Auxiliaries in the Social War

Abstract

The Social War deprived Rome of many of its Italian allies. The recourse to auxiliaries thus became a necessity to compensate for the loss of the Italians. Although the sources attest the presence of auxiliaries from many regions of the Mediterranean on both sides during the conflict, it cannot be proven decisively that they were more numerous than before. However, auxiliaries were already used in substantial numbers since the third century. The data available for the decades between the Social War and the civil war between Pompey and Caesar shows ratios of auxiliaries similar to that of the two previous centuries.