What is clear, however, is that Ti. Gracchus' attempt to resume public land in the hands of the rich in order to distribute it to the
poor adversely affected the interests of Italian elites as well as those of the Roman elite. It was not long before the idea was floated
of giving Roman citizenship to some or all Italians, partly to compensate them for reduced access to Roman public land, partly to
give them a say in the making of policy in this sphere. Once floated, the idea would not go away, though it was not till 91 that the
Italian demand for Roman citizenship exploded into war.
Meanwhile politics at Rome between 133 and 91 were marked by a series of attempts, analogous to that of Ti. Gracchus, to win for
the Roman poor a larger share in the rewards of the Empire which as soldiers they had helped to win, whether those rewards were
in the form of land or subsidized corn. The attempts often ended, as had that of Ti. Gracchus, in the violent death of their authors.
Two must be mentioned specifically, the programme devised by Tiberius' brother C. Gracchus, in 123-122, which aimed not simply
to improve the material lot of the poor, but also to shift the balance of power within the Roman state; and the career of L. Appuleius
Saturninus, who in 103 and 100 set out, in alliance with the conqueror of Jugurtha of Numidia and of the Cimbri and the Teutones,
C. Marius, to provide for the need of his veterans for land. The alliance between tribune of the plebs and general was one fraught
with danger for the future.
The Division of the Spoils
One reason why the political argument at Rome over the division of the spoils of empire became so bitter in the last generation of
the second century was precisely because these were becoming ever richer. In 133 the last king of Pergamum had actually left his
kingdom to the Romans; the Roman acquisition of what became the province of Asia falls in the middle of the second great period
of Roman acquisition of territory (not to be confused with acquisition of power), between Africa and Achaea in 146 and Provence
in 121. The result was a rapid rise in the numbers of Romans and Italians living overseas, as tax-collectors, money-lenders, and
slave-traders. Their activities happen to be principally documented in the East, and the greatest wealth was no doubt to be acquired
there; but the process clearly went on in the West as well. What is important in this context is that Italians abroad were treated as
equals with Romans by the people with whom they dealt; the lack of Roman citizenship was no doubt felt ever more acutely.
Other factors deserve a mention. There certainly took place in this period some genuine urbanization, as opposed to the
embellishment of existing centres. For instance, at Bovianum and Saepinum, in central Samnium, "where previously there had been
scattered villages or farms and hill-forts as places of refuge, urban growth began on the plains below the hill-forts. At Monte
Vairano, the hill-fort itself began to be permanently occupied. The Roman urban model of society was spreading. All these
developments certainly made Italian communities feel even more acutely their formal inferiority and their lack of control over
Roman policy. Romans sometimes behaved high-handedly to members of local elites. And the career of C. Marius-six times consul
between 107 and 100, victor over Jugurtha, saviour of Rome from the Cimbri and Teutones-showed what could be achieved by an
aristocrat from an Italian community which had been enfranchised.
At the same time, it is certain that the actual grievances of the allies were increasing, as Rome sought to avoid the consequences of
her own lack of peasant soldiers by shifting ever more of the military burden on to her Italian allies. It is remarkable in these years
how difficult Rome found it to defeat the relatively minor figure of Jugurtha of Numidia and how vulnerable she was to the Cimbri
and Teutones. It was luck that brought them no nearer Rome than the Po valley. And one may wonder whether either Jugurtha or
they would have been defeated without the skill of C. Marius.
Citizenship for Italy
By 91, it was no longer possible to evade the issue of granting Roman citizenship to the Italians, and when M. Livius Drusus'
proposal to do so failed, half of Italy rose in revolt (the so-called Social War). Rome disarmed the revolt by agreeing to grant what
she had at first refused and was able with the help of those who remained loyal to subdue the rebels who held out (for what, it is not
clear).
The result was that the whole of peninsular Italy together with existing coloniae in the Po valley was organized into communities of
Roman citizens. We are ignorant of the details of the process, but it was largely complete by 83. For it was in that year that L.
Cornelius Sulla, who had in 88 fought a brief civil war in order to secure the command of the Roman armies in the East, returned to
Italy. He was ruthless with particular communities or peoples which opposed him, but made no attempt to undo the
enfranchisement or organization of Italy as a whole. In 89 the Po valley had been placed on the road to assimilation with peninsular