Even in the lifetime of Drusus the Senate had repealed all his laws. After his death the Tribune Q. Varius brought forward a law declaring all persons guilty of high treason who had assisted the cause of the Allies. Many eminent men were condemned under this law. This measure, following the assassination of Drusus, roused the indignation of the Allies to the highest pitch. They clearly saw that the Roman people would yield nothing except upon compulsion. [Illustration: Beneventum in Samnium.] [Illustration: Coin of the Eight Italian Nations taking the Oath of Federation.] CHAPTER XXV. THE SOCIAL OR MARSIC WAR. B.C. 90-89. Rome had never been exposed to greater danger than at this time. Those who had been her bravest defenders now rose against her; and she would probably have perished had the whole Italian people taken part in the war. But the insurrection was confined almost exclusively to the Sabellians and their kindred races. The Etruscans and Umbrians stood aloof, while the Sabines, Volscians, and other tribes who already possessed the Roman franchise, supported the Republic, and furnished the materials of her armies. The nations which composed the formidable conspiracy against Rome were eight in number--the Marsians, Pelignians, Marrucinians, Vestinians, Picentines, Samnites, Apulians, and Lucanians. Of these the Marsians were particularly distinguished for their courage and skill in war; and from the prominent part which they took in the struggle, it was frequently termed the Marsic as well as the Social War. The war broke out at Asculum in Picenum. The Proconsul Q. Servilius, who had the charge of this part of Italy, hearing that the inhabitants of Asculum were organizing a revolt, entered the town, and endeavored to persuade them to lay aside their hostile intentions. But he was murdered, together with his legate, by the exasperated citizens, and all the Romans in the place were likewise put to death. The insurrection now became general. The Allies entered upon the war with feelings of bitter hatred against their former rulers. They resolved to destroy Rome, and fixed upon Corfinium, a strong city of the Peligni, to which they gave the name of Italica, as the new capital of the Italian Confederation. The government of the new Republic was borrowed from that of Rome. It was to have two Consuls, twelve Praetors, and a Senate of 500 members. Q. Pompaedius Silo, a Marsian, one of the chief instigators of the war, and C. Papius Mutilus, a Samnite, who cherished the hereditary hatred of his countrymen against the Romans, were chosen Consuls. Under them were many able lieutenants, who had learned the art of war under the best Roman generals. The soldiers had also served, in the Roman armies, and were armed and disciplined in the same way, so that the contest partook of all the characters of a civil war. But the Romans had the great advantage which a single state always possesses over a confederation.