Socii (Italic Allies) in 218 B.C.

Socii (Italic Allies) — Roman Republic.

The allied communities of Italy — Etruscans, Umbrians, Samnites, the Greek cities of the south and many more — bound to Rome not as subjects but each by its own treaty (foedus). They kept their own laws, magistrates and lands, paid no tribute and sent no taxes; their single great obligation was military. Each furnished a contingent to the alae sociorum — the allied wings that flanked the legions — at its own expense, and together the allies made up roughly half of every army Rome put in the field. This vast reservoir of Italian manpower, Polybius’ census of 225 BC, was Rome’s decisive advantage over Carthage.