Welshhoppo t1_j8myid3 wrote
By the time of the social war the Romans and Italians were so intermingled that there was very little difference between them. And that's where the problems of the social war began.
Being a Roman citizen gave you special rights, the right to a trial, the right to not be killed without trial and everytime there was a problem between a Roman and Italian, guess which side the Roman courts took.
So prior to the social war the Italians were feeling pretty hard done by. They have their lives to protect Italy from Hannibal. They have their lives to save the country from the Cimbri during the Cimbrian wars, but at the end of the day they were second class citizens. They didn't want to leave the republic, they just wanted their fair share of Rome's pie, after all, they were dying in Rome's wars.
That's why as soon as Rome capitulated and gave out Roman citizenship, the war came to an end. The Italians had what they wanted.
YerBoyGrix t1_j8opxxc wrote
Not to mention the proposal for Italians gaining citizenship coming up, all non Roman's being evicted from Rome, and the proposal getting axed as part of political compromises occurred about three or four times in a century leaving Italians feeling jerked around.
pheisenberg t1_j8x3bww wrote
A book called The Rule of Empires discusses several examples of this dynamic in history. One people conquers another to exploit them, but distinctions blur over time, especially due to intermarriage. Once the typical imperial authority has a few half-other-community nephews, they start losing interest in maintaining social stratification.
Constant_Count_9497 t1_j8vdf2k wrote
I believe during this time Romans were will exempt from taxation, being more fuel on that fire
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