The Social War, 91 to 88 BCE by Dart Christopher J

Author:Dart, Christopher J.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2014-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

The War in Italy (90 BCE)

The initial Italian offensive was rapid and occurred on multiple fronts. This military campaign may have been directly triggered by Silo’s initial efforts to induce communities in the neighbouring regions to support them in the aftermath of the murders at Asculum. As discussed in the previous chapter, the insurgent military campaign almost certainly began during the winter of 91/90 BCE, although the exact timing of it is not clear from the ancient literary sources.1 Some indication can be gleaned, however, from the sequence of preparations that was suggested in the previous chapter. Certainly the insurgents had likely already begun attacking cities that had not willingly supported their cause before the consuls of 90, who would have taken up office on 1 January 90, could muster sufficient soldiers to take the field against them. This is indicated by the fact that the Italians had captured or laid siege to a number of key citadels and, in the process, trapped Roman commanders and their garrisons apparently unaware of the impending danger. Thus the capture of one of the praetors of 91, Sulpicius Galba, at Grumentum probably occurred shortly after Asculum and as the insurgents forces were mustering.2 The experience of the insurgent leadership in working within Roman military systems must surely have given them a significant advantage in terms of timing their actions and determining initial targets for their attacks.

Initial insurgent efforts appear to have focused on taking key cities in insurgent regions, in particular the fortified Latin colonies of the south, which at the outbreak of the war remained defiantly loyal to Rome. The insurgents also attempted to secure the major Roman routes eastward and southward from the city of Rome before the Romans could adequately muster their forces for the campaign of 90 BCE. It was also almost certainly an intentional by-product of this policy that a number of their initial advances triggered either the revolt or the acquiescence of other cities, as key routes through central and southern Italy were cut off from Roman protection.3 That such military activity was necessary at all indicates something very important concerning the sentiment in central and southern Italy towards the insurgency. While Poppaedius Silo appears to have been persuasive in inducing people to support the insurgent cause the events of the winter of 91/90 and the establishment of Italia did not occasion a wholesale abandonment of treaties to Rome throughout all of the south. The social and political divisions in Italy and the aspirations of different interest groups had contributed to the unrest of 91 but probably equally served as an obstacle to the insurgents building a consensus in Italy against Rome as it had done for Livius Drusus attempting to build a consensus for reform. Had allied discontent with Rome been equally felt throughout Italy the course of the war would have been radically different.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.