SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF EARLY ITALY
While serving, hoplites belonged to clearly distinguishable subunits of the phalanx that were organized on the basis of residence; the adult male citizens of the city came to elect their own military leaders, and formally voted on matters of war and peace. In central Italy, certain cities slowly made a similar transition, although some of them may never have taken it very far. In these emerging urban communities, the leading families dominated in war; just as in the Greek world, the ability to raise a personal military following was a prominent aspect of leadership and an impor-tant prop to the power of the rising aristocratic families.
Really outstanding indi-viduals, moreover, were able to attract followers from distant places often younger members of aristocratic families elsewhere—who were looking for adventure, fame, and wealth. In some cities—Rome is the best-known—communal institutions would also come to overshadow individual families in making war. Yet it is possible for armed followings based on a powerful individual or a leading family to coexist for considerable periods of time with other modes of recruitment based on citizenship or residence .
Indeed, it is possible that Rome’s preeminence, and that of a few other towns, may have been due, to some degree, to its reorganizing while neighbors did not. Elite families dominated the social and economic life of their cities just as they did their political, religious, and military organization. The wealth and power of the upper classes rested upon their control over their followers and other dependents as well as over land. Prominent individuals mobilized groups of men for war, led them in battle, and, if successful, distributed the fruits of victory: land, cattle, captives, and the movable goods of the defeated.