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148-645: During the Social War , a conflict between the Italians and the Romans over the withholding of Italian citizenship, the consul Lucius Julius Caesar passed a law to grant all Italians not under arms citizenship. At the instruction of the Senate, Lucius Caesar proposed a law providing that each Italian community would decide as to whether they would take Roman citizenship and establish new tribes – possibly eight – in

296-469: A lex Julia agraria and a lex Julia de agro Campano . The first law was related to the distribution of public (both existing and purchased from willing sellers) lands to the urban poor and Pompey 's veterans; the latter added public lands in Campania for distribution. The passage of the first law was troubled. Caesar started his consulship by introducing it; it immediately met a filibuster from Cato

444-486: A "supreme effort" on both sides. For example, Appian reports the need for soldiers was so great that freedmen were for the first time inducted into the army. Edward Bispham, in a Companion to Roman Italy , notes that the republic "never minted more silver denarii than during the conflict", indicating the financial strain imposed on the Roman state in supplying and paying for an unprecedented number of troops. Devastation of

592-491: A confusing non-chronological account. Livy's summaries indicate that Livy wrote chronologically, but the details of the original Livian volumes are lost. Other sources such as Diodorus (via Photius), Florus, and Velleius Paterclus recount events non-chronologically. There were two main theatres of the war, with one in the north and one in the south. There also was an abortive attempt to incite rebellion in Etruria and Umbria, but

740-421: A divorce, their partner could claim a share of the dowry on behalf of the children to meet their needs and later inheritance. A dowry of dos recepticia was one in which agreements were made in advance about its disposal and recovery. A dowry of dos profecticia was given by the bride's father or her pater familias ; it could be recovered by the donor or by the divorced woman herself. A dowry of dos adventicia

888-585: A federal structure; this position was accepted in the first edition of the Cambridge Ancient History in 1932. Later reconstructions have interjected popular elements à la the Roman comitia centuriata . But others, such as Mouritsen, have taken a more critical eye at the evidence and viewed the Italian magistrates and senate as a more formally federal structure without direct popular involvement. Mouritsen reads from Livy's description of

1036-510: A figure of less ideological certitude who at the time of his death had come over to Julius Caesar; and finally to Mark Antony , the last opponent to the republican oligarchs and to Rome's future first emperor. Most wives were encouraged to remarry after the husband's death or after a divorce; and a high death rate , low average life expectancy , and high divorce rate meant frequent or multiple remarriages. Since children were expected in marriage, each spouse usually brought at least one child to

1184-494: A first-time bride and to have a say in the choice of husband. The marriages of Fulvia , who commanded troops during the last civil war of the Republic and who was the first Roman woman to have her face on a coin, are thought to indicate her political sympathies and ambitions: she was married first to the popularist champion Clodius Pulcher , who was murdered in the street after a long feud with Cicero; then to Scribonius Curio ,

1332-528: A heritable estate. During the Republican era, marriage, divorce and adultery were matters dealt with by the families concerned. Falling marriage and birth rates in the Later Republic and early Empire led to state intervention. Adultery was made a crime, for which citizen-women could be punished by divorce, fines and demotion in social status; men's sexual activity was adultery only if committed with

1480-399: A homosexual relationship, with one man taking the woman's role and wearing the bridal garb. Phaedrus' description of the creation of men has been repeatedly utilized to argue the conception of female same-sex relationships. Frequently illustrated as a couple with one appearing more masculine while the other is more feminine. However, whether this reflected a contemporary practice or was merely

1628-429: A long series of secret negotiations between the Italian states, of which Rome was ignorant. The Romans were likely aware of some kind of unrest, even if they did not know of its scope. This is evidenced by Roman garrisons being captured at the start of the war in unfriendly cities. It is likely those garrisons had been dispatched before the start of the war to strategically important locations. Already by late 91 BC,

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1776-404: A marriage lasted, the dowry was the husband's property, but his use was restricted; if the marriage ended through divorce, it was returned to either the wife or her family. If the husband committed offenses which led to divorce, he lost claim to any share in the dowry. If a wife was blameless for the ending of her marriage, the dowry was restored to her. If a wife or husband with children initiated

1924-469: A married citizen-woman. Families were also offered financial incentives to have as many children as possible. Both interventions had minimal effect. Marriage ( conubium ) was one of the fundamental institutions of Roman society, as it joined not only two individuals but two families. The Romans considered marriage a partnership, whose primary purpose was to have legitimate descendants to whom property, status, and family qualities could be handed down through

2072-706: A massive force over the winter, allowing the consuls of 90 BC to depart for war immediately. All consuls and praetors that year were assigned to Italy; the provincial governors at the start of the war had their terms continuously prorogued . According to the summary of Livy, Livy included tables of the Latin and foreign communities that sent auxiliaries to join the Romans. Modern estimates of Roman manpower exceed 140,000, split between fourteen legions (two for each consul and one each for ten legates). Rome also conscripted ships and mercenaries from its overseas allies; two triremes , for example, were taken from Heraclea Pontica on

2220-555: A political tactic either to distinguish between free and slave or as an anachronism interjected by his brother Gaius to legitimate Gaius' reform agenda some ten years later. Attempts to actually grant citizenship started in 125 BC with a proposal by Marcus Fulvius Flaccus . Gaius Gracchus is said to have brought similar proposals. These attempts were largely brought because Roman tribunes and magistrates believed that granting citizenship could be traded for Italian elites acquiescing over occupied public lands. Appian similarly frames

2368-466: A portion of her dowry , though not much more than if he had repudiated her for less severe forms of misconduct. As part of the moral legislation of Augustus in 18 BC, the Lex Iulia de adulteriis ("Julian Law concerning acts of adultery") was directed at punishing married women who engaged in extra-marital affairs. The implementation of punishment was the responsibility of the paterfamilias ,

2516-526: A private and public crime ( lex Julia de adulteriis ). To encourage population expansion, the leges Juliae offered inducements to marriage and imposed penalties upon the celibate . Augustus instituted the "Law of the three sons" which held those in high regard who produced three male offspring. Marrying-age celibates and young widows who would not marry were prohibited from receiving inheritances and from attending public games. The extracts below are from later legal codes and textbooks, but are also valuable in

2664-410: A provincial who had been granted citizenship by Pompey . Citizenship was linked to territories: a person who received Roman citizenship gave up their local citizenship; losing local citizenship and living outside of Roman territory meant a local reduction in socio-economic status. The "Italian question" refers to the relationship between Rome and her Italian allies. It is still not entirely clear what

