Socii


The socii or foederati were confederates of Rome and formed one of the three legal denominations in Roman Italy along with the core Roman citizens and the extended Latini. The Latini, who were simultaneously special confederates and semi-citizens, derived their name from the Italic people of which Rome was part but did not coincide with the region of Latium in central Italy as they were located in colonies throughout the peninsula. This tripartite organisation lasted from the Roman expansion in Italy to the Social War, when all peninsular inhabitants south of the Po river were awarded Roman citizenship.
Treaties known as foedus served as the basic template for Rome's settlement with the large array of tribes and city-states of the whole Italian peninsula. The confederacy had its origin in the foedus Cassianum signed by the fledgling Roman Republic with its neighbouring Latin city-states shortly after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy in 510 BC. This provided for mutual defence by the two parties on the basis of an equal contribution to the annual military levy, which was probably under Roman overall command. The terms of the treaty were probably more acceptable to the Latins than the previous type of Roman hegemony, that of the Tarquin kings, as the latter had probably required the payment of tribute and not a simple military obligation.
In the fourth century BC, the original Latins were mostly granted Roman citizenship. But the terms of the foedus was extended to about 150 other tribes and city-states. When a state was defeated, a part of its territory would be annexed by Rome to provide land for Roman/Latin colonists. The latter, although Roman citizens, were required to give up their citizen rights on joining a colony, and accept the status of socii. This was in order that Latin colonies could act as "watchdogs" on the other socii in the allied military formations, the alae. The defeated state would be allowed to keep the rest of its territory in return for binding itself to Rome with an unequal foedus, one that would forge a state of perpetual military alliance with the Roman Republic. This would require the ally to "have the same friends and enemies as Rome", effectively prohibiting war against other socii and surrendering foreign policy to Rome; such a state retained its internal self-government but became in essence a protectorate. Beyond this, the central, and in most cases sole, obligation on the ally was to contribute to the confederate army, on demand, a number of fully equipped troops up to a specified maximum each year, to serve under Roman command.
The Roman confederation had fully evolved by 264 BC and remained for 200 years the basis of the Roman military structure. From 338 to 88 BC, Roman legions were invariably accompanied on campaign by roughly the same numbers of confederated troops organised into two units called alae. 75% of a normal consular army's cavalry was supplied by the Italian socii. Although the socii provided around half the levies raised by Rome in any given year, they had no say in how those troops were used. Foreign policy and war were matters exclusively in the hands of the Roman consuls and the Roman Senate.
Despite the loss of independence and heavy military obligations, the system provided substantial benefits for the socii. Most importantly, they were freed from the constant threat of aggression from their neighbours that had existed in the anarchic centuries prior to the imposition of the pax Romana. In addition, the Roman alliance protected the Italian peninsula from external invasion, such as the periodic and devastating incursions of Gauls from the Po Valley. Although no longer in control of war and foreign policy, each socius remained otherwise fully autonomous, with its own laws, system of government, coinage and language. Moreover, the military burden was only half that shouldered by Roman citizens, as the latter numbered only about half the population of the socii, but provided around half the total levies. Despite this, allied troops were allowed to share war booty on a 50–50 basis with Romans.
The relationship between Rome and the Latin cities remained ambivalent, and many socii rebelled against the alliance whenever the opportunity arose. The best opportunities were provided by the invasion of Italy by the Greek king Pyrrhus from 281 to 275 BC, and by the invasion of Italy by Carthaginian general Hannibal from 218 to 203 BC. During these invasions, many socii joined the invaders, mostly Oscan-speakers of southern Italy, most prominently the Samnite tribes, who were Rome's most implacable enemy. At the same time, however, many socii remained loyal, motivated primarily by antagonisms with neighbouring rebels. Even after Rome's disaster at the Battle of Cannae, over half the socii did not defect and Rome's military alliance was ultimately victorious.
In the century following the Second Punic War, Italy was rarely threatened by external invasion and Rome and her allies embarked on aggressive expansion overseas, in Spain, Africa and the Balkans. Despite the fact that the alliance was no longer acting defensively, there was virtually no protest from the socii, most likely because the latter benefited equally in the enormous amounts of war booty yielded by these campaigns.
But, beneath the surface, resentment was building among the socii about their second-class status as peregrini i.e. non-citizens. The Roman military confederation now became a victim of its own success in forging a united nation out of the patchwork of ethnicities and states. The socii rebelled en masse, including many that had remained steadfast in the past, launching the Social War. But, unlike on previous occasions, their aim was to join the Roman state as equal citizens, not to secede from it. Although the socii were defeated on the battlefield, they gained their main demand. By the end of the war in 87 BC, all inhabitants of peninsular Italy had been granted the right to apply for Roman citizenship.

