Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/769

Rh BOME THE MISTRESS OF ITALY.] ROME 745 constituted as separate communities in alliance with Home. In many cases, too, no freedom of trade or intermarriage was allowed between the allies themselves, a policy after- wards systematically pursued in the provinces. Nor were all these numerous allied communities placed on the same footing as regarded their relations with Rome herself. To begin with, a sharp distinction was drawn between the "Latini" and the general mass of Italian allies. The " Latins " of this period had little more than the name in common with the old thirty Latin peoples of the days of Spurius Cassius. With a few exceptions, such as Tibur and Praeneste, the latter had either disappeared or had been incorporated with the Roman state, and the Latins of 268 B.C. were almost exclusively the " Latin colonies," that is to say, communities founded by Rome, composed of men of Roman blood, and whose only claim to the title " Latin " lay in the fact that Rome granted to them some portion of the rights and privileges formerly enjoyed by the old Latin cities under the Cassian treaty. 1 Though nominally allies, they were in fact offshoots of Rome herself, bound to her by community of race, language, and interest, and planted as Roman garrisons among alien and conquered peoples. The Roman citizen who joined a Latin colony lost his citizenship, to have allowed him to retain it would no doubt have been regarded as enlarging too rapidly the limits of the citizen body; but he received in exchange the status of a favoured ally. The Latin colony did not indeed enjoy the equality and independence originally possessed by the old Latin cities. It had no freedom of action outside its own territory, could not make war or peace, and was bound to have the same friends and foes as Rome. But its members had the right of commercium and down to 268 2 of connubium also with Roman citizens. Provided they left sons and property to represent them at home, they were free to migrate to Rome and acquire the Roman franchise. In war time they not only shared in the booty, but claimed a portion of any land confiscated by Rome and declared " public." These privileges, coupled with their close natural affinities with Rome, successfully secured the fidelity of the Latin colonies, which became not only the most efficient props of Roman supremacy, but powerful agents in the work of Romanizing Italy. Below the privileged Latins stood the Italian allies ; and here again we know generally that there were considerable differences of status, determined in each case by the terms of their respective treaties with Rome. We are told that the Greek cities of Neapolis and Heraclea were among the most favoured ; 3 the Bruttii, on the other hand, seem, even before the Hannibalic war, to have been less generously treated. But beyond this the absence of all detailed information does not enable us to go- Rome, however, did not rely only on this policy of isola- tion. Her allies were attached as closely to herself as they were clearly separated from each other, and from the first she took every security for the maintenance of her own para- mount authority. Within its own borders, each ally was left to manage its own affairs as an independent state. 4 The badges which marked subjection to Rome in the pro- vinces the resident magistrate and the tribute were unknown in Italy. But in all points affecting the relations of one ally with another, in all questions of the general 1 For the " colouiae Latiuae," founded before the First Punic War, see Beloch, 136 sy. 2 The year of the foundation of Ariminum, the first Latin colony with the restricted rights; Cic. Pro Caec., 35 ; Mommsen, R. G., i. 421, note ; Marquardt, Staatsreriv., i. 53. Beloch, 155-158, takes a different view. 3 Beloch, Camp., 39 ; Cic. Pfo Balbo, 22. 4 For the relation of the " socii Italic! " to Rome, see Mommsen, R. G., L 422 ; Beloch, IlaL Bund, cap. x. cipia. interests of Italy and of foreign policy, the decision rested solely with Rome. The place of a federal constitution, of a federal council, of federal officers, was filled by the Roman senate, assembly, and magistrates. The maintenance of peace and order in Italy, the defence of the coasts and frontiers, the making of war or peace with foreign powers, were matters the settlement of which Rome kept entirely in her own hands. Each allied state, in time of war, was called upon for a certain contingent of men, but, though its contingent usually formed a distinct corps under officers of its own, its numerical strength was fixed by Rome, it was brigaded with the Roman legions, and was under the orders of the Roman consul. 5 This paramount authority of Rome throughout the pen- The insula was confirmed and justified by the fact that Rome Roman herself was now infinitely more powerful than any one state- of her numerous allies. Her territory, as distinct from that of the allied states, covered something like one-third of the peninsula south of the ^Esis. Along the west coast it stretched from Caere to the southern borders of Campania. Inland, it included the former territories of the ^Equi and Hernici, the Sabine country, and even extended eastward into