2812-475: A real power-sharing arrangement where magistracies and senatorial seats were to be set aside for the Latins in proportion to military contributions. If the Italians had similar aims in 91 BC, they would have been incompatible with a centralised Roman state and the supremacy of Rome's urban elite. However, beyond Diodorus' summarised description of the Italian government, there few other sources which describe

2960-479: A relatively uniform quattorvirate of city magistrates and more rarely with a duovirate . The dating of this municipalisation process is not entirely straightforward: the formation of the quattorvirates likely dates to the Cinnanum tempus ; a uniform and generalised lex municipalis came only during the time of Caesar and Augustus. One of the main issues in 88 BC (the consulship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla )

3108-485: A short civil war that year. At various stages of the war, Romans brought legislation allowing Italian towns to elect Roman citizenship if they had not revolted or would otherwise put down arms, draining support from the rebels. Views differ as to the causes of the war, primarily on whether Roman citizenship was already a coveted status whose extension was the goal of the Social War or not. The main ancient source for

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3256-768: A tool for interfamilial alliances . The institution of Roman marriage was a practice of marital monogamy : Roman citizens could have only one spouse at a time in marriage but were allowed to divorce and remarry. This form of prescriptively monogamous marriage that co-existed with male resource polygyny in Greco-Roman civilization may have arisen from the relative egalitarianism of democratic and republican city-states. Early Christianity embraced this ideal of monogamous marriage by adding its own teaching of sexual monogamy , and perpetrated it worldwide and became as an essential element in many later Western cultures . Roman marriage had precedents in myth . The abduction of

3404-633: A triumph on 25 December over Asculum and Picenum. Strabo, however, infamously refused to give any of the plunder to the state, even though the public treasury was empty. Further legislation was enacted to extend the citizenship with the passage of the lex Plautia Papiria (though the Samnites and Lucanians, still under arms, were excepted). New legislation was also brought by Pompey Strabo to incorporate new colonies in Transpadane Gaul with Latin rights. The reorganisation of Italy also required

3552-401: A way for the intelligent, independent women of the elite to form emotionally meaningful relationships outside marriages arranged for political purposes. It is possible, however, that no such epidemic of adultery even existed; the law should perhaps be understood not as addressing a real problem that threatened society but as one of the instruments of social control exercised by Augustus that cast

3700-456: A work of fiction is uncertain. Among notable examples of same-sex unions in Rome are those of the emperor Elagabalus , who is said to have married either an enslaved chariot driver named Hierocles or a Smyrnaean athlete named Zoticus; according to Cassius Dio, in these relationships Elagabalus was named wife , mistress , and queen. It is unlikely Elagabalus legitimately married. There

3848-519: Is claimed that the first divorce occurred only in 230 BC. At which time, Dionysius of Halicarnassus notes that " Spurius Carvilius , a man of distinction, was the first to divorce his wife" on the grounds of infertility. This was most likely the Spurius Carvilius Maximus Ruga who was consul in 234 and 228 BC. The evidence is confusing. A man could also divorce his wife for adultery, drunkenness, or making copies of

3996-559: Is evidence of same-sex weddings from the constitutio of Constantine and Constans in the Codex Theodosianus . The Codex refers to a man marrying in the manner of a bride. The text found within the Codex Theodosianus can allude to the references to a homosexual relationship and its representation of marital binding. The legal process of prohibiting a wedding ceremony between two men is clearly illustrated in

4144-429: Is highly anachronistic. For writers in the imperial period, Roman citizenship was highly desirable. Those writers then retrojected that desirability onto the Italians who lived centuries before their time. His analysis of the evidence also concludes that before the Social War, there was little agitation for citizenship, multiple citizenships still being invalid, which would have been incompatible with local autonomy. As to

4292-532: Is not widely accepted since the Italians who were most exposed to the Greek East were not those who led the revolt and had to be coerced into joining it. Similarly, A N Sherwin-White believed that the Italians wanted Roman citizenship to secure legal equality. Less convincingly, D B Nagle argued that economic factors could explain the start of the war. Henrik Mouritsen, in the influential 1998 book Italian Unification , argues that Appian's citizenship narrative

4440-479: The ius liberorum . These laws were poorly received; they were modified in 9 AD by the Lex Papia Poppaea ; eventually, they were nearly all repealed or fell into disuse under Constantine and later emperors, including Justinian . Roman citizen women could have only one sexual partner at a time but allowed divorce and remarriage . In the case of Roman citizen men, it is not clear whether

4588-466: The manus form of marriage , which had become vanishingly rare by the Late Republic (147–27 BC), when a married woman always remained legally a part of her own family. No source records the justified killing of a woman for adultery by either a father or husband during the Republic. Adultery was sufficient grounds for divorce, however, and if the wife was at fault, the wronged husband got to keep

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4736-587: The Latin War (when Rome's Latin allies rebelled c.  340 BC ) possible hints for the lost portions of Livy's narrative on the Social War. Because much of Livy's work on early history has long been recognised to be anachronistic, Mouritsen believes that the narrative on the Latin War may anachronistically reflect Social War-era realities. In the Livian Latin War, the Latin allies demanded

4884-519: The Marsi when his undertrained men were routed during the crossing. After this battle, when the huge number of bodies returned to Rome caused a panic, the senate decreed that war dead should in the future be buried on the field. In this same engagement, Gaius Marius , another of Rutilius' legates and hero of the Cimbric wars , was able to pull off a decisive victory by forcing the river when alerted to

5032-490: The Second Punic War . With each victory, the Romans demanded and received from the Italians a latent title to lands the Italians still occupied. For centuries, Roman claims on those lands were unenforced. After the start of the land reform process in 133 BC with Tiberius Gracchus 's lex Sempronia , Italians started to complain about Roman magistrates illegally encroaching on their land holdings; in 129 BC,

5180-604: The Second Punic war after the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC, the defectors were defeated and harsh terms applied. Over time, the Romans started to interfere in the internal affairs of their allies, though historians differ as to its extent. For example, when the senate acted to suppress the Bacchanalia in 186 BC, historians differ as to whether this applied only to Roman land or was extended extraterritorially to

5328-503: The Tribal Assembly for the new citizens. This grant to citizenship had the effect of almost tripling the number of Roman citizens and annexing large swathes of Italy into the republic proper. The offer would be open to all Italian towns which were not under arms or who would lay those arms down within a short period. The main purpose of the law was to prevent those who had not risen up against Roman rule from doing so. It also had

5476-504: The infames were convicted criminals, entertainers such as actors and dancers, prostitutes and pimps , and gladiators . He was not allowed to kill his wife, who was not under his legal authority. However, if he chose to kill the lover, the husband was required to divorce his wife within three days and to have her formally charged with adultery. If a husband was aware of the affair and did nothing, he could be accused of pandering ( lenocinium , from leno , "pimp"). If no death penalty

