Social War

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Template:Campaignbox Ancient Unification of Italy Template:Campaignbox Social War

This article is about the conflict between Rome and her allies between 91 and 88 BC

For the Athenian conflict with its allies between 357 and 355 BC see Social War (357-355 BC).

The Social War (also called the Italian War or the Marsic War, Social coming from Socii meaning ¨Allies¨) was a war from 91 – 88 BC between the Roman Republic and the other cities in Italy, who were Roman allies.

The Social War was, in part, caused by the assassination of Marcus Livius Drusus the Younger. His reforms would have granted the Roman allies Roman citizenship, which would have given them more of a say in the external policy of the Roman Republic — most local affairs came under local governance and were not as important to the Romans as, for example, when the alliance would go to war or how they would divide the plunder. When Drusus was assassinated most of his reforms addressing these grievances were declared invalid. This angered the Roman allies greatly, and most of them allied with one another against Rome.

Rome undercut the military rebellion by extending citizenship to all of Italy south of the Po River and then spent two years defeating the cities still in revolt. Lucius Cornelius Sulla came to prominence as an officer in this war. However, the rebel army proved quite effective and in the end, the Roman allies were all granted citizenship.

Roman citizenship and the right to vote was limited, as always in the ancient world, by the requirement of physical presence on voting day. After 88 BC candidates regularly paid the expenses at least partially for their supporters to travel to Rome in order to vote.de:Bundesgenossenkrieg fr:Guerre sociale it:Guerra sociale nl:Bellum sociorum ja:同盟市戦争 fi:Liittolaissota