the supremacy of the Italian waters was
approaching; by land the contest was decided. For the first time
Italy was united into one state under the sovereignty of the Roman
community. What political prerogatives the Roman community on this
occasion withdrew from all the other Italian communities and took into
its own sole keeping, or in other words, what conception in state-law
is to be associated with this sovereignty of Rome, we are nowhere
expressly informed, and--a significant circumstance, indicating
prudent calculation--there does not even exist any generally current
expression for that conception.(24) The only privileges that
demonstrably belonged to it were the rights of making war, of
concluding treaties, and of coining money. No Italian community could
declare war against any foreign state, or even negotiate with it, or
coin money for circulation. On the other hand every declaration of
war made by the Roman people and every state-treaty resolved upon by
it were binding in law on all the other Italian communities, and the
silver money of Rome was legally current throughout all Italy. It is
probable that the formulated prerogatives of the leading community
extended no further. But to these there were necessarily attached
rights of sovereignty that practically went far beyond them.

The Full Roman Franchise

The relations, which the Italians sustained to the leading community,
exhibited in detail great inequalities. In this point of view, in
addition to the full burgesses of Rome, there were three different
classes of subjects to be distinguished. The full franchise itself,
in the first place, was extended as far as was possible, without
wholly abandoning the idea of an urban commonwealth as applied to the
Roman commune. The old burgess-domain had hitherto been enlarged
chiefly by individual assignation in such a way that southern Etruria
as far as towards Caere and Falerii,(25) the districts taken from the
Hernici on the Sacco and on the Anio(26) the largest part of the
Sabine country(27) and large tracts of the territory formerly
Volscian, especially the Pomptine plain(28) were converted into land
for Roman farmers, and new burgess-districts were instituted mostly
for their inhabitants. The same course had even already been taken
with the Falernian district on the Volturnus ceded by Capua.(29) All
these burgesses domiciled outside of Rome were without a commonwealth
and an administration of their o