5624-477: The Black Sea and returned eleven years later. The initial Italian offensive struck in late 91 and early 90 BC. It was clearly planned with full knowledge of typical Roman strategy and operations. There was a policy of mercy toward pro-Roman combatants in the southern theatre commanded by Gaius Papius Mutilus ; the war also assumed a "distinctive character" in the extent to which Roman soldiers defected to

5772-527: The Italian allies were fighting for. There are two threads in the ancient accounts: one depicting the struggle as one for Roman citizenship and another as one against Roman domination. Edward Bispham, writing in the 2016 Companion to Roman Italy , concludes that "it seems certain that the Social War is best understood as a revolt from Rome" but synthesises the approaches in that the desires for citizenship and independence are themselves expressions of an underlying desire for equality and freedom, inside or outside

5920-505: The Italian coalition's internal politics or offices. Instead, they refer to various tribal and ethnic leaders without distinction of office. Florus , for example, mentions no Italian senate or magistrates, but instead says that the Italians served each under their own standards. Coinage, along with Livy, seem to refer to a number of imperatores ( Oscan sg. embratur ), which may have been appointed by each ethnic group. They did not seem to have been replaced after death in battle, implying

6068-674: The Italians still controlled large tracts of territory. The Italians reorganised around Quintus Poppaedius Silo and designated him supreme commander; according to Diodorus, Silo command a force of some 50,000 men, which would have been hopelessly insufficient to fight the Romans. Regardless, Silo was able to reverse Roman advances in Samnium and also recapture Bovianum. He then crossed the Apennines and engaged Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius in Apulia, where his forces were badly defeated and Silo

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6216-536: The Italians to transfer their capital to Bovianum . The Romans also subjugated the Vestini and the Marrucini . By summer, the Romans had pacified the northern theatre, except for Asculum, which was still under siege. Rome also took the offensive in the south. Sulla, commanding an army and supported by a fleet, besieged Nola and took Pompeii , defeating an attempt to relieve the cities by Lucius Cluentius . After

6364-405: The Italians to war. Mouritsen writes of the court, "such stab-in-the-back theories are plausible only when no other explanation is at hand; apparently the Romans did not see any direct connection between the franchise question and the outbreak of the war". It is possible that in the early winter of 90 BC there was an abortive attempt to negotiate a peace before fighting started; if it occurred,

6512-567: The Italians went to war to secure the citizenship and legal equality denied to them in peace. The most convincing theme which Appian presents, however, is an Italian desire for political equality: he says the Italians aspired to be "partners in rule rather than subjects". However, it is likely that poor and rich Italians sought different goals: poorer Italians were likely seeking freedom from unfair treatment by Roman magistrates; it would have been their richer compatriots that would benefit from direct access to Roman politics. More modern versions of

6660-503: The Italians were in Campania and Picenum. In Campania, Mutilus took Nola , Herculaneum , and Salernum , before being stopped at Acerrae from advancing on Capua. In Picenum, Gaius Vidacilius , Titus Lafrenius , and one Publius Ventidius defeated Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and forced him into Firmum . Vidacilius took the opportunity then to advance into down the eastern Italian coast into Apulia, taking Canusium . Aesernia fell later in

6808-545: The Italians. For example, when Nola was captured, the Italians were able to induce the defection of most of the Roman soldiers (the officers refused and were starved to death). In the initial offensive, the colony of Aesernia was put under prolonged siege: the consul Lucius Julius Caesar moved to break it but was unsuccessful; the Romans suffered further reverses, losing Venafrum , Grumentum in Lucania, and suffering defeat near Alba Fucens . The most important victories for

6956-595: The Latin alphabet. On the whole, Italian tribes and peoples on the eve of the Social war still held themselves distinct from Rome, just as they had in previous centuries. Also importantly, before the 1st century AD, it was not possible for a person to hold more than one citizenship. Nor, before the empire , were allied soldiers granted Roman citizenship at the close of their service. For example, Cicero deliberately contrasts Italic single citizenship against Greek multiple citizenship in his speech for Lucius Cornelius Balbus ,

7104-443: The Latins deserting Rome, the balance of military power would shift into the Italians' favour. After secret negotiations, the Italians then launched their bid to throw off Roman hegemony. As evidenced by the destruction of Fregellae after an attempted revolt in 125 BC, it was an enormous risk to rebel against Rome. The Italians, in planning their war, would have to form reliable alliances secured with hostages. Appian describes

7252-514: The Marsi attempted to support the rebellions in Etruria and Umbria. The two consuls moved to intercept the Marsi, who were commanded by Titus Vettius Scato . Strabo defeated the Marsi near Asculum, forcing them into retreat across the snowy mountains. Cato, taking command from Marius, defeated the Marsi near the Fucine lake, but was himself killed in battle. It is likely that Cato was killed early in

7400-612: The Marsic war; Velleius Paterculus , Asconius Pedianus , and Julius Obsequens call it the bellum Italicum . An official senatus consultum dated to 22 May 78 BC calls it bellum Italicum and the Augustan-era fasti consulares call it bellum Marsicum . The Italian peninsula during the second century BC was dominated by the Roman Republic , which was allied in a collection of bilateral treaties with

7548-470: The Roman political system. Appian 's Civil Wars is the main source for much of this period. It provides three themes for the Italians: support for agrarian reform, votes for land, and demands for political equality. According to Appian, the agrarian reforms of Tiberius Gracchus were meant to support the Italians. However, there is no good evidence to verify this claim and most historians reject it as

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7696-400: The Romans had sent praetors with levied troops around the peninsula to investigate rumours of a plot. But by the time the investigations completed (or as a result of those investigations), the war had started. Regardless, preparations for a revolt likely were brewing before Drusus' tribunate in 91 BC. At the outbreak of the war, the Italians levied forces and formed up armies to oppose

7844-476: The Romans moved quickly and brutally to suppress it. The northern theatre was centred on Asculum (in the lands of the Piceni and Marsi) with the southern theatre in Samnium, Lucania, Apulia, and Campania. The immediate reaction in Rome to the rebellion was one of confusion. After the war's start, Quintus Varius Hybrida , then a plebeian tribune, set up a permanent court searching around for conspirators who incited

7992-418: The Romans openly, the Italians revolted as one. This sequence is at odds with Appian's account, which paints Asculum as rioting in late 91 BC in response to Marcus Livius Drusus ' assassination in Rome and Roman prosecution of Italian allies. In this narrative, Drusus, whose political star was waning since the death of his influential supporter Lucius Licinius Crassus , had his legislation invalidated by

