Roman Colonization

Author(s): P. L. MacKendrick
Source: Phoenix , Winter, 1952, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Winter, 1952), pp. 139-146
Published by: Classical Association of Canada

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1086829

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 ROMAN COLONIZATION

P. L. MAcKENDRICK

THE story of Roman colonization is the story of the growth of

Roman Empire.' Even if we limit our account, as we must here, to th
colonies of the Republic before the Gracchi, the mushrooming of the
outposts on the marches makes an exciting story: first the posts
Latium, their walls rising on the hilltops and the headlands; then
pushing on to the gateway to Etruria, and into the Greek and Osc
south. By the beginning of the Second Punic War Rome had a footho
in the valley of the Po, and by 177, when the first period of Latin colon
apparently ends, these planned communities, with their walls, their n
crisscross of streets, their fora and basilicas and temples, and th
pattern of allotments stretching away from the foot of the wall into
surrounding country were to be found from Aquileia in the north
Thurii and Vibo Valentia in the south, testifying already to the migh
and the majesty of the Roman name.
Colonies might be of two types, Roman or Latin, according to wheth
the colonists did or did not possess the rights of Roman citizensh
These rights were not merely abstractions: the protection of Roman
was commercially valuable, and a common coinage was a great co
venience. On the other hand, Latin colonists had political independenc
and Roman citizens who joined them were compensated for their loss
citizenship by coming into possession of plots of land outside the wal
and probably' houses inside, all built to a pattern like a modern housi
development.
Probably the origin of the colony was the old Italian practice of taki
from a conquered people part, sometimes as much as one-third, of th
land and settling one's own men upon it. If a city was taken in war b
the efforts of a league of many members, it was obviously impossible
divide the conquered lands among all the members of the league; t
solution was to found a new city with elements from all the cities mak
up the league; this is the most plausible explanation of the origin of t
1The author is indebted to Professor E. T. Salmon for reading this paper and mak
suggestions for its improvement. For remaining defects, and for conclusions, Profe
Salmon is of course not responsible. The standard accounts of Roman colonization
those of Kornemann in RE (1901) cols. 511-588, and of de Ruggiero in his Dizion
Epigrafico (Rome 1900), both in some respects out of date. Individual colonies
treated by name by E. T. Salmon in OCD (Oxford 1949) and by G. Lugli and others
the Enciclopedia Italiana. There is no up-to-date comprehensive treatment of the subjec
in English.
2This results from the standard measurements of the blocks of houses of the Latin
colony of Cosa (273 B.c.). See F. E. Brown, "Cosa I" in Memoirs of the American Academy
in Rome, 1951.
139

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 140 THE PHOENIX

Latin colony.' Roman tra

being short-handed,4 pe
League was dissolved in 33
faithful to Rome under
Rome's experiment with t
Latium expanded from a
political status, and this i
of provincial communities
Latinitas is a commodity
outside Italy, is the germ
gether in a cultural unit
One way of understanding
establishing the principl
with room to spare for al
truly. Latinitas, a status
foreigners, became a pas
Romans.6
The actual process of the founding of a colony shows that orderliness
and respect for legality which we associate with the Roman mind.
Surveyors went out beforehand to lay out the site; their base-point was
the crossing of the main streets (cardo and decumanus); from this were
laid out the rectangular blocks of the main town and sometimes the
allotments outside it, called centuriae.7 These were ordinarily units of
two hundred jugera, their corners marked by boundary-stones, a number
of which survive. The modern technique of air photography in archae-
ology has revealed traces of centuriation in many places in Italy, es-
pecially in the Po valley, in the vicinity of Luna, near Alba Fucens, in
the Ager Campanus, and in the neighborhood of Luceria. The centuriation
of the Ager Campanus may well antedate the Second Punic War, while
that at Luceria is conjectually dated by pottery to the Gracchan era.
The actual leading out of a colony (deductio) had a strong military
flavor. The colonists marched out (in numbers varying from three
hundred men for Roman colonies to the twenty thousand alleged for
Venusia in 291) in serried ranks under a standard. Once arrived at the
3Plinio Fraccaro in Encicl. Ital., s.v. "Colonizazzione."
4E. T. Salmon, in 7RS 26 (1936) 47-67.
5The names of the 18 out of 30 faithful are in Livy 27.10. The others negaverunt
consulibus esse unde milites pecuniamque darent (ibid. 27.9.7).
6This is the core of the argument of A. N. Sherwin-White, The Roman Citizenship
(Oxford 1939).
7The pioneer in the study of centuriation is Plinio Fraccaro. See his article, "Cen-
turiazione" in the Encicl. Ital. For Luna, Alba Fucens, and the Ager Campanus, see
F. Castagnoli, "Note al liber coloniarum," Bull. Comm. 72 (1951) Appendix, 49-58 and
plates. For Luceria, see J. S. P. Bradford, "Apulia Siticulosa" in Antiquity 24 (1950)
84 ff. A clear account of the process, with a plan, is to be found in E. H. Warmington,
Remains of Old Latin 4 (Cambridge Mass. and London 1940) facing p.178.

