UNTIL THE AGE of the Gracchi, the Italian Allies had prized their autonomy inside Rome’s Italian confederation. The complaints they lodged in the Senate usually had to do with the fact that too many of their citizens were migrating to Rome—often to avoid being conscripted into the legions. Meanwhile, the Senate and People of Rome were long concerned that waves of migrants would disrupt their own collective stranglehold on power. Elites in both Rome and the Italian cities often worked together to force the migrants to return to their original homes.5
But there was one persistent complaint lodged by both rich and poor Italians alike: arbitrary abuse at the hands of Roman magistrates. Gaius Gracchus highlighted a case in which slaves carried a Roman magistrate in a litter. A local Italian peasant “asked in jest if they were carrying a corpse.” The insulted magistrate ordered the peasant beaten to death. In another case, the wife of a magistrate was angry some public baths had not been cleared for her solitary use. As punishment, “a stake was planted in the forum and… the most illustrious man of his city, was led to it. His clothing was stripped and he was beaten with rods.” The longstanding protection from arbitrary arrest, flogging, and execution enjoyed by even the poorest Roman citizen did not apply to the Italians. It was an indignity felt acutely by all classes.6
After 146, the benefits of being an independent Ally started to pale in comparison to the benefits of being a citizen of Rome. The Italians voiced new complaints about the lack of equality in the late 130s, as the Gracchan land commission set to work divvying up ager publicus. The various Italian cities had to rely on the generous patronage of Scipio Aemilianus to protect them from the land commissioners. In 125, Fulvius Flaccus presented a bold solution to the problem: citizenship in exchange for land. This was a deal many Italians were ready to take—especially among the wealthy landowners who would be the ones able to take advantage of the benefits of citizenship. These wealthy Italians would have been happy to give up a few iugera of land in exchange for full access to Rome’s legal and political system.7
After the failure of Flaccus’s controversial bill triggered the revolt of Fregellae, the Senate took the opportunity to introduce a practical compromise. Adept at the game of divide and conquer, the Romans introduced a new policy of
Gaius Marius reintroduced the Italian question during the Cimbrian Wars. Marius was long a champion of the Italian cause. He had fought alongside them his whole life. He himself hailed from a provincial Italian city. When the Italians complained about harassment by the tax farmers, Marius pushed the Senate to stop Italian enslavement. Out on campaign, Marius routinely exercised his power as consul to reward exemplary Italian soldiers with citizenship. Coming from all classes, these enfranchised soldiers returned to their home cities with extra rights and privileges. As they remingled with friends and family who did not enjoy the same rights, the seeds of discord took root.9
The rest of the Italians were encouraged to think that broader rights might be on the way when the census of 97 came around. With the right of civitas per magistratum floating around, many affluent Italians residing in Rome passed themselves off as former magistrates and enrolled as citizens. The Marian censors were intentionally lax with checking credentials, and when the census was complete, many in the Senate were suspicious and wanted to take another look at it. As was now the established pattern, the Romans always dangled the possibility of citizenship only to snatch it away.10
In 95, the great orator Lucius Licinius Crassus won the consulship. Upon taking office, he proposed forming a commission to clean up the citizenship rolls. In true optimate fashion the inquiry was premised on the unobjectionable argument that citizens should be counted in the census and noncitizens should not. This made perfect sense to the citizens of Rome who voted in favor of the inquiry. But as a necessary prelude to the work, Crassus and his consular colleague Mucius Scaevola carried a further bill expelling all Italians from the city. This recurring expedient was usually only deployed around elections, but this time it was meant to make sure only true Roman citizens were counted as Roman citizens.11