8140-537: The Romans. To have done this so quickly, agreements must have been reached on power-sharing and command before the outbreak of the war. According to Photius' summary of Diodorus Siculus , which is accepted by most modern scholars, the Italians established at Corfinium a new capital with a forum and five-hundred-man senate. The senate then appointed two consuls and twelve praetors, dividing them evenly between northern and southern fronts (with Italian consuls Quintus Poppaedius Silo and Gaius Papius Mutilus assigned to

8288-590: The Sabine Women may reflect the archaic custom of bride abduction . Rome's Sabine neighbours rejected overtures of intermarriage ( conubium ) by Romulus and his band of male immigrants. According to Livy , Romulus and his men abducted the Sabine maidens but promised them honorable marriage, in which they would enjoy the benefits of property, citizenship, and children . Marriages helped families to build economic and political bonds and alliances. Matrimonium ,

8436-418: The Sabine maidens, but promised them an honorable marriage, in which they would enjoy the benefits of property, citizenship, and children . Under Roman law, the oldest living male, the "father of the family" ( pater familias ), held absolute authority ( patria potestas ) over his children and, to a lesser extent, his wife. His household was thus understood to be under his manus (literally, "hand"). He had

8584-503: The Samnites a number of wars during the conquest of Italy; even afterwards, these allies retained their cohesiveness, having defected from Rome as a single bloc during the Second Punic war. Romanisation through to the second century proceeded with considerable heterogeneity: in Apulia and Samnium, Latin influence was largely absent in both the archaeological and literary sources, while in Marsic lands inscriptions indicate adoption of

8732-421: The Social war itself, were merely to expand the number of tribes and to allot the Italians to those new tribes. This solution was also elegantly traditional: Rome's tribes had in the past been adduced to represent citizens living in new territories, though the last time this had been done was in 242 BC. Plans were made to create possibly two or eight new tribes, pursuant to the lex Julia , which would deprive

8880-500: The Younger . After being blocked in the senate, Caesar brought the bill before the popular assemblies. Inviting Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus , his co-consul and political opponent, to debate the bill, he won a political victory when he forced Bibulus to admit that he had few reasons for opposing the bill while publicly expressing senseless and obstinate opposition: "You will not have this law this year, not even should you all want it!". With

9028-403: The absence of an announcement of negative omens, Caesar carried the bill in the assembly. Added to the law was then the requirement that senators swear an oath to uphold the law. Cato and an ally refused until intercession by Cicero , arguing that it would be better for Rome if Cato swore and remained than withdrew to exile. In the face of obstructive tactics from Cato's allies, Caesar brought

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9176-507: The adultery law, married man would only be committing adultery if his lover were someone else's wife. A confarreatio wedding ceremony was a rare event reserved for the highest echelons of Rome's elite. The Flamen Dialis and pontifex maximus presided, with ten witnesses present, and the bride and bridegroom shared a cake of spelt (in Latin far or panis farreus ), hence the rite's name. A more typical upper-middle class wedding in

9324-416: The allies also redrew the political and legal maps of Italy. In place of the former sovereign and autonomous Italian communities, there was a sea of Roman citizen municipia . Municipal constitutions dating from time immemorial over the next decades were replaced by laws and charters passed under the auspices of the comitia in Rome. The varying magistrates of the Italian city-states were largely replaced by

9472-511: The allies held out until 87 BC. The war started in late 91 BC, with the rebellion of Asculum . Other Italian towns quickly declared for the rebels and the Roman response was initially confused. By the new year, the Romans had levied huge armies to crush the rebels but found initial headway difficult; by the end of the year, however, they were able to cut the Italian rebels into two, isolating them into northern and southern sectors. The Italian rebels attempted to invade Etruria and Umbria at

9620-472: The allies" (from Latin socius , meaning "ally"). Today, the name is used more generally in classics scholarship to refer to any war between allies. The name bellum sociale was first used in the second century AD by the historian Florus , and only became common during the imperial period. The Romans of the time called it the Marsic war named for the Marsi , an Italian tribe located east of Rome who during

9768-602: The allies' protests. Their anger increased when the law passed over their objections and Rome started seizing allied lands; the allies therefore started preparations for an insurrection by late summer 91 BC. Amid this distrust, Drusus was blamed for breaking down relations with the allies, which led to a confrontation between Drusus and the consul, Lucius Marcius Philippus , in the senate some time in September. Rome responded to these rumours of Italian unrest by sending garrison forces into Italy, which explains their capture at

9916-538: The allies. By the time of the Social War, the allies were mainly located in the following regions: two northern ones (Etruria and Umbria) and more further south (Lucania, Apulia, and Magna Graecia). As far back as the fifth century, the Oscan and Umbrian-speaking communities in southern Italy had formed a flexible confederal league; the most powerful of these were the Samnites and Lucanians . The Romans had fought with

10064-562: The army for the first time. With a collapsing northern front and the division of the Italians into two, Italian defeat became largely inevitable. The Italians attempted opening negotiations, inviting Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus to invade, but Mithridates responded equivocally. As Rome started to gain the upper hand, the senate decreed some time around October that consul Lucius Julius Caesar should bring legislation allowing any Italian community that had not revolted or otherwise promptly laid down their arms to elect Roman citizenship. This

10212-573: The bill expanding the public lands subject to redistribution straight to the assembly, bypassing the senate. The lex Julia de repetundis , also called the lex Julia repetundarum , was passed by Gaius Julius Caesar during his first consulship in 59 BC. It was a major piece of legislation containing over 100 clauses which dealt with a large number of provincial abuses, provided procedures for enforcement, and punishment for violations. Among other things, it: The law also expanded regulations on all kinds of public actions, including corruption before

10360-679: The capture of Pompeii, Sulla quickly took Stabiae and Herculaneum by June. Sulla then moved into Samnium, subjugating the Hirpini and giving gentle terms, before taking Bovianum by September after a bitter struggle, forcing the Italians to move their capital again to Aesernia (now under their full control). That year, Sulla stood for and won the consulship of 88 BC, with Quintus Pompeius Rufus as his colleague. Asculum surrendered in November 89 BC after its commander, Vidacilius, committed suicide. For this victory, Pompey Strabo celebrated

10508-468: The circumstances. Although prohibitions against adultery and harsh punishments were mentioned during the Republic (509–27 BC), historical sources suggest that they were regarded as archaic survivals and should not be interpreted as accurate representations of behavior. Adultery was normally considered a private matter for families to deal with, not a severe criminal offense requiring the attention of

10656-474: The citizenship that followed the Social War remained a politically-charged topic, especially in terms of how they would be allocated into voting blocks. Disputes over enfranchisement played a role in Sulla's march on Rome in 88 BC to depose plebeian tribune Publius Sulpicius Rufus . Fears of Sulla rolling back hard-won Italian rights contributed to resistance during Sulla's civil war . The conflict also blurred

