.' The name of Marius does not occur again for many years, but he doubtless continued to serve in the army, and became so distinguished that he was at length raised to the Tribunate of the Plebs in B.C. 119, though not till he had attained the mature age of 38."

"Another measure of Drusus rendered him equally unpopular with the people. He had held out to the Latins and the Italian allies the promise of the Roman franchise. Some of the most eminent men of Rome had long been convinced of the necessity of this reform. It had been meditated by the younger Scipio Africanus, and proposed by C. Gracchus. The Roman people, however, always offered it the most violent opposition. But Drusus still had many partisans. The Italian allies looked up to him as their leader, and loudly demanded the rights which had been promised them. It was too late to retreat; and, in order to oppose the formidable coalition against him, Drusus had recourse to sedition and conspiracy. A secret society was formed, in which the members bound themselves by a solemn oath to have the same friends and foes with Drusus, and to obey all his commands. The ferment soon became so great that the public peace was more than once threatened. The Allies were ready to take up arms at the first movement. The Consuls, looking upon Drusus as a conspirator, resolved to meet his plots by counterplots. But he knew his danger, and whenever he went into the city kept a strong body-guard of attendants close to his person. The end could not much longer be postponed; and the civil war was on the point of breaking out, when one evening Drusus was assassinated in his own house, while dismissing the crowds who were attending him. A leather-cutter's knife was found sticking in his loins. Turning round to those who surrounded him, he asked them, as he was dying, 'Friends and neighbors, when will the Commonwealth have a citizen like me again?' Even in the lifetime of Drusus the Senate had repealed all his laws. After his death the Tribune Q. Varius brought forward a law declaring all persons guilty of high treason who had assisted the cause of the Allies. Many eminent men were condemned under this law. This measure, following the assassination of Drusus, roused the indignation of the Allies to the highest pitch. They clearly saw that the Roman people would yield nothing except upon compulsion." 

"Rome had never been exposed to greater danger than at this time. Those who had been her bravest defenders now rose against her; and she would probably have perished had the whole Italian people taken part in the war. But the insurrection was confined almost exclusively to the Sabellians and their kindred races. The Etruscans and Umbrians stood aloof, while the Sabines, Volscians, and other tribes who already possessed the Roman franchise, supported the Republic, and furnished the materials of her armies. The nations which composed the formidable conspiracy against Rome were eight in number—the Marsians, Pelignians, Marrucinians, Vestinians, Picentines, Samnites, Apulians, and Lucanians. Of these the Marsians were particularly distinguished for their courage and skill in war; and from the prominent part which they took in the struggle, it was frequently termed the Marsic as well as the Social War." 

"The war broke out at Asculum in Picenum. The Proconsul Q. Servilius, who had the charge of this part of Italy, hearing that the inhabitants of Asculum were organizing a revolt, entered the town, and endeavored to persuade them to lay aside their hostile intentions. But he was murdered, together with his legate, by the exasperated citizens, and all the Romans in the place were likewise put to death. The insurrection now became general. The Allies entered upon the war with feelings of bitter hatred against their former rulers. They resolved to destroy Rome, and fixed upon Corfinium, a strong city of the Peligni, to which they gave the name of Italica, as the new capital of the Italian Confederation. The government of the new Republic was borrowed from that of Rome. It was to have two Consuls, twelve Prætors, and a Senate of 500 members. Q. Pompædius Silo, a Marsian, one of the chief instigators of the war, and C. Papius Mutilus, a Samnite, who cherished the hereditary hatred of his countrymen against the Romans, were chosen Consuls. Under them were many able lieutenants, who had learned the art of war under the best Roman generals. The soldiers had also served in the Roman armies, and were armed and disciplined in the same way, so that the contest partook of all the characters of a civil war. But the Romans had the great advantage which a single state always possesses over a confederation." 

"Of the details of the war our information is meagre and imperfect. But in the military operations we clearly see that the Allies formed two principal groups: the one composed of the Marsians, with their neighbors the Marrucinians, Pelignians, Vestinians, and Picentines; the other of the Samnites, with the Lucanians and Apulians. The two Consuls, L. Julius Cæsar and P. Rutilius Lupus, took the field with powerful armies, and under them served Marius, Sulla, and the most experienced generals of the time. The Romans were fully aware of the formidable nature of the struggle, which was one for existence, and not for victory. In the first campaign the advantage was on the side of the Allies. The Samnites, under their Consul Papius, overran Campania, took most of the towns, and laid siege to Acerræ, into which Cæsar threw himself. Pompædius Silo was still more successful. He defeated the Roman Consul P. Rutilius Lupus with great slaughter, Rutilius himself being slain in the battle. This disaster was to some extent repaired by Marius, who commanded a separate army in the neighborhood, and compelled the victorious Allies to retire. The old general then intrenched himself in a fortified camp, and neither the stratagems nor the taunts of the Samnites could entice him from his advantageous position." 

"The Romans now saw the necessity of making some concessions. The Lex Julia, proposed by the Consul Julius Cæsar, granted the franchise to all the Latin colonies, and to those of the Allies who had remained faithful to Rome, or had laid down their arms. The effects of this concession were immediately seen. Several of the Allies hastened to avail themselves of it, and disunion and distrust were produced among the rest." 

