Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/107

 ITALIA. in tliis sense we find Cicero alluding to " Italia tri- butini descripta " as a matter of interest to the can- didates for public offices. (Q. Cic. de Petit. Cons. 8.) 3. Italy under tfie Roman Eminre. — No material change was introduced into the political condition of Italy by the establishment of the imperial authority at Koine; the constitution and regulations that t.- isted before the end of the Republic continued, with only a few modifications, in full force. 'I'he most important of these was the system of municipal or- ganisation, which pervaded every part of the country, and which was directly derived from the days of Italian freedom, when every town had really pos- sessed an independent government. Italy, as it existed under the Komans, may be still regarded as an aggregate of individual communities, though these had lost all pretensions to national independence, and retained only their separate municipal existence. Every municipium had its own internal organisation, presenting very nearly a miniature copy of that of the Koman republic. It had its senate or council, the members of which were called Decuriones, and the council itself Ordo Decurionum, or often simply Ordo ; its popular assemblies, which, however, soon fell into disuse under the Empire ; and its local magistrates, of whom the princijjal were the Duum- viri, or sometimes Quatuorviri, answering to the Ko- num consuls and praetors : the Quinquennales, with functions analogous to those of the censors ; the Acdiles and Quaestors, whose duties nearly corre- sponded with those of the same magistrates at Rome. These different magistrates were annually elected, at first by the popular assembly, subsequently by the Senate or Decurions : the members of the latter body held their offices for life. Nor was this municipal government confined to the town in which it was resident : every such Jlunicipium possessed a terri- tory or Ager, of which it was as it were the capital, and over which it exercised the same municipal jurisdiction as within its own walls. This district of course varied much in extent, but in many in- stances comjirised a very considerable territory, in- cluding many smaller towns and villages, all which were dependent, for nmnicipal purposes, upon the central and chief town. Thus we are told by Pliny, that majiy of the tribes that inhabited the Alpine valleys bordering on the plains of Gallia Ci.salpina, were by the Lex Pompeia assigned to certain neigh- bouring municipia (^Lege Pomjjeia attributi muni- cipii^, Plin. iii. 20. s. 24), that is to say, they were included in their territory, and subjected to their jurisdiction. Again, we know that the terri- tories of Cremona and Mantua adjoined one another, though the cities were at a considerable distance. In like manner, the territoiy of Beneventum com- pri.sed a large part of the land of the Hirpini. It is this point which gives a great importance to the distinction between nmnicipal towns and those which were not so ; that the former were not only them- selves more important places, but were, in fact, the capitals of districts, into which the whole country was divided. The villages and minor towns in- cluded within these districts were distinguished by the terms " fora, conciliabula, vici, castella," and were dependent upon the chief town, though sometimes possessing a subordinate and imperfect local organi- sation of their own. In some cases it even happened that, from local circumstances, one of these subordi- nate places would rise to a condition of wealth and prosperity far surpassing those of the municipium, on which it nevertheless continued dependent. Thus, ITALIA. 91 the opulent watering-place of Baiae always remained, in a municipal sense, a mere dependency of Cunnie The distinction between coloniae and municipia, which had been of great importance under the Ro- man repubhc, lost its real significance, when the citizens of both ahke possessed the Roman franchise. But the title of colonia was still retained by those towns which had received fresh colonies towards the close of the Republic under Caesar or the Trium- virate, as well as under the Empire. It appears to have been regarded as an honorary distinction, and as giving a special claim upon the favour and jiro- tection of the founder and his descendants ; though it conferred no real political superiority. (Gell. xvi. 13.) On the other hand, the Praefecturae — a name also derived from the early republican period — were distinguished from the colonies and municipia by the circumstance that the juridical functions were there exercised by a Praefectus, an officer sent direct from Rome, instead of by the Duumviri or (Qua- tuorviri (whose legal title was llviri or Jlllciri Juri dicundo) elected by the municipality. But as these distinctions were comparatively unimportant, the name of '' municipia" is not unfrequently ap]jlicd in a generic sense, so as to include all towns which had a local self-government. " Oppida" is sometimes employed with the same meaning. Pliny, however, generally uses "oppida" as equivalent to "muni- cipia," but exclusive of colonies : thus, in describing the eighth region, he says, " Coloniae Bononia, Brixillum, lIutina, etc Oppida Caesena, Claterna, Forum Clodi, etc." (iii. 15. s. 20, et passim). It is important to observe that, in all such [)asRages, the list of " oppida " is certainly meant to include only municij)al towns ; and the lists thus given by Pliny, though disfigured by corruption and carelessness, were probably in the first instance derived from official sources. Hence the marked agreement which may be traced between them and the lists given in the Liber Coloniarum, which, not- withstanding the corruptions it has suffered, is un- questionably based upon g(X)d materials. (Concerning the municipal institutions of Italy, see Savigny, Vermischte Schrifien, vol. iii. pp. 279 — 412, and Gesch. des Rom. Rechts, vol. i. ; lilarquardt, Ilandb. d. Rom. Alierthiimer, vol. iii. pt. i. pp. 44 — 55 ; Iloeck, Rd}n. Geschichte, book 5, chap. 3 ; and the article Gallia Cisalpina.) The municipal organisation of Italy, and the ter- ritorial distribution connected with it, lasted through- out the Roman empire, though there was always a strong tendency on the part of the central authority and its officers to encroach upon the municipal powers : and in one important point, that of their legal jurisdiction, those powers were materially cir- cumscribed. But the municipal constitution itself naturally acquired increased importance as the cen- tral power became feeble and disorganised : it sur- vived the fall of the ^^'estern Empire, and continued to subsist under the Gothic and Lombard conquerors, until the cities of Italy gradually assumed a position of independence, and the municiiial constitutions which had existed imder the Roman empire, became the foundation of the free republics of the middle ages. (Savigny, Gesch. des Romischen Rechts im Mittel Alter, vol. i.) The ecclesiastical arrangements introduced after the establishment of Christianity in the Roman em- pire, appear to have stood in close connection with the municipal limits. Almost every town which was then a flourishing mmiicipium became the see of a