10804-464: The citizenship thesis have been advanced by Emilio Gabba, arguing that Italian commercial classes (the publicani ) drove romanisation in an attempt to share in the rewards of empire. The exalted position of Italian businessmen in the provinces may have absolved their status inferiority at home; combined with a desire to influence Roman provincial policy, they may have sought to secure their business rights by becoming Roman citizens. This thesis, however,

10952-424: The classical period was less prestigious than a confarreatio , but could be equally lavish. It would have been carefully planned. Sometimes the bride and groom exchanged gifts before the wedding. The lighting of a sacred torch in honor of Ceres was part of the celebration, intended to impart fertility upon the couple. A wedding sacrifice was also offered, with a sow being the most likely choice . The day after

11100-608: The condition that a man is not able to have a concubine at the time that he has a wife pre-dates or post-dates the Constantinian law; ie., whether concubinage existed concurrently with marriage for men in Ancient Rome has been debated in modern scholarship and the evidence is inconclusive: it was not until the sixth century CE, after centuries of Christian influence, that the emperor Justinian claimed that “ancient law” prohibited husbands from keeping wives and concubines at

11248-430: The courts, though there were some cases when adultery and sexual transgressions by women had been brought to the aediles for judgment. According to Cato (2nd century BC), a husband had an ancient right ( ius ) to kill his wife if he caught her in the act of adultery. The existence of this "right" has been questioned; if it did exist, it was a matter of custom and not statute law and probably only applied to those in

11396-667: The disaster by the bodies that flowed downstream; he eventually assumed command after Rutilius' replacement was assassinated at false surrender negotiations. Marius, assisted by a flanking manoeuvre by Lucius Cornelius Sulla , then inflicted a victory over the Marsi near the Fucine lake , which split the Italians in two. Sextus Julius Caesar , consul in 91 BC and promagistrate this year, moved to relieve Firmum some time in October. Between Sextus' army and Pompey Strabo's forces, Labrenius' forces were routed and forced into Asculum, which

11544-460: The distinction between Romans and their enemies; the presence of large armies in Italy during the war also provided opportunities for generals to seize power extralegally. For these reasons and others, some historians believe the conflict played an important role in setting up the collapse of the republic. The name Social war is an improper English translation of bellum sociale , which means "war of

11692-463: The divorce of any couple under his manus . According to the historian Valerius Maximus , divorces were taking place by 604 BC or earlier, and the early Republican law code of the Twelve Tables provided for it. Divorce was socially acceptable if carried out within social norms ( mos maiorum ). By the time of Cicero and Julius Caesar , divorce was relatively common and "shame-free",

11840-516: The early fifth century Augustine referred to it as a "Roman custom". Marriage had mythical precedents , starting with the abduction of the Sabine Women , which may reflect the archaic custom of bride abduction . Romulus and his band of male immigrants approached the Sabines for conubium , the legal right to intermarriage, from the Sabines . According to Livy , Romulus and his men abducted

11988-415: The east, assigned neither consul to commands against the Italians; Sulla by lot was assigned the command against Mithridates. Early in the year, Pompey Strabo's command in the northern theatre was prorogued and he quickly accepted the surrender of multiple Italian towns and communities, putting an effective end to the war in the north. The remaining northern insurgents fled south to Samnium and Apulia, where

12136-459: The east, this rebel force unsuccessfully attacked Isiae and Rhegium near the Strait of Messina . The outbreak of a short civil war at Rome in 87 BC allowed them to nonetheless reach a negotiated settlement with the weakened Roman government; the rebels sided with the faction of Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Gaius Marius after being promised citizenship, the return of hostages and deserters and

12284-459: The effect of weakening the Italian war effort by making acceptable compromises. The next year, the Romans introduced the lex Plautia Papiria de civitate , granting citizenship to more allies under rebellion – the main exceptions were the Samnites and Lucanians – in an attempt to further stem rebellion. Julius Caesar passed two pieces of agrarian legislation in 59 BC during his first consulship. They were two pieces of related legislation:

12432-571: The father's name, some might take their mother's family name as part of theirs. In the early Empire, the legal standing of daughters differed little, if at all, from that of sons; either could inherit a share of the family estate if their father died intestate. Early Roman law recognized three kinds of marriage: confarreatio , symbolized by the sharing of spelt bread ( panis farreus ); coemptio , "by purchase"; and by usus (habitual cohabitation). Patricians always married by confarreatio , while plebeians married by coemptio or usus : in

12580-406: The feelings of the participants are not recorded. There is no evidence to contradict an interpretation that the men were expressing a meaningful commitment; even so, a quasi marital union between two men would not have been a valid marriage ( iustum matrimonium ) in Roman law. Sporus , a young enslaved person, was castrated and treated like Nero's wife. A dowry was given, and the marriage ceremony

12728-407: The field for every two Romans. This made allied manpower indispensable for Roman military superiority. Cities cooperated with Rome for various reasons. They received shares of the war spoils and land assignments. Rome also supported allied elites against popular revolts (eg at Arretium , Lucania , and Volsinii in 302, 296, and 264 BC, respectively). While some of the cities defected during

12876-497: The formation of new municipia as well as surveying of their lands and establishment of their charters. This longer process would continue until the age of Caesar. By 88 BC, the war was largely over, except for some isolated holdouts. Elections for the consulship of 88 were delayed by Pompey Strabo's late return to the city, but eventually returned Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Quintus Pompeius Rufus . The senate, troubled by news of Mithridates VI Eupator 's invasion of Asia in

13024-505: The generations. The institution of marriage in ancient Rome was a strictly marital monogamy : under Roman law, a Roman citizen , whether male or female, could have only one spouse in marriage at a time but were allowed to divorce and remarry. The practice of marital monogamy that co-existed with male resource polygyny distinguished the Greeks and Romans from ancient civilizations in which elite males typically had multiple wives in

13172-414: The giver could reclaim the gift. Following the collapse of the Republic , laws about marriage, parenting, and adultery were part of Augustus ' program to restore the mos maiorum (traditional social norms ) while consolidating his power as princeps and pater familias of the Roman state. Marriage and remarriage had become less frequent, and the citizen birth rate had fallen, particularly among

13320-401: The household keys. Around the 2nd century, married women gained the right to divorce their husbands. Divorce by either party severed the lawful family alliance that had been formed through the marriage, and remarriage might create an entirely new set of economically or politically beneficial partnerships. Among the elite, husbands and wives might remarry several times. Only one spouse's will