Meanings of the term "Latin"

The Romans themselves used the term "Latin" loosely, and this can be confusing. The term was used to describe what were actually three distinct groups:
  1. The Latin tribe strictly speaking, to which the Romans themselves belonged. These were the inhabitants of Latium Vetus, a small region south of the river Tiber, whose inhabitants were speakers of the Latin language.
  2. The inhabitants of Latin colonies. These were coloniae made up of mixed Roman/Latin colonists.
  3. All the Italian allies of Rome, not only the Latin colonies, but also the other non-Latin allies.
In this article, to avoid confusion, only group will be referred to as "Latins". Group will be called "Latin colonies or colonists" and group will be referred to as "Italian confederates". Socii will refer to groups and combined.

Ethnic composition of ancient Italy

The Italian peninsula at this time was a patchwork of different ethnic groups, languages and cultures. These may be divided into the following broad nations:
  1. The Italic tribes, that dominated central and southern Italy, as well as northeastern Italy. These included the original Latins and a large number of other tribes, most notably the Samnites who dominated south central Italy. In addition to Latin, these tribes spoke Umbrian and Oscan dialects, all closely related Indo-European languages. The Italic tribes were mostly tough hill-dwelling pastoralists, who made superb infantrymen, especially the Samnites. It is believed that the latter invented the manipular infantry formation and the use of javelins and oblong shields, which were adopted by the Romans at the end of the Samnite Wars. An isolated Italic group were the Veneti in the northeast. They gave their name to the region they inhabited, Venetia, a name chosen centuries afterwards for the new founded capital of the allied people of the Venetian Lagoon, who would become the Republic of Venice.
  2. The Greeks, who had colonised the coastal areas of southern Italy from c. 700 BC onwards, which was known to the Romans as Magna Graecia for that reason. The Greek colonies had the most advanced civilisation in the Italian peninsula, much of which was adopted by the Romans. Their language, although Indo-European, was quite different from Latin. As maritime cities, the Greeks' primary military significance was naval. They invented the best warship of the ancient world, the trireme. Some of the original Greek colonies had been subjugated by the neighbouring Italic tribes and become Oscan-speaking in the period up to 264 BC. The surviving Greek cities in 264 were all coastal: Neapolis, Poseidonia, Velia, Rhegium, Locri, Croton, Thurii, Heraclea, Metapontum and Tarentum. The most populous were Neapolis, Rhegium and Tarentum, all of which had large, strategic harbours on the Tyrrhenian, the Strait of Messina and the Ionian Sea respectively. Tarentum had, until c. 300 BC, been a major power and hegemon of the Italiote league, a confederation of the Greek cities in Italy. But its military capability was crippled by the Romans, who defeated Tarentum by 272 BC.
  3. The Etruscans, who dominated the region between the rivers Arno and Tiber, still retaining a derived name today. The Etruscans spoke a non Indo-European language which today is largely unknown, and had a distinctive culture. Some scholars believe Rome may have been an Etruscan city at the time of the Roman kings. The Etruscans had originally dominated the Po Valley, but had been progressively displaced from this region by the Gauls in the 4th century BC, separating them the Etruscan-speaking Raetians in the Alpine region.
  4. The Campanians, occupying the fertile plain between the river Volturno and the bay of Naples. These were not a distinct ethnic group, but a mixed Samnite/Opician population with Etruscan elements. The Samnites had conquered the Greek and Etruscan city-states in the period 450–400 BC. Speaking the Oscan language, they developed a distinctive culture and identity. Although partly of Samnite blood, they came to regard the mountain Samnites that surrounded them as a major threat, leading them to ask for Roman protection from 340 BC onwards. As plains-dwellers, horses played an important role for the Campanians and their cavalry was considered the best in the peninsula. Their main city was Capua, probably the second-largest city in Italy at this time. Other important cities were Nola, Acerrae, Suessula
  5. The Gauls, who had migrated into, and colonised, the plain of the Po river from c. 390 BC onwards. This region is now part of northern Italy, but until the rule of Augustus was not regarded as part of Italy at all, but part of Gaul. The Romans called it Cisalpine Gaul. They spoke Gaulish dialects, part of the Celtic group of Indo-European languages. Tribal-based territories with some city-like centres.
  6. The Ligurians, occupying the region known to the Romans as Liguria, southwest of the Gauls. It is unclear whether their language was non Indo-European, Italic, or Celtic. Most likely, they spoke a Celto-Italic hybrid language.
  7. The Messapii, who occupied the southern part of the Apulian peninsula in SE Italy, are believed from inscriptions to be speakers of a tongue related to Illyrian. They were in perpetual conflict over territory with the Greeks of Tarentum.