The Social War: When ancient Rome imploded

Rome was a republic ruled by the Senate. However, since the time of the Gracchi brothers, the Senate had been split into two competing factions: the populares and the optimates.

The optimates were the conservative faction of the Senate who wanted to maintain the status quo which generally favoured the wealthy noble families.

The populares, on the other hand, supported the needs of the people. 

The tensions between these two political factions led to conflict between several social groups.

In 133 BC and 123 BC, the Gracchi brothers had both been killed for seeking greater equality between the rich and poor in Rome.

By the late 2nd century BC, the towns in the nearby regions of Italy sought equality and political recognition by Rome itself.

However, the optimates were not willing to share their privileges with others.

In 107 BC, Gaius Marius was elected consul. He had gained the support of the people by promising to increase their power in government.

He also had the support of the army, which he had helped to build up during his time as a general.

Marius quickly rose to power and began to make changes in Roman society.

He led two successful military campaigns, one in northern Africa against Jugurtha and the other in northern Italy against the Germanic tribes called the Cimbri and the Teutones.

These campaigns made him very popular with the people. Following his impressive military career, he entered into politics, which he was less adept at.

Marius would be elected consul another five times between 104 to 100 BC, which showed how popular he was with the voting majority.

However, many senators resented his popularity and Marius' time in politics was marked by conflict with the optimates.

The Senate was not happy with Marius' populist policies. They also did not approve of his military campaigns, which they saw as unnecessary and wasteful.

In 99 BC, Marius ousted one of his key rivals, Metellus Numidicus from power and sent into exile.

The optimates members of the senate were furious that one of their own had been treated this way: the immediately began plans to bring him back and punish Marius.

Sensing that he was not safe in Rome, Marius decided to go into self-imposed exile.

He went to the eastern Mediterranean, where he remained for several years.

In Marius' absence, social and political tensions in Rome increased, particularly between the city of Rome itself and other cities in Italy that had alliances with Rome.

These cities, who had been part of the Latin League in the 4th century BC, had been granted allied status by Rome in the previous centuries.

As a result, they had contributed significantly to countless Roman military campaigns for almost 300 years.

However, they were not given formal citizenship in Roman society. This meant that they were not given a say in Roman government or have the same rights as Roman citizens.

Regardless, these cities argued that, since they were fighting for Roman interests as part of the Roman army, they should also be able to participate in the political decisions that affected them.

The Italian cities sought the help of Marcus Livius Drusus, a tribune of the people. In support of the allies, Drusus presented a law in 91 BC that would grant Roman citizenship to all Italians.

To improve the chances of this law passing, Drusus also proposed reorganizing the corrupt court system by promoting 300 of the top equites into the Senate.

Both of these proposals were violently opposed by the optimates in the Senate. To make sure that neither law succeeded, Drusus was assassinated.

This turn of events, and the murder of someone who was championing their cause, led to bitter resentment among the people of the Latin cities.

Not long after, when a visiting Roman envoy insulted the people of the Italian town of Asculum, the people let their anger get the better of them.

They attacked and killed the envoy, as well as all other Romans found in the town.

The situation came to a head at the end of 91 BC when a number of Italian regions decided to finally break away from their alliance with Rome and to build their own republic in Italy. 

Several Italian tribes, particularly the Marsi and Samnites, who had been attempting to gain citizenship through politics for two decades, led the rebellion.

The new republic was called Italia and the city of Corfinium was chosen to be the new capital. Italia openly imitated Rome's political structure.

The allies created their own Senate and made their own coins. Instead of bearing the symbol of a wolf, as Roman coins did, these bore the image of a bull (which represented Italia), which was shown to be goring or killing a wolf with its horns.

With the birth of a competing empire to rival Rome, this forced the cities all along the Italian peninsula to choose which republic they sided with: to either stay loyal to Rome or join the rebels. 

The war was fought primarily in central and southern Italy. It is known as the Social War because it was fought between the Roman Republic and its Italian allies (socii in Latin). It lasted for just over two years and ended with a Roman victory.

