Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

COLONIA. COLONIA. 317
out the suiffragium) from being always a desirable empire was consolidated, the decay of population
conditicn, as some writers have supposed, that it checked, the unity of the nation and of the Ianwas ill fact the badge of servitude; and some states guage diffused." (AMachiavelli, quoted by Niebuhr.)
even preferred their former relation to Rome, to the countries which the Romans conquered within
being incorporated with it as complete citizens. It the limits of Italy, were inhabited by nations that
appears that, in some cases at least, a praefectus cultivated the soil and had cities. To destroy such a
jtnri dicundo was sent fiom Rome to administer population was not possible nor politic; but it was
justice among the conquered people, and between a wise policy to take part of their lands, and to
them and the coloni. It appears also to be clearly plant bodies of Roman citizens, and also Latinae
proved by numerous instances, that the condition coloniae, among the conquered people. The power
of the conquered people among whom a colony was of Rome over her colonies was derived, as Niebuhr
sent, was not originally always the same; some- has well remarked, " From the supremacy of the
thing depended on the resistance of the people, parent state, to which the colonies of Rome, like
and the temper of the Romans, at the time of the sons in a Roman family, even after they had grown
conquest or surrender. Thus the conquered Italian to maturity, continued unalterably subject." In
towns might originally have the civitas in different fact, the notion of the patria potestas will be found
degrees, until they all finally obtained the complete to lie at the foundation of the institutions of Rome.
civitas by receiving the suffraglum; some of them The principles of the system of colonisation were
obtained it before the social war, and others by fully established in the early ages of Rome; but the
the Julia lex. colonies had a more purely military character, that
The nature of a Latin colony will appear suffi- is, were composed of soldiers, in the latter part of
ciently from what is said here, and in the articles the republic, and under the earlier emperors. The
CIVITAS and LATINITAS. first colony established beyond the limits of Italy
Besides these coloniae, there were coloniae Italici was Carthago (Vel, ii. 15); Narbo Martius was
juris, as some writers term them; but which in fact the next. Ncmausus (Nimes) was made a colony
were not colonies. Sigonius, and most subsequent by Augustus, an event which is commemorated by
writers, have considered the Jus Italicum as a per- medals (Rasche, Lexicon Rei Numaoseriae), and an
sonal right, like the Civitas and Latinitas; but extant inscription at Nimes.
Savigny has shown it to be quite a different thing.
The jus Italicurr was granted to favoured provincial
cities; it was a grant to the community, not to the /"
individuals composing it. This right consisted in
quiritarian ownership of the soil (comlnercium),
and its appurtenant capacity of mancipatio, usu- i
capion, and vindicatio5 together with freedom from.
taxes; and also in a municipal constitution, after 0\
the fashion of.the Italian towns, with duuinviri,
quinquennal s, aediles, and a jurisdictio. Many Cm /
provincial towns which possessed the jus Italicum,
have on their coins the figure of a standing Silenus,
In addition to the evidence from written books of
the numerous colonies established by the Romans
in Italy, and subsequently in all parts of the empire,
/d- "' t Gil t /S\ Aft {dwe have the testimony of medals and inscriptions,
2 in which COL. the abbreviation of colonia, indiScates this fact, or4 as in the case of Sinope, the Greek
inscription KOAniNEIA. Septimius Severus made
Tyre a colonia Veteranorum (Rasche, Leoacon Rei
Numaeeriae, Tyrus). The prodigious activity of Rome
in settling colonies in Italy is apparent from the list
T;IMP. MI. IVI.. PHIIPP.. AEL. MVTNIClP. CO. given by Frontinus or the Pseudo-Frontinus (De
Philip0 A. D. 243-249. Coela or Coelos (Plin. Coloniis), most of -which appear to have been old
iv. 1 l- 12) in the Thra- towns, which were either walled when the colony
cian Chersonesus. was founded4 or strengthened by new defences.
Colonies were sometimes established under the
with the hand raised, which was the peculiar late republic and the empire with circumstances
symbol of municipal liberty. (Obeundus laorsyCa, of great oppression, and lands were assigned to the
Horat. Sat. i. 6. 120.) Pliny (iii. 3 and 21 ) has veterans without regard to existing rights.
mentioned several towns that had the jus Italicum; Under the emperors, all legislative authority
and Lugdunum, Vienna (in Dauphine), and colonia being then virtually in them4 the foundation
Agrippinensis had this privilege. It follows from of a colony was an act of imperial grace, and
the nature of this privilege, that towns which had often merely a title of honour conferred on some
the Latinitas or the Civitas- which was a personal favoured spot. Thus M. Aurelius raised to the
privilege4 might ntit have the jus Italicum; but the rank of colonia the small town (vicus) of Halale,
towns which had the ius Italiitim could hardly be at the foot of Taurus, where his wife Faustina
any other than those which had the civitas or died. (Jul, Capitol. iI. Ant. PMilos. c. 26.) The
Latinitas, and we cannot conceive that it was ever old military colonies were composed of whole
given tb a town of Peregrini. legions, with their tribunes and centurions, who
The colonial system of Rome, which originated being united by mutual affection, composed a
in the earliest ages, was well adapted to strengthen political body (respublica); but it was a comand extend her power-" By the colonies the plaint in the tinme of Nero, that soldiers, who were