Anxia Roma Memorat: The Memory of the Social War in Augustan Literature
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
History
Date of Award
Summer 8-18-2025
Abstract
This thesis investigates the memory of the Social War and its effects on Roman politics in the Augustan age (27-14 CE). The Social War was a pivotal conflict fought between 91 and 87 BCE at the dawn of the final century of the Roman Republic that transformed the social and political landscape of Italy in this last century by formally enfranchising numerous groups in the Italian Peninsula who previously were legally separate allies of the Roman Republic. Large-scale enfranchisement substantially changed the political makeup of a rapidly fracturing Roman state. After the rise of Octavian, who was declared Augustus in 27 BCE after decades of civil war, the memory of the Social War still loomed large over Roman political life. By the end of his reign in 14 CE, Augustus solidified and expressed the victory of a concept called tota Italia. With this concept, Augustus sought to legitimize his new regime by claiming that the whole Italian peninsula was the new Imperial heartland and that newly enfranchised Italic peoples were a critical part of an expanding Roman Empire. This thesis seeks to understand the place of the Social War in this program, and to understand how Augustus’s reorientation of the memory of the Social War allowed the inclusion of formerly rebellious Italian peoples. Augustus’s regime successfully changed the memory of the Social War over time. Italy was in an uncertain condition in the Late Republic, but this uncertain Italy was the foundation upon which Horace, Ovid, and Virgil would use their literary might to contribute to Augustus’s state building program by writing Italy into their poetry in such a way that revealed tota Italia to be an aspiration of the age. Later Imperial authors such as Velleius Paterculus, Florus, and Juvenal would continue a narrative that suggested kinship between Romans and Italians— meaning that the whole peninsula was, by the mid-Empire, seen as one cohesive whole. The power of changing memory reveals itself throughout this progression of authors, and this thesis ultimately argues that Augustus’s reorientation of the Social War’s memory ultimately succeeded and echoed down the historical record.
Advisor
John Smith
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities
Recommended Citation
Garland, Ryan M., "Anxia Roma Memorat: The Memory of the Social War in Augustan Literature" (2025). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 1303.
https://lair.etamu.edu/etd/1303