13468-415: The institution of marriage. Walter Scheidel believes that Greco-Roman monogamy in marriage may have arisen from the relative egalitarianism of the democratic and republican political systems of the city-states. The aspect of a marital monogamy was later embraced by early Christianity , which in turn perpetuated it with its own teaching of sexual monogamy as an ideal in later Western cultures . In

13616-505: The lack of any Italian elections. Christopher Dart suggests that the Italians converted the victory title imperator into an official magisterial title, in the same way imperator later turned into the title of the Roman emperor in the Flavian era. In late 91 or early 90 BC, a rumour was heard that Asculum was exchanging hostages with another city. Such an exchange was customary in

13764-410: The land commission's infringements on their property, which was guaranteed by treaty. The objections brought the redistributive process quickly to a halt. Mouritsen proposed instead the following reconstruction for the start of the war in the late 90s BC. Drusus, seeking to placate the plebs in exchange for a change in the jury courts, proposed a law to do more widespread land distributions against

13912-399: The latter, a woman could avoid her husband's legal control simply by being absent from their shared home for three consecutive nights once a year. Among elite families of the early Republic , manus marriage was the norm; the bride passed from the manus ("hand") of her father to the manus of her husband, remaining under one or another form of male potestas (power). Manus marriage

14060-510: The law remained "the basis of the Roman law of provincial administration". This law may have set regulations for Italian municipalities. The question of whether Julius Caesar was responsible for this law is "fiercely debated". Under Augustus, the leges Juliae of 18–17 BC attempted to elevate both the morals and the numbers of the upper classes in Rome and to increase the population by encouraging marriage and having children ( lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus ). They also established adultery as

14208-501: The law)." Augustus himself, however, had frequent recourse to his moral laws in choosing to banish potential enemies and rivals from Rome, and the effect of the legislation seems to have been primarily political. In the Imperial era, there are several references to same-sex weddings between male partners. While these weddings were generally treated with mockery in literary sources such as Martial , Juvenal , and imperial biographers,

14356-409: The male head of household to whose legal and moral authority the adulterous party was subject. If a father discovered that his married daughter was committing adultery in either his own house or the house of his son-in-law, he was entitled to kill both the woman and her lover; if he killed only one of the adulterers, he could be charged with murder. While advertising the father's power, the extremity of

14504-423: The many city-states on the peninsula. In general, those cities received guarantees of territorial integrity and internal self-government in exchange for supporting Rome with men during its many wars. Allied contingents made up an increasing portion of Roman manpower: by 295 BC, the allied contingents of Roman-led armies as a whole outnumbered the Romans on the field and, by 218 BC, there were three allies on

14652-631: The match. The age of lawful consent to a marriage was 12 for girls and 14 for boys. Most Roman women married in their early teens to young men in their twenties. Roman mores idealized a married daughter's relationship to her father as deferential and obedient, even at her husband's expense. "Deference" was not always absolute. After arranging his daughter's first two marriages, Marcus Tullius Cicero disapproved—rightly, as it turned out—of her choice to marry Dolabella , but found himself unable to prevent it. A daughter kept her own birth-family name ( nomen ) for life, and although children usually took

14800-411: The modern period: Free marriage usually involved two citizens of equal or near-equal status, or a citizen and a person who held Latin rights . In the later Imperial period and with official permission, soldier-citizens and non-citizens could marry in law. So total was the law's separation of property that gifts between spouses were recognized as conditional loans; if a couple divorced or even lived apart,

14948-444: The new union. Remarriages thus created a unique blending of the family in ancient Roman society, where children were influenced by stepparents and some instances where stepmothers were younger than their stepchildren . Ancient physicians believed that a woman was liable to get very sick if she was deprived of sexual activity and it could even lead to a woman getting "hysteric uterine constriction". Even legislation passed during

15096-423: The north and south, respectively). Reconstructions have differed over the Italian state's organisation. Theodor Mommsen in 1854 proposed that the Italians self-organised basically along the same lines as the Romans. Alfred von Domaszewski in 1924 suggested that Silo and Mutilus were merely leaders of two major factions in the Italian forces and that the twelve "praetors" reflected twelve tribal divisions arranged in

15244-436: The overwhelming number of new citizens of much of their political influence. Appian further posits this number may have been ten. During Sulla's consulship, one of the tribunes of the plebs, Publius Sulpicius Rufus , challenged this plan. He brought and passed legislation, possibly by force, which would have the new citizens inscribed in the existing thirty-five tribes instead; he could only bring that proposal successfully with

15392-402: The parties most affected; the husband, wife, and senior members of both families. No public record was kept of the proceedings. Official registration of divorce was not required until 449 AD. The frequency of remarriage among the elite was high. Speedy remarriage was not unusual, and perhaps even customary, for aristocratic Romans after the death of a spouse. While no formal waiting period

15540-425: The period is the relatively late Appian , who wrote in the imperial period during the 2nd century AD, and whose narrative is largely one based on demands of the allies for Roman citizenship. Other historians, most especially Henrik Mouritsen, have focused instead on a perceived alternative tradition which has the Italian allies rebelling against Roman hegemony and encroachment on allied lands. The massive expansion of

15688-497: The permanent courts, the senate, and public contracts (especially as to public works and grain). It also banned the owning of ships by senators. While it extended to judicial corruption, "Caesar was prudent" in keeping away from the "political hot potato" that was anti-bribery legislation applied to the equites – diverse men including Cato and Pompey had previously tried and failed in passing such legislation. However, Caesar cooperated with an ally in introducing legislation to record

15836-447: The possibility of votes for land, he writes "Flaccus' citizenship bill [and bills similar to it] would have been infinitely more far-reaching in its implications than the reform promoted... it would lead to a total upheaval of the traditional alliance system on which Roman domination in Italy had been based for centuries... as an attempt to restart the land distribution process the bill would probably have been of scant value". The extent of

15984-448: The preparations for war to prevent allied cities from defecting. A Roman praetor by the name of Quintus Servilius, possibly the quaestor of 103 BC , rushed to the city and threatened violence if Asculum did not desist. The inhabitants, however, fearful of Roman discovery, responded by killing the praetor and his legate Fonteius. They then killed all the Romans in the city and ransacked their goods. Violence having been committed against

16132-405: The prosecution of their allies at Rome, Appian then has the Italians form their conspiracy and revolt. However, as the Italians could not have had enough time between Drusus' death and the start of the war to organise, Appian's timing cannot be correct. While the inciting incident of the war is clear, its end is not. One could argue various dates, ranging from 89 BC, when most of the fighting

16280-399: The return of all loot taken by the Romans. Even in ancient times the conflict was perplexing and the final outcome of the war or its immediate impacts were not entirely clear. One can interpret the terms under which the various Italian communities at different times reached with the Roman state as victory for either Italians or Romans or alternatively as a negotiated stalemate. The war was

