Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic ItalyandRome
ThesituationwasnotwhollydifferentasregardstherelationsofItalywith
Rome.Whatissometimescalled‘‘theItalianconfederation’’wasnotacon-
federationatall;thistermwouldhavesurprisedPolybius,whoknewwhat
arealconfederationwas,namelysomethinglikehisownAchaeanLeague.
Rome’sformalrelationswithItaliancommunities,otherthancitizenorLatin
colonies,consistedofindividualtreaties,whichboundtheothertoprovide
troops or naval forces; but, on a less formal and less regular basis, Roman
demands for military support also affected many of its allies overseas, for
instancetheAetolians,ortheAchaeansthemselves.Polybiushadbeenper-
sonallyinvolvedinthecontentiousissueinastowhethertheAchaean
LeagueshouldassenttoAppiusCento’sdemandthattheyshouldsendaforce
of,mentoEpirus(,).Sometimelater,asadeporteeinRomein
themid-s,heassistedtheEpizephyrianLocrianstogainexemptionfrom
theirtreatyobligationtosendshipsfortheSpanishandDalmatianwars.It
istypicalofthepresuppositionswhichwenowimposeonRomanpolitics
thatitcanbeassumedthatthiswillhavebeenachievedthroughprivatein-
fluencewithScipioAemilianus(whohadsofarheldnopublicoffice).^17 We
shouldratherpresumethattheLocrianssentanembassytotheSenate,and
thatPolybiuswasaskedtospeakforthem.
The so-called Italian confederation had in fact no collective decision-
makingstructure.DecisionsrelatingtoItaly,ortocommunitieswithinit,
dependedonRome,whichretainedtheinstitutionsofanuclearcity-state.
InotherwordsRomeapplieditsnormalprocedureinforeignrelations,the
receptionofembassiesbytheSenate.ThiswastrueevenoftheLatincolo-
nies,suchasPlacentiaandCremonain(Livy,,–,),orAquileia
in(,,–),justasitwasofalliedstates.Indeed,evenanembassyfrom
acitizencolonymightappearintheSenatetodisputeterritorialclaimsbya
neighbouringcommunity,asthecolonists(coloni)ofLunadidin(,,
–).Itwascolonisation,thespreadofthecitizenship,andtheconfiscation
of landforsettlementwhichdistinguishedItaly,notthesupposedconfed-
eration.Otherwise,Italianalliedcommunitiesdifferedfromoverseasones
onlyinthedegreeofregularityoftheirmilitaryobligations,andvariousre-
gionsofthepeninsularepeatedlyservedastheprovincesfortheoperations
of Roman magistrates. Complaints about these operations, again, came to
theSenatethroughembassies(e.g.,Livy,,–),justaswithcommunities
overseas.
. Pol.,,–.Fortheassumptionmentioned,seeWalbank’scommentary.