| Battle: Volturnus River | Egnatius (3)/Julius (1) | 90 |
| Lex Varia | treason | 90 |
| Battle: Acerrae | Julius (1)/Papius Mutilus | 90 |
| Battle: Tolenus River | Rutilius (2)/Vettius (1) | 11.06.90 |
| Battle: Firmum | Pompeius (3)/Lafrenius | 90 |
| Lex Julia de civitate | citizenship (Italians) | 90 |
| Battle: Fucine Lake | Italians/Porcius (6) | 89 |
| Battle: Asculum (1) | Pompeius (3)/Vidacilius | 89 |
| Siege: Pompeii | v. Cornelius (31) Sulla (s) | 90-89 |
| Lex Plautia Papiria | citizenship (Italians) | 89 |
| Lex Plautia judiciaria | juries selected from tribes | 89 |
| Lex Pompeia | citizenship (Cispadani) | 89 |
After the passing of the lex Licinia Mucia in 95 BC, the disappointed leaders of some Italian states began to encourage anti-Roman activity. Initiated by the Marsic leader Poppaedius Silo, the agitation quickly spread to other Italic people, notably the Samnites, but such widespread disturbances were impossible to conceal from the Romans who promptly sent men to various cities to discover what they could.
In 91 BC at Asculum (1) in southern Picenum when suspicious activity (probably a hostage exchange to guarantee good faith if war broke out) was reported to Gaius 12Servilius Caepio, the praetor in command of the region, he went to the area and began to treat the locals abusively. The Asculans, believing that the Italians’ plans had been discovered, killed Servilius and a number of other Roman citizens who lived in the town. The violence spread to other cities and this led to defections in Apulia, Campania, Lucania, the central Apennines including the Hirpini, Marsi, Paeligni and the Pentri, and the Adriatic coast including the Frentani, Marrucini, Picentes and Vestini. The Italians sent envoys to Rome in the hope that the Romans would see reason and grant the Italians citizenship without them having to resort to war. When the Senate refused to negotiate until full reparations had been made for the disruption at Asculum (1), the Italians viewed this statement as flat refusal to negotiate at all and went home.
Drusus’ opponents claimed that the outbreak of war was due to Drusus and his supporters encouraging the Italians to attack. A tribune 01Varius Severus Hybrida passed the lex Varia, which established a tribunal to investigate and prosecute those who had encouraged the allies to revolt. The prosecutions under this law included many distinguished senators, including 04Aurelius Cotta (c.51; fl.92-73 BC). Ironically, Varius himself was condemned under his own law in 89 BC.
The Italians now formed an independent federation, which from their coinage they appeared to have called Italia. Corfinium, the chief town of the Paeligni at a junction on the roads linking Picenum with the rebels in the south, became their capital and they renamed it Italica.
The war was shaped by Roman endeavours to relieve the many fortresses that had refused to join the revolt and were then put under siege by the Italians. The rebels were led by two men: the Marcian Poppaedius Silo in command of the ‘Marsic Group’ (Frentani, Marrucini, Marsi, Paeligni, Picentes, Vestini) in the northern theatre; and the Samnite Papius Mutilus in command of the ‘Samnite Group’ (Hirpini, Pentri, Lucania, Pompeii, Samnium, Venusia) in the southern theatre.
In 90 BC the Senate designated both consuls to commands in Italy: in the north (east and northeast of Rome) 02Rutilius Lupus with Marius (1) and 03Pompeius Strabo (48; fl.93-87 BC) on his staff; in the south Lucius 01Julius Caesar (c.48; fl.94-87 BC) had 31Cornelius Sulla and Titus Didius (1).
In the south Lucius Caesar began his campaign by sending his legate 10Licinius Crassus to overrun Lucania in the hope that this would tempt the Samnites into the splitting of their forces. But Crassus was at a disadvantage in the mountainous terrain and was defeated by the Lucanian general Marcus Lamponius and forced to seek refuge in Grumentum.