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 ROMAN COLONIZATION 141

site, the auspices were taken, and th

ritual dress, ploughed a furrow with
Etruscan manner, to mark the cours
at the spaces for the gates. Next, th
colonists by lot, working from the ou
edges prey to the enemy. The size of
colony, depending on the desirability
the rank of the colonist, and the
planted: in general, the later the Lati
citizens were to give up their citizen
then induce them. In the rich botto
ordinary colonists got five jugera eac
got fifty. A map of the area, thefor
square, usually engraved on bronze,
in the archives in Rome. The commi
up a census, appointed magistrates a
of the assembly (decuriones). Thereaf
the commissioners being sometimes
foundation.s
The initiative for the founding of a colony usually came from the
Senate. A busy period of Republican colonization (218-177) coincides
with the period of the apogee of the Senate, and both liberal (Scipionic)
and conservative factions sponsored colonies, the former mostly in the
south, the latter in the north, neither in Latium, where there was no
land available; colonies presumably might have competed with senatorial
latifundia. A lex data ordinarily followed the Senate's decree, and then
the praetor proceeded to preside over the election by the comitia tributa
of the tresviri coloniae deducendae for a term of three years, five years,
or the time needed for the job. Of the eighty-eight commissioners re-
corded in Livy and elsewhere from the first colonies down to 168 B.C.,
twenty-one were consulars, twenty-six praetorians, and twenty young
men just starting on their political careers; of the novices, eight pro-
ceeded to the consulship and six to the praetorship. Only twenty-nine
known commissioners were patrician, but the names included are some
of the most famous in Roman history: they include L. Aemilius Paullus
the conquerer of Pydna, Scipio Nasica who escorted the Magna Mater to
Rome, T. Quinctius Flamininus the liberator of Greece, Ti. Sempronius
Gracchus the father of the Gracchi, C. Terentius Varro the survivor of
Cannae, and many others. In a significant number of cases a man elected
commissioner is also recorded as holding during his term as commissioner
some other office, including missions to distant places, and the tribunate,

8The prime ancient source for deductio is Varro de lingua Latina 5.143; See also Ovid
Fasti 4.825; Servius on Aen. 5.755; Plutarch Quaest. Rom. 24; Romulus 11; C. Gracchus
11. The clearest modern account is in Kornemann, loc. cit. in n. 1 above.

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142 THE PHOENIX

during the tenure of whic

seems to justify the hyp
office, each commissioner
is true, it supplies a prec
argued from the boundar
Gracchi.9
Our knowledge of the ph
been increased by the p
admirably conducted exca
at Cosa, and that of the B
thirty years apart (Alba
site, defences, and intern
on hills, both on the rou
roads, Alba on the Valer
with polygonal walls, of
singular triplicity of plan
Both show rectangular
Etruscan rather than H
fifth-century Marzabot
basilica in both places is i
Cosa the basilica was p
Roman plan, with the c
published plan of the bas
in the same way, though
magistrates of both place
both colonies preserve ma
comparatively untbuched
baths, theatres, and colo
later date than the orig
colonies the area enclosed
population except in em
'Statistics on the colonial co
Adelaide Wegner in CP 31 (1
Broughton, The Magistrates o
alignments of the period 220
(Oxford 1951). The conclusions
of Mr. Hugh McLean, research a
sioners see J. Carcopino, Auto
bution of the colonies see J. K
and I Jh. vor Chr." in NJbb 3
the assumption that the colon
in his 1952 Presidential Addre
were foundations of the Latin
"oFor Cosa see n. 2 above; for
Classique 20 (1951) 47-84; M
"Staidtebau," cols. 2032-2034.