"The next campaign (B.C. 89) was decidedly favorable to the Romans. The Consuls were Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of the celebrated Triumvir, and L. Porcius Cato. The latter, it is true, was slain at the commencement of the campaign; but his loss was more than compensated by his lieutenant Sulla obtaining, in consequence, the supreme command. He carried on the war with the utmost vigor, and completely eclipsed his old commander Marius. He drove the enemy out of Campania, subdued the Hirpini, and then penetrated into the very heart of Samnium. Here he defeated Papius Mutilus, the Samnite Consul, and followed up his victory by the capture of the strong town of Bovianum. Meanwhile Pompeius Strabo had been equally successful in the north. Asculum was reduced after a long and obstinate siege. The Marrucinians, Vestinians, Pelignians, and finally the Marsians, laid down their arms before the end of the year. Their submission was facilitated by the Lex Plautia Papiria, proposed by the Tribunes M. Plautius Silvanus and C. Papirius Carbo (B.C. 89), which completed the arrangements of the Lex Julia, and granted, in fact, every thing which the Allies had demanded before the war. All citizens of a town in alliance with Rome could obtain, by this law, the Roman franchise, provided they were at the time resident in Italy, and registered their names with the Prætor within sixty days. The war was thus virtually brought to a conclusion within two years, but 300,000 men, the flower of Rome and Italy, perished in this short time. The only nations remaining in arms were the Samnites and Lucanians, who still maintained a guerrilla warfare in their mountains, and continued to keep possession of the strong fortress of Nola, in Campania, from which all the efforts of Sulla failed to dislodge them. It now remained to be settled in what way the new citizens were to be incorporated in the Roman state. If they were enrolled in the thirty-five tribes, they would outnumber the old citizens. It was therefore resolved to form ten new tribes, which should consist of the new citizens exclusively; but, before these arrangements could be completed, the Civil War broke out." 

Contextual information:

This school textbook was written by classical scholar William Smith and American educator Eugene Lawrence, giving a narrative overview of Roman history up to the early empire. 

Bibliographical reference:

Smith, W., & Lawrence, E. (1881). A smaller history of Rome: From the earliest times to the establishment of the empire. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers. (pp. 162–163, 175–180). 

Copyright: Public domain. 

"In the early time, when Rome formed equal alliances with any of the surrounding nations, these nations were called Socii (Liv. II.53). After the dissolution of the Latin league, when the name Latini, or Nomen Latinum, was artificially applied to a great number of Italians, few only of which were real inhabitants of the old Latin towns, and the majority of whom had been made Latins by the will and the law of Rome, there necessarily arose a difference between these Latins and the Socii, and the expression Socii Nomen Latinum is one of the old asyndeta, instead of Socii et Nomen Latinum. The Italian allies again must be distinguished from foreign allies. Of the latter we shall speak hereafter. The Italian allies consisted, for the most part, of such nations as had either been conquered by the Romans, or had come under their dominion by other circumstances. When such nations formed an alliance with Rome, they generally retained their own laws; or if at first they were not allowed this privilege, they afterwards received them back again. The condition of the Italian allies varied, and mainly depended upon the manner in which they had come under the Roman dominion (Liv. VIII.25, IX.20); but in reality they were always dependent upon Rome." 

"The Romans thus gradually united the Italians with themselves, by introducing their own laws among them; but as they did not grant to them the same civic rights the Socii ultimately demanded them arms in their hands. … After repeated and fruitless attempts to obtain the full Roman franchise by legal means, the Italian allies broke out in open war against Rome, the result of which was that she was compelled to grant what she had before obstinately refused. After the civitas had been obtained by all the Italians by the Lex Julia de Civitate, the relation of the Italian Socii to Rome ceased." 

Contextual information:

This article on the Socii (allies) comes from William Smith’s 19th‑century Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, a reference work explaining technical terms of Roman institutions. 

Bibliographical reference:

Smith, W. (1875). Socii. In W. Smith (Ed.), A dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (pp. 1049–1051). London, UK: John Murray. 

Copyright: Public domain.

"CORFINIUM, in ancient Italy, the chief city of the Paeligni, 7 m. N. of Sulmona in the valley of the Aternus. The site of the original town is occupied by the village of Pentima. It probably became subject to Rome in the 4th century B.C., though it does not appear in Roman history before the Social War (90 B.C.), in which it was at first adopted by the allies as the capital and seat of government of their newly founded state under the name Italia (this form, not Italica, is vouched for by the coins). It appears also as a fortress of importance in the Civil War, though it only resisted Caesar’s attack for a week (49 B.C.)... 

"POMPEY, the common English form of Pompeius, the name of a Roman plebeian family. 

Gnaeus Pompeius, surnamed Strabo (squint-eyed), Roman statesman, father of the triumvir. He was successively quaestor in Sardinia (103 B.C.), praetor (94), propraetor in Sicily (93) and consul (89). He fought with success in the Social War, and was awarded a triumph for his services. Probably towards the end of the same year he brought forward the law (lex Pompeia de Gallia Transpadana), which conferred upon the inhabitants of that region the privileges granted to the Latin colonies. During the civil war between Marius and Sulla he seems to have shown no desire to attach himself definitely to either side. …"

Contextual information:

This entry from the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a long‑running English‑language general reference work, first published in Edinburgh between 1768 and 1771 and later expanded through many multi‑volume editions. Its 11th edition (1910–1911), edited by Hugh Chisholm and issued in 29 volumes, is especially famous; it contains about 40,000 articles, many written by leading scholars of the time. 

Bibliographical reference:

Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1911). In H. Chisholm (Ed.), Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed., Vol. 7, p. 150). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Copyright: Public domain.