Between 91 and 77 BCE a series of wars were fought in Italy which left the Roman commonwealth in shambles and ultimately brought about its collapse. Traditionally, studies of these conflicts – and their leaders – have tended to focus on events and individuals separately, although there is a thread which binds them all together: all of these wars in some way involved efforts on the part of Rome’s non-citizen Italian Allies first to obtain the rights of Roman citizenship, and then to enhance and preserve those rights once acquired. By re-examining the turbulent decade of the 80s BCE from the perspective of the Italians, their struggle for the citizenship, and the Roman reaction to it, there emerges a greater understanding of a period which otherwise appears to be a disjointed collection of random, violent episodes.

This volume attempts to provide such a survey. It first investigates the nature of the problem by ascertaining why it is the Italian Allies wanted the citizenship. Next, it narrates how Rome’s reluctance to give it led to a war so devastating that Rome extended a form of partial citizenship to secure peace. The Allies were not content with this concession for long, however, and their dissatisfaction was used by Roman politicians to further their own ends. Such use is also examined, as is the violence which resulted from it. Finally, it will explore how this violence culminated in a full-fledged civil war, one on whose battlefields the Italians played a large part and which shook – and eventually shook apart – the foundations of the Roman Republic.

Front cover: Roman ruins in what was once the ancient city of Corfinium (modern Corfinio), used as the base of operations by the Italians during the Allied War from 91 to 88 BCE.