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 ROMAN COLONIZATION 143

have lived on their allotments outsi

on market and feast days. The col
communities, and thus may be expl
The brute fact of the colony wal
whole population raises the questio
colonization was always chiefly mili
view is that colonization was practise
to the time of Tiberius Gracchus, at
shifted to the economic and politi
proletariat. A safe basic assumption
Romans in particular, do nothing by
ization was economic, it must have h
can be found in Livy's accounts of th
and fourth centuries. Antium was f
motive for the colonization of Arde
Circeii, and Satricum were founded
forestall agrarias seditiones, Cales ut
plebis. It is quite often argued that L
past the motives for colonization
this argument seems desperate. Vell
the motives for colonization in the
the same scholars who reject Livy
colonies are quite willing to accept h
tions like Sora, Narnia, Placentia, a
The fact is that motives for colo
The argument from location, for
Undeniably Alba Fucens on its triple
deep ravines, Placentia, Bononia, a
junctions, and Interamna controlling
strategic sites, but they all have ag
must never forget that etymologi
till the soil. There is, as we have see
near Alba; Nepet is in cattle and wh
are centres in the Po valley, the b
location makes it as much a commer
is in a richly cultivated plain. Livy
Roman colonies of 194, the resettl
"Since the publication of E. T. Salmon's a
motive has been accepted by most scholars
for Ardea, Livy 4.11.5-7; for Vitellia, 2.39.
for Labici, 4.47.6-7; for Cales, 8.16.13. Ve
I take militarium to set up (and pass over) a
going to mention; in Veil. 1.15.1 I place the
gendae than on miles. Military motive f
Placentia and Cremona, see Asc. In Pisonem

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 144 THE PHOENIX

190, and of Aquileia in 169

but families, hardly a mili
sent, there could hardly h
Aquileia at this period ha
had if its prime purpose w
it has left no trace. The need for rehabilitation after the Second Punic
War is recognized even by authorities who believe that the prime motiv-
ation was military. It has been argued that the rapid desertion of places
like Buxentum and Sipontum, only eight years after their founding (and
possibly Liternum), shows that if the motive was agricultural it was
a miserable failure. But the same argument applies with greater force
if the motive was military; in that case abandonment would have been
something like desertion. A peak in colonization-Roman colonies as
well as Latin-comes in the first third of the second century, when
imperious military necessity was past. That volunteers were hard to find
can be ascribed to the superior attractions of Rome: Livy attests them
early, and Cicero attests them late.12
Another argument against solely military motivation comes from the
Roman roads. In general the colony was there before the road: Cosa was
founded in 273; the Via Aurelia did not reach it till 241. Ariminum dates
from 268, the Via Flaminia only from 220. Aquileia, founded in 181, had
no metalled highway connection with the Po valley till 148. The lack of
good highways is less a deterrent to agriculture than to military opera-
tions. If it be held that the argument from roads is not cogent because
Rome's military operations in Latium antedate the Via Appia, perhaps
the proper rejoinder might be that operations in Latium in the fourth
century were a very different thing, with their short internal lines of
communication, from operations later, when to control Italy required a
highly organized network of roads. For that later period, it seems reasona-
ble to argue that where there is no metalled road, there is no paramount
strategic importance in a given colony-site. Perhaps bad communications
seemed to some of the governing class in Rome a positive virtue; there
were always malcontents in the colonies, and the harder it was for them
to get to Rome the better. Indeed the colonies were often used as de-

