From Asculum to Actium: The Municipalization of Italy from the Social War to Augustus (Oxford Classical Monographs)

## Abstract Rome's once independent Italian allies became communities of a new Roman territorial state after the Social War of 91-87 bc. This book examines how the transition from independence to subordination was managed, and how — between the opposing tensions of local particularism, competing traditions, and identities, aspirations for integration, cultural change, and indifference from Roman central authorities — something new and dynamic appeared in the jaded world of the late Republic. The book charts the successes and failures of the attempts to make a new political community (Roman Italy), and new Roman citizens scattered across the peninsula — a dramatic and important story in that, while Italy was being built, Rome was falling apart; and while the Roman Republic fell, the Italian municipal system endured, and made possible the government, and even the survival, of the Roman empire in the West. "Between 91 and 87 B.C. Rome fought and won the brutal Social War against its Italian allies, who had risen up in revolt. The settlement which followed saw the extension of Roman citizenship to the defeated, turning Italy for the first time into a unified political entity, a seminal moment in the history of the Late Republic. The Roman state thus created was vastly greater, in citizen numbers and territorial extent, than any hitherto known, Edward Bispham examines the consequences for the communities of Italy of municipalization: the transformation of autonomous states with their own sovereign assemblies, political practices, religious systems, and cultural traditions, into municipia, citizen communities within the Roman territorial state. The creation of a municipal system, which provided Rome with a series of communities which could act as interlocutors between Rome and local populations, implement justice, oversee financial needs, look after infrastructure and religious rituals, and ensure the orderly administration of rural territories, was the major achievement of the fifty years after the Social War. Not only was Italy transformed, but a template was fashioned without which the western Roman empire could never have survived. Bispham looks at the practical and ideological implications of the political structures created for the new municipia in Italy, and assesses the strengths and the limits of the political unification of Italy in the last decades of the Republic, an integration which is seen as being heavily dependent on the processes of change analysed here."--Jacket Rome's once independent Italian allies became communities of a new Roman territorial state after the Social War of 91-87 BC. Edward Bispham examines how the transition from independence to subordination was managed, and how, between the opposing tensions of local particularism, competing traditions and identities, aspirations for integration, cultural change, and indifference from Roman central authorities, something new and dynamic appeared in the jaded world of the late Republic. Bispham charts the successes and failures of the attempts to make a new political community (Roman Italy), and new Roman citizens scattered across the peninsula - a dramatic and important story in that, while Italy was being built, Rome was falling apart; and while the Roman Republic fell, the Italian municipal system endured, and made possible the government, and even the survival, of the Roman empire in the West. Making Italy : Terra Italia -- Roman Italy : The Second Century -- Allies : Latins And Italians In The Second Century -- Municipalization And The Politics Of Enfranchisement Of Italy -- 'leges Dare' And 'constituere' : Municipal Charters -- The Simple Quattuorvirate ('nude Dictus') -- 'quattuoruiri Iure Dicundo' -- 'quattuoruiri Quinquennales', And Other Variations -- The Duovirate --tota Italia : Remaking Italy? Edward Bispham. Originally Presented As Author's Thesis (doctoral) -- Jesus College, Oxford University. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [511]-548) And Indexes. After the Social War of 91-87 BC, Rome's once independent Italian allies became members of a new Roman territorial state. Edward Bispham examines how the transition from independence to subordination was managed, and charts the successes and failures of the attempts to create a new and enduring political community