Is there a book which focuses on, or at least goes into detail, about the relationship Republican Rome shared with its allies/subject cities, predominately pre-Punic Wars?

by Nasarri_B
edXcitizen87539319

My first reaction to this question was "I got this!". But when I had a look at my library and my bibliographies I found that I had to look very hard for specific information. I had not realised how much of what I know about this topic is interwoven in books and articles on other topics. Thanks for bringing me to that realisation :) That said, I did find one (!) book which fits your request (Note: I'm not saying there are no other books, just that I am not aware of them at the moment.)

E.T. Salmon, The Making of Roman Italy (London 1982)

Chapters 2 and 3 ('The consequences of the Latin War' and 'The organization of peninsular Italy' cover the period before the Punic Wars. It then has two chapters on the impact of the Punic wars and Rome's hegemony in Italy (3rd and 2nd century), closing out with 2 chapters on the 1st century, covering the Social War and Octavian's tota Italia. The book includes a number of maps, which makes keeping track of all those cities a lot easier. One thing to be mindful of is the year the book was published; a lot of research has been done in the 3 decades since then and some interpretations may have changed - overall the book is still very good though.

Other than this, I can only recommend a few chapters in books:

  • E. Gabba, Rome and Italy in the Second Century B.C., in: A. Astin, M. Fredericksen, R.M. Ogilvie (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History volume 8, 2nd edition (p. 197-243). [With an emphasis on ager publicus in Italy.]
  • W.V. Harris, The Italians and the Empire, in: W.V. Harris (ed.) Imperialism of Mid-Republican Rome, Rome 1984 (p. 89-114). [This covers mostly the military aspects (demands on manpower, distribution of booty).]
  • S. Oakley, The Roman conquest of Italy, in: J. Rich and G. Shipley (eds.), War and Society in the Roman World, London and New York 1993 (p. 9-37). [This again covers mostly the Italian contribution to warfare, with some attention to Roman colonies.]

Edit: I forgot about this one:

  • Kathryn Lomas, Italy during the Roman Republic, 338-31 B.C., in: H.I. Flower, The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, New York, 2004 (p. 199-224)
Nasarri_B

Eugh, that title gore. I meant to say:

Is there a book which focuses on or, at least, goes into detail about the relationship Rome shared with its allies/subject cities, preferably focusing on these relationships prior to the the Punic Wars? Although books on the topic which focus on the years following the Punic Wars would also be interesting!