Colonies

Colonies (coloniae) were originally fortified settlements founded by Rome in conquered territories for military or political reasons. They were like an exten­sion of Rome. In the earliest period, according to the status of the colony and the political rights of the settlers, there were two kinds of colonies: those of Roman citizens founded by Rome and those of Latins, founded in collaboration with the Latin allies.

During the early Republic, the founding of a new colony demanded a special statute (lex) enacted by the popular assemblies. During the late Republic, however (especially under the dictators Sulla and Julius Caesar), many colonies were founded without passage of a special law. Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus based their prerogative of founding colonies on the statute that established the triumvirate (lex Titia). Under the empire, the founding of a new colony was a prerogative of the emperor. Colonies began to be founded outside the Italian peninsula beginning in 118 BCE, the year in which the colony of Narbo Martius (modern Narbonne), in Gallia Narbonensis, was established. Caesar and the triumvirs established about forty colonies in the provinces (e.g., Metellinum in Spain and Hippo and Thapsus in Tunisia). Provincial colonies were usually subject to the burdens of provincial land.

The lex Ursonensis, the founding city charter of the colony of Urso, modern Osuna (Seville, Spain), provides important information about colonies.

Municipia

Unlike the colonies, the municipia (singular municipium, a municipality, town, or city) were not settlements of veteran soldiers but conquered towns of the Italian peninsula incorporated by Rome. The category was also used in the provinces to describe cities that followed Roman law but were not colonies. Municipalities ranked below colonies in status because the colonies were more autonomous in local affairs than the municipalities. This explains why many provincial municipalities begged the emperor to be transformed into colonies and not vice versa. Still, the difference between colonies and municipalities is not always clear.

The creation of municipalities constituted a decisive mechanism of Roman expansion and control of Italy and, later, of the provinces. The inhabitants of the municipalities could receive full Roman citizenship with all the rights enjoyed by a native citizen, including the right to vote, or a restricted citi­zenship (Latin rights). Citizens of municipalities had to fulfill all military and tax duties of Roman citizens. According to Pliny the Elder (Naturalis historia 3.30), for instance, the province of Baetica (modern Andalusia, Spain), created in 27 bce, had 175 cities. Of these, nine were colonies, ten were municipalities for Roman citizens, twenty-seven were municipalities with Latin rights, and the other 129 were allied cities (120 tributary cities, six tax-free cities, and three treaty cities).

A city charter determined the functions of the local government and the law to be applied. Since 1861, we have had substantial fragments from some Andalusian city charters (Salpensa and Malaca), which became municipalities with Latin rights at the end of the first century during the Flavian dynasty. Six of ten bronze tablets of the city charter of Irni (lex Irnitana) in El Saucejo (near Seville), discovered in 1981, provide more information than any other city charter of the Roman Empire. The lex Irnitana (91 ce) is now the most complete copy of a general model of municipal charters by the Flavian dynasty (lex Flavia municipalis). The text of the Flavian municipal law came from Emperor Augustus to a significant extent (chapter 91 lex Irnitana), and was most probably taken from general municipal legislation for Italy.

Putting together the bronze tablets of the lex Malacitana and the lex Irnitana, which follow the same common Flavian model, we have at least two-thirds of the city charters of the Flavian municipalities of Spain. The structure of the lex Flavia municipalis covers provisions and rules of the local assemblies, the local magistracies (two duumvirs and two aediles), the decurions (members of the local Senate), annual elections, financial and administrative law, and civil jurisdiction. criminal jurisdiction, however, remained in the hands of the governor of the province.