Open Access(Re-)founding Italy
Author(s) -
Filippo Carlà-Uhink
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
history in flux
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2706-414X
pISSN - 2706-4441
DOI - 10.32728/flux.2019.1.1
Subject(s) - victory , memorialization , aristocracy (class) , elite , politics , history , ancient history , narrative , classics , law , political science , art , literature
The Social War (91-88 BCE) is one of the most significant episodes in Roman history: from this war, in which Rome fought against her Italic allies, emerged the elite that would lead the Republic in the last decades of its existence and that would provide the senatorial aristocracy of the early imperial age. The Italic rebels were defeated militarily, yet they achieved their political aims. As such, this war – and its elaboration and memorialization in Roman cultural memory – provides a very interesting case study about how "victory" and "defeat" are constructed discursively after a disruptive war, and how its narration is "functionalized" for a re-foundation of the civic body.