In Apulia the towns of Asculum (2), Cannae, Canusium, Larinum and Salapia joined the rebels. More important in the south were the Latin colonies: Venusia (Lucania) joined the insurgents, but Luceria (Apulia) stood by Rome.
The Latin fortress of Aesernia (Samnium), as the gateway from Samnium to Latium and northern Campania, came under rebel attack at the outset. Lucius sought to relieve the city but the Marsi led by 01Vettius Scato came south and drove him off. As Lucius withdrew towards Teanum Sidicinum, he was heavily defeated at the crossing of the Volturnus by the Samnite general Marius Egnatius (3) and fell back to Acerrae. Egnatius went on to capture Venafrum.
Meanwhile, Papius Mutilus had invaded coastal Campania, forced Surrentum and Stabiae to join the rebellion, captured Herculaneum and the Roman colony of Salernum, ravaged the territory of Nuceria, consolidated the insurgent hold on Pompeii and captured Nola. Lucius, marching south from Teanum, confronted Mutilus who was besieging Acerrae. In the engagement that followed, both sides suffered heavy losses but Mutilus had to fall back to Nola.
Around the time when Lucius left Teanum, one of his legates 31Cornelius Sulla made strenuous efforts to relieve 19Claudius Marcellus, who had taken command of the beleaguered garrison at Aesernia. Sulla failed to save the city, which fell to its besiegers (who were apparently Pentri commanded by Numerius Lucilius), so he marched on Aeclanum, ordered his troops to pile firewood around its timber fortifications and when he set them ablaze the city surrendered.
The northern campaign began with the army of Rutilius Lupus’ legate Gaius Perperna (3) being routed by Publius Praesentius (Frentani?), who killed some four thousand of Perperna’s ten thousand troops and captured most of the weapons of the remainder. Rutilius relieved Perperna of his command and gave what remained of his force to Marius.
In June, Rutilius marched against the Marsi and in the valley of the Tolenus fought a great battle against their general 01Vettius Scato. Rutilius fell into an ambush at the crossing of the river and was killed, but Marius won a victory and drove the enemy back with heavy losses.
Just when it seemed that sole command of the northern sector must fall to Marius the news came that 11Servilius Caepio, who succeeded Lupus as commander, had scored a success over the Paeligni. This was enough for the Senate to make Caepio and Marius co-commanders. Not long afterwards, however, towards July, Caepio fell for the Marsian leader Poppaedius Silo’s pretence to surrender and was killed in the subsequent ambush.
Marius took command of the northern front and there was a major battle on hilly ground, probably to the south of the Fucine Lake. It seems that the enemy attacked Marius on ground that favoured the Romans and were driven back to where Sulla was waiting in an area from which it was impossible for the Italians to escape. Some six thousand Marsi and Marrucini were slain, along with the Marrucine general Herius Asinius.
Further north 03Pompeius Strabo (cos.89 BC) advanced to threaten Asculum (1), but he was ambushed by the Picentes under Gaius Vidacilius (Judacilius?) near Falerio. When Titus Lafrenius came up with the Vestini and Vettius Scato arrived with the Marsi, Strabo was forced to retreat to Firmum (Picenum) where he was besieged by Lafrenius while Vidacilius and Vettius went south seeking further action. Towards the end of the year, learning of the approach of the proconsul Sextus 03Julius Caesar (cos.91 BC), Strabo sortied out and Lafrenius’ army was trapped between the two Roman forces and routed. Lafrenius himself was killed and the survivors took refuge in 01Asculum. Sextus Caesar, after winning a victory over the Paeligni, put the city under siege.
The rebels’ successes this year encouraged the Etruscans and Umbrians to demand Roman citizenship, and they also put men in the field. Probably in October, on the basis of a decree of the Senate, Lucius Caesar proposed the lex Julia de civitate, granting Roman citizenship to those allies who had remained loyal (and perhaps to those who had laid down their arms or were prepared to lay them down within a specified period). The Etruscans and the Umbrians were quick to accept this offer of citizenship, and such resistance that remained was ended by the proprietor 06Porcius Cato (cos.89 BC) in Etruria and by the legate Aulus Plotius in Umbria.