16428-410: The right and duty to seek a good and valuable match for his children and might arrange a child's betrothal long before they came of age. To further the interests of their birth families, sons of the elite should follow their fathers into public life, and daughters should marry into respectable families. If a daughter could prove the proposed husband to be of bad character, she could legitimately refuse

16576-546: The root of the English word matrimony , defined the role of wives as mothers ( matres ) who would produce legitimate children , as eventual heirs to their parents' estates. The most ancient form of marriage, traditionally reserved to the Patrician social class, claimed the husband's right to control his wife and her property. In later developments, the bride retained control over her dowry; the resources of both parties formed

16724-469: The rule of Augustus required widows and widowers to remarry to inherit from people outside of their immediate family. Adultery was a sexual offense committed by a man with a woman who was neither his wife nor a permissible partner, such as a prostitute or enslaved person . A married man committed adultery mainly when his female partner was another man's wife or unmarried daughter. The punishment varied at different periods of Roman history and depending on

16872-434: The same time. According to Walter Schedule, conditions in the Ancient Rome are best defined as prescriptively monogamous marriage that co-existed with male resource polygyny; powerful men had a principal wife and several secondary sexual partners. A married man's sexual activities with slaves, prostitutes, or other women of low status were not, in legal terms, adultery, and he could not be prosecuted under Augustus Laws. Under

17020-437: The senate acted and deprived the land redistribution commission of its survey jurisdiction, putting a pause on land distributions. The commission, before the pause in 129 BC, likely quickly surveyed and parceled out the unoccupied and recently surveyed Hannibalic war-era lands. The older holdings elsewhere, however, were impossible to disentangle from private lands. Never surveyed and with unclear borders, Italians objected to

17168-483: The senate refused to negotiate. Appian reports that the Italians at the start of the war mobilised some 100,000 men. Rome's Latin allies remained loyal. Rome also continued to control Capua and central Campania, which proved logistically vital. The consuls of the year, elected in a time of relative peace, were Lucius Julius Caesar and Publius Rutilius Lupus . The two men had access to experienced legates: Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla . The Romans levied

17316-459: The senate. He was shortly thereafter killed by an unknown assassin. Around this time, the Italians send a delegation to Rome but the Romans refuse to negotiate. Appian asserts that after Drusus' death but before the start of the war, the equites set up the quaestio Varia (the Varian court) to prosecute those who aided the Italians in securing citizenship. After the double blow of Drusus' death and

17464-650: The sense that they are based on, and frequently quote from, the actual text of Augustus' laws. As written down by Ulpian Under the rule of Emperor Justinian Social War (91%E2%80%9388 BC) The Social War (from Latin bellum sociale , "war of the allies"), also called the Italian War or the Marsic War , was fought largely from 91 to 88 BC between the Roman Republic and several of its autonomous allies ( socii ) in Italy . Some of

17612-435: The sentence seems to have led to its judicious implementation, since cases in which this sentence was carried out are infrequently recorded—most notoriously, by Augustus himself against his daughter. A wronged husband was entitled to kill his wife's lover if the man were either enslaved or infamis , a person who was perhaps technically free and excluded from the standard legal protections extended to Roman citizens. Among

17760-426: The start of 89 BC but were defeated. In the south, they were defeated by Lucius Cornelius Sulla , who for his victories would win a consulship the next year. The Romans retained the initiative and by 88 BC, the conflict was largely over and Roman attention had been captured by the ongoing First Mithridatic War . The few Italian rebels on the field by 87 BC eventually reached a negotiated settlement during

17908-526: The start of the war. Drusus may have then attempted to rescue his standing and placate the allies by trying to pass a law to give the allies citizenship. After this attempt failed amid Drusus' declining popularity, the attempts of the Latins – who actually were agitating for citizenship – to assassinate the consuls, who opposed Latin citizenship, at the Latin Festival became known. With the prospect of

18056-412: The state and, by extension, himself, in the role of paterfamilias to all Rome. Humiliating or violent punishments for adultery are prescribed by law and described by poets. Still, they are absent in the works of Roman historians or the letters of Cicero : "The men who people the pages of Cicero and Tacitus do not burst into their wives' bedrooms to take violent revenge (even when license was granted by

18204-418: The subject of gossip rather than a social disgrace. Valerius says that Lucius Annius was disapproved of because he divorced his wife without consulting his friends; that is, he undertook the action for his purposes and without considering its effects on his social network ( amicitia and clientela ). The censors of 307 BC thus expelled him from the Senate for moral turpitude. However, elsewhere, it

18352-487: The support of Pompey and Crassus , two influential senators with which Caesar was cooperating in a then- secret alliance , popular support for the bill grew. Bibulus resorted instead to obstruction tactics by declaring negative omens on every day the bill could be voted on; one day, when moving to declare those omens, he – along with his political ally Cato – was attacked in the street by a mob (almost certainly organised by Caesar and his allies), forcing him to return home. In

18500-464: The support of Marius, whom he won over with the promise of the Mithridatic command. But his legislation was abrogated after Sulla – at the time continuing the siege at Nola – marched on Rome in response to the Mithridatic reassignment. Marriage in ancient Rome#Adultery Marriage in ancient Rome ( conubium ) was a fundamental institution of society and was used by Romans primarily as

18648-511: The upheaval of the alliance system similarly leads Mouritsen to reject granting citizenship as part of Drusus' attempt to change jury composition as means far in excess of the ends sought. Instead, Mouritsen focuses on Italian discontent with Roman public land reform. Rome's public lands had been won centuries prior to the 90s BC when the nascent republic had subjugated the Italian peninsula. Newer lands had also been forcibly taken from southern Italian cities that had sided with Hannibal during

18796-418: The upper classes thus had most to lose. Citizens who had already produced three children, and freed persons who had produced four, were exempt. Marriages between senators, freed women, enslaved people and citizens were declared legally void. Children born to such liaisons were illegitimate, non-citizen and unable to inherit. A married woman who bore three children or more could be granted legal independence under

18944-447: The votes of the jury panels (senators, equites , and tribuni aerarii ) separately, which "imposed a degree of indirect accountability without violating the secrecy of the individual verdict". It was passed with little dissent, receiving "high praise from [Caesar's] contemporaries". Many senators contributed to it, including Cato, who may have proposed the addition of some regulations against extortion of provincial towns. For centuries,

19092-420: The war as a reaction to the failed reform proposals of the plebeian tribune of 91 BC, Marcus Livius Drusus . As part of a complex scheme to change criminal court jury composition, Drusus allegedly would have to seduce the people with free land, which required public lands, which required pushing Italians off that land, which required a sweetener of citizenship to quell objections. When the proposals failed,

