INTRODUCTION

As the Roman state expanded its territory, the peoples of Italy were gradually incorporated into the Roman framework, either as full or partial citizens or as nominally independent allies. In the third century Bc a bewildering variety of legal statuses existed in close proximity within the Italian peninsula, which meant that people of different statuses were obliged to interact regularly. The Roman state endeavoured to accommodate these needs by creating new legal instruments, for example commercium and conubium – which, however, were only available to Latins, not to all Italians. The office of praetor peregrinus was created in 241 Bc to deal with legal conflicts between Romans and Italians. Nevertheless, not all conflicts that involved people who held a different legal status could easily be resolved; new legal instruments were created throughout the Republic.

Most Italians still suffered from legal disadvantages in their dealings with Romans, for example because they did not hold commercium, which made it difficult to do business with Romans and to join in commercial partnership with them, or because they could not inherit from or bequeath to Romans because of their lack of conubium. Moreover, their possessions, especially land, were constantly under threat of confiscation by the Romans, as became clear during the Gracchan land reforms. Recourse to the praetor peregrinus availed the Italians very little in these situations. These legal handicaps may have been among the main reasons for the outbreak of the Social War in 91 Bc: the Italians demanded, among other things, legal equality with their Roman business partners.

In the early first century Bc, after the Social War, all Italians were granted Roman citizenship. However, it took a while before the Roman state was willing to grant them the full benefits of this status; it attempted to limit the voting rights of Italians by entering them in a small number of voting tribus, and are most unlikely to have assigned all Italians a tribus until the census of 70 Bc.

This chapter will investigate the legal status of Italians in the second and first century Bc.In theory, at least after 70 Bc, Italians were equal to the old Roman citizens, in that they could avail themselves of the same legal instruments provided by the Roman state.