In 89 BC both new consuls, 03Pompeius Strabo and 06Porcius Cato, went to the northern front, while Sulla took command of the forces in Campania. In the winter, apparently unaware that the rebellion in Etruria and Umbria was over, the Marsi led by Vettius Scato moved through the Apennines to aid the Umbrians and Etruscans. Strabo defeated the Marsi and they retreated across the mountains; Cato, who had taken over the command from Marius (strangely, Marius was not used in the second year of the war), was killed in a failed attempt to storm a fortified Marsic camp near the Fucine Lake.
Vidacilius returned from the south to try to relieve Asculum (1) but was defeated by Strabo in a great battle in which the rebels lost some twenty-one thousand killed or captured; Vidacilius, however, managed to force his way into the city. The siege continued and when in winter Sextus died of disease the Senate appointed Gaius Baebius (5) as his successor.
The Marsi were forced to surrender; Corfinium was captured and the rebel capital shifted south to Bovianum in Samnium; the Marrucini submitted, perhaps after a last attempt at resistance, and also the Vestini. Towards the end of summer 89 BC the rebellion in the northern and central areas was for all practical purposes over, only Asculum (1) held out.
On 17 November, Strabo, whose army included Pompey, Cicero and Catiline, captured Asculum (1). What was left of rebel resistance in Central Italy collapsed when Strabo moved southwards from Picenum, reduced the few Vestini still resisting, and overwhelmed the Paeligni. Vettius was killed by his own slave before he could fall into Roman hands.
In the south Cosconius marched along the Adriatic coast to Apulia and captured Asculum (2), Cannae and Salapia. In Campania, Sulla recovered Stabiae and defeated the rebel commander Cluentius who fled into Nola. Minatus Magius of Aeclanum raised an army from the Hirpini and joined Titus Didius (1) in the capture of Herculaneum. Didius fell in June. His forces were added to those of Sulla and he and Magius began a siege on Pompeii. Sulla moved on into the country of the Hirpini, captured and sacked both Compsa and Aeclanum, and before summer forced the surrender of the whole tribe.
Sulla then crossed the Apennines and invaded Samnium, where he surrounded and defeated the Samnite army under Mutilus, and compelled the rebel capital Bovianum to surrender. A fresh army was raised with Poppaedius Silo in command, and the rebel capital transferred to Aesernia.
During 89 BC the lex Plautia Papiria, sponsored by the two tribunes 03Plautius Silvanus and 07Papirius Carbo, gave any person domiciled in Italy sixty days to obtain Roman citizenship by giving his name to the peregrine praetor in Rome; the lex Plautia judiciaria legislated that each tribe chose annually fifteen men to be jurors for that year; and the lex Pompeia de transpadanis, promoted by the consul 03Pompeius Strabo, granted citizenship to communities in Transpadana. Sulla’s victories against the allies ensured his election to the consulship for 88 BC along with 04Pompeius Rufus.
In 88 BC 11Caecilius Metellus (c.67; fl.109-63 BC), who had defeated the Marsi while Strabo was dealing with the Vestini and Paeligni, moved into Apulia and captured Venusia. In Samnium, Bovianum was recaptured by Silo, but he was soon defeated and slain by Metellus or one of his legates. Aulus Gabinius (1) had some success in Lucania, but when he fell during an attack on the enemy’s camp, Lamponius and his followers regained command over Lucania/Bruttium.
Lamponius even made an attempt to seize Rhegium, which was rebuffed, however, by the Sicilian governor Gaius Norbanus (1). A few centres of resistance remained, but the war was essentially over. Nola held out until in 80 BC, having been under siege for almost a decade, and Aesernia, last rebel stronghold of the Social War, submitted shortly after.
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