With the sudden outbreak of war in its home regions, Rome asked Marius to return home to once more lead their soldiers. 

Both sides quickly raised armies and assigned commanders to them. Both Rome and Italia had access to experienced and talented generals who had fought in the many wars that the Roman republic had fought in the previous decades.

However, things began badly for the Romans. In the north, Marius had returned to assist his cousin Publius Rutilius Lupus who was in overall command.

A series of errors resulted in defeat in a number of engagements until Lupus was slain in action.

Marius was a bold general and never one to miss an opportunity. So, he swiftly took command of the northern war effort.

Within a few months, the northern Italians were on the defensive and the conflict's attention moved to the south.

The rebels in the south captured and sacked several communities before the Romans were able to react.

Lucius Julius Caesar, one of the Roman leaders, suffered a series of defeats before overcoming the rebels in a number of key battles.

However, the situation was far from resolved, and when Lucius Julius Caesar came back to Rome for the elections of 89 BC, the outcome of the war was still in doubt.

In his place, the consul Lucius Porcius Cato took charge of the army, but was killed at the Battle of Fucine Lake in 89 BC.

In Rome, Lucius Julius Caesar introduced a law called the lex Julia, which aimed to bring an end to the war.

It proposed to give full citizenship to any Italian ally who had not rebelled and to any Italians who were in revolt at the time but would surrender their weapons immediately.

This law essentially offered the Italians what they wanted at the start of the war. However, many towns considered it to be 'too little, too late', and continued to fight.

However, as some towns began to accept Rome's offer, the war gradually swung in Rome's favour. Corfinium was captured in 89 BC, but the rebels fought on.

The following year was characterised by more political squabbling between Rome and Italia, and the war continued.

One of the rising stars of the Roman military was Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who had returned from a term as governor in Cilicia to take control of the Roman armies in the south.

He famously lay siege to the city of Pompeii in 89 BC. Rome sent a relief force under Lucius Cluentius, which Sulla defeated near Nola before he could continue the siege.

Eventually, he captured Pompeii, as well as other towns like Stabiae and Aeclanum.

Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo (father of Pompey the Great) commanded the northern armies of Rome and laid a harsh siege on the Italians at the town of Asculum.

After a long resistance, Pompey slaughtered the defenders and captured the town.

Meanwhile, in the south, Sulla methodically defeated his rivals at various towns. He returned after the year ended to seek election as consul.

Sulla won the office for 88 BC as a result of his efforts.

By the end of 88 BC, most Italian towns admitted that their military revolt was failing and took the offer of citizenship from Rome.

While some small pockets of resistance continued into 87 BC, most of the former rebels now had obtained everything they initially wanted, and the war came to an end. 

The Social War marked a turning point in Roman history. It showed that the Roman Republic could not survive without the cooperation of the Italian people. 

The war also showed that Rome was vulnerable at home, despite having a significant control over the Mediterranean world.

On several occasions, Roman armies had been defeated by an army of Italians, something that would have been unthinkable before the war. 

Although the rebels lost the war, they did receive Roman citizenship. By some estimates, the number of citizens instantly tripled as a result.

This would mean that there were now around one million citizens that could vote in Roman elections. 

However, the Social War also demonstrated to many people that military force could be successfully used to force Rome to do what someone wanted.

Some later Roman commanders would go on to use their own armies rise up against the city in an attempt to force the Senate to give in to their demands.

The war ended with a victory for Rome, but at a great cost. One ancient Roman historian calculated that as many as 300,000 people had been killed in the fighting.

Gaius Marius and Sulla emerged as powerful men in Rome. Sulla would go on to become dictator and would also have a profound impact on Roman society. 

Also, while Rome was consumed by the Social War, a ruler in the eastern kingdom of Pontus took advantage of the situation.

Mithridates VI invaded Roman territory in Asia Minor and Greece. Once the Social War was over, Rome now had to decide how it would respond to this aggression.