19240-418: The war in the central and southern portions of Italy was "profound". Archaeological evidence points towards the Social war, along with the following Sullan civil war, devastating the central Apennines. The literary sources indicate that after these conflicts much of the Italian countryside was both lawless, as men strove to take advantage of the breakdown in order, and miserable. The extension of citizenship to

19388-539: The war killed two Roman consuls, or otherwise called it the Italian war . The focus on the Marsi may also have to do with Quintus Poppaedius Silo , who was one of the Italian leaders. Usage in the late republican and early imperial period treated the names Marsic and Italian war as largely interchangeable. Cicero's works refer to it as bellum Marsicum or bellum Italicum (though he also uses bella cum sociis ); Sallust , according to Aulus Gellius , calls it

19536-487: The wealthier, more leisured classes. Augustan law on marriage and family life encouraged marriage, having children, and punished adultery as a crime. The new legislation formalized and enforced what had been considered a traditional, moral duty to family and the State; all men between 25 and 60 years of age, and all women between 20 and 50 were to marry and have children, or pay extra tax in proportion to their wealth. Members of

19684-538: The wedding, the husband would hold a dinner party, and the bride made an offering to the Lares and other domestic deities of her new home. Dowry (Latin dos , a gift) was the payment made by a wife's family to her husband nominally to cover their household expenses. It was more customary than compulsory. Ancient papyrus texts show that dowries typically included land and enslaved people but could also include jewelry , toiletries , mirrors , and clothing. While

19832-486: The year after repeated failures by Lucius Julius Caesar to relieve the town; turning south, Caesar attempted to stop Mutilius from forcing the fortress at Acerrae, but both sides found themselves in a series of indecisive engagements. While attempting to lead his men across a river in the northern theatre on 11 June, the consul Publius Rutilius Lupus fell in the Battle of the Tolenus River while fighting against

19980-421: The year, leaving only Strabo as consul for the remainder of 89. The Romans continued on the offensive against the Marsi, under the command of legates Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Marcus Caecilius Cornutus , and forced the Marsi to petition for peace. These victories allowed the Romans a free hand in the siege of Asculum and freedom to attack into southern theatre from the north. Corfinium was also taken, forcing

20128-423: Was a public affair. Sporus is frequently portrayed as looking like Nero's late second wife, but the wedding could have served as a theatrical performance for the emperor following the passing of his wife rather than an actual wedding. Nero also may have had a legitimate husband named Pythagoras; Tacitus ( Annals 15.37) briefly discusses Nero's marriage ceremony with him. In Juvenal 's second satire , two men have

20276-456: Was an institutionally unequal relationship. By the time of Julius Caesar , it was largely abandoned in favor of "free" marriage, when a wife moved into her husband's home, she remained under her father's lawful authority, but she did not conduct her daily life under his direct scrutiny, and her husband had no legal power over her. This was one of the factors in the independence Roman women enjoyed, relative to many other ancient cultures and up to

20424-527: Was barred from remarrying. Scholars have often assumed that the Lex Iulia was meant to address a virulent outbreak of adultery in the Late Republic. An androcentric perspective in the early 20th century held that the Lex Iulia had been "a very necessary check upon the growing independence and recklessness of women." A gynocentric view in the late 20th to early 21st century saw love affairs as

20572-426: Was carried out and adultery charges were brought, both the married woman and her lover were subject to criminal penalties, usually including the confiscation of one-half of the adulterer's property, along with one-third of the woman's property and half her dowry; any property brought by a wife to the marriage or gained during marriage typically remained in her possession following a divorce. A woman convicted of adultery

20720-474: Was carrying her former husband's child, and the College of Pontiffs ruled that it was permissible as long as the child's father was determined first. Livia's previous husband even attended the wedding. Because elite marriages often occurred for reasons of politics or property, a widow or divorcée with assets in these areas faced few obstacles to remarrying. She was far more likely to be legally emancipated than

20868-485: Was dictated for a widower, it was customary for a woman to remain in mourning for ten months before remarrying. The duration may allow for pregnancy: if a woman had become pregnant just before her husband's death, the period of ten months ensures that no question of paternity, which might affect the child's social status and inheritance, would attach to the birth. No law prohibited pregnant women from marrying, and there are well-known instances: Augustus married Livia when she

21016-446: Was how the newly enfranchised Italian citizens would be enrolled into the Roman tribes . The thirty-five tribes made up the comitia tributa , a Roman popular legislative and electoral assembly. With each tribe getting one vote irrespective of population and with tribal status being hereditary, how the enormous multitude of Italian citizens were tribally organised would sway politics for generations. The first proposals, emerging during

21164-455: Was killed. Following Silo's death, Italian organised resistance collapsed. For Livy and Appian, his death marks the end of the Social war. However, a remnant of Samnite and Lucanian rebels fought on in Bruttium and even sent appeals to Mithridates of Pontus for an intervention in Italy. Faced with death or slavery, they refused to surrender. Late in 88 or in 87, after Sulla's departure for

21312-410: Was more flexible; it might be given by the wife, though it came from her father and used to settle a debt incurred by the husband. If she divorced, a wife could reclaim this dowry; if she died, the husband kept it. Lawful divorce was relatively informal; the wife took back her dowry and left her husband's house. Roman men had always held the right to divorce their wives; a pater familias could order

21460-446: Was passed and became the lex Julia de civitate ; it also removed one of the main causes of the war – be it demands for citizenship or for security of land holdings – and provided that new tribes would be created for new citizens. Between the citizenship law and the costs of the war, only the Italian hard-liners remained in the field. The new consuls for 89 BC were Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and Lucius Porcius Cato . In January,

21608-462: Was practically complete, down to November 82 BC and the Battle of the Colline Gate when an identifiably Italian group of rebels was at last defeated. This article presents events down to the nominal pacification of the Samnites and Lucanians in 87 BC. The main sources for the course of the war are relatively confused. Appian's account present events roughly geographically, producing

21756-426: Was required for any divorce, even if the divorced party was not informed. A spouse who had entered marriage sane and healthy but became incapable of sound judgment (insane) was incompetent and could not divorce their partner; they could be divorced without their knowledge or legal notice. Divorce, like marriage, was considered a family affair. It was discussed and agreed upon in private, in an informal family gathering of

21904-474: Was then besieged by Strabo. Sextus' forces then forced back Vidacilius into Apulia and placed it too under siege in December. The northern front of the war largely collapsed after these victories. Attempts to incite rebellion in Etruria and Umbria could have opened a third front against Rome, but were quickly suppressed; Appian notes also that the senate acceded to garrisoning Cumae with freedmen, recruited into

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