'1The locations of Alba Fucens, Nepet, etc., can best be appreciated from the 1: 25,000
maps of the Istituto geografico militare, fogli 145, 143, 60, 87, 173, 160 respectively in
the order of places followed in the text. The data on crops is from the CIT official guides.
On families: Livy 32.29.3-4; 37.46.9-11; 43.17.1. No wall at Aquileia: A. Calderini,
Aquileia Romana (Milan 1930) civ. Earthwork at Ardea: B. Tilly, Virgil's Latium
(Oxford 1947) 40-42. Need for rehabilitation: Livy 31.5-8; A. H. McDonald, "Rome
and the Italian Confederacy (200-186 B.c.)," 7RS 34 (1944) 11-33, and authorities
cited there. Desertion of Sipontum and Buxentum: Salmon, loc. cit. in n. 4, and authori-
ties cited there. Liternum derelict: Livy 22.16; Val. Max. 5.3.2. Superior attractions
of Rome: Livy 3.1 (as compared with Antium); Cicero de leg. agr. 2.71 (as compared
with anywhere, but the "desert" of Sipontum is mentioned in the context).

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 ROMAN COLONIZATION 145

tention places for prisoners of stat

what are almost certainly the very
liettes, where King Scyphax of Numi
were immured.13
Another possible occasion for colo
against Rome's authority in the Ha
Puteoli might have been set up as
Sipontum against Arpi. The positive
ization. Thus, whether the Romans
was thoroughly Romanized by 150 B.
jecture that the agency was the strin
the Via Aemilia: Placentia, Parma,
Romanization looked like the motive
Syria used Rome as his model when
and its empire: "he estimated at th
ployed by Rome for welding Italy int
"the assimilation of all elements into
up and down the peninsula of colonie
hence locally free, but animated w
impressing their ways and speech up
Tiberius Gracchus inherited all th
ization. And, paradoxically, it seem
colonization was not economic but m
achieve as landholders the minimum
them to bear arms in the old-fashione
his proposals as traditional and conse
opponents thought otherwise. What h
was packing the tribunate, not agrar
also practised; we have seen that in
had sponsored colonies; they were e
man commission (in 201 B.c.) for vir
distribution of public lands to indivi
urban centre. Yet this system, when

1"On roads, H. Stuart Jones, Companion to

Map 4; H. Nissen, Italische Landeskunde (B
in the censorship of C. Aurelius Cotta (241
"Aurelia Via." Colonies as detention spots:
ferred from Norba, ubi parum commode esse
and still is a penal colony; Suet. Tib. 15. Car
Scyphax and Perseus at Alba Fucens: Livy
Classique, loc. cit. in n. 10.
14Punitive colonies: G. Bloch-J. Carcopin
E. Pais, "Serie cronologica delle colonie rom
vol. 17 (1923) 353. Romanization: G. E. F. C
146; W. S. Ferguson, Hellenistic Athens (Lo

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 146 THE PHOENIX

C. Flaminius in 232, was

demagoguery and decline f
of cases are on record w
pis aller, as preferable to
the commissioners, the S
plexion of the colonial se
total area of the allotmen
not so easy. In the particu
and conservatives are equ
there because they believe
they wanted to get Scipio
From the time of the d
first century of the Em
colonization. Under the Re
we know about: Philip V
Asconius, if the text is sou
three, while the total kno
forties. When Latin coloni
Rome, with a falling birth
when Roman colonies ceas
no more available public
provinces, as a prime ins
of retirement for time-ex
one world-wide family all ak
Rutilius can write:

Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam:

profuit invitis te dominante capi.
Dumque offers victis proprii consortia iuris,
urbem fecisti, quod prius orbis erat.16

"'Military motive for Gracchi: L. Zancan, Ager Publicus (Padua 1935). Ti. Gracchus'
feeling that he was doing nothing new: Munzer in RE s.r. "Sempronius" No. 54 (1923)
colls. 1409-1426. The viritane commission of 201: Livy 31.4.1-3. Flaminius in 232:
Polybius 2.21.7-8. Colonies as a pis aller: Cales, Livy 8.16.13-14.
"1Letter of Philip V to the Larisaeans (214 B.c.): Dittenberger, Sylloge8 543, lines 31 ff.
The number is said to be exaggerated, but it is not clear why. "Videntur igitur nonnullae
civium coloniae in oblivionem venisse," says Hiller ad loc. Asconius on Placentia: loc. cit.
in n. 11. One world-wide family: this is the thesis of Sherwin-White, op. cit. in n. 6.
Rutilius de reditu suo 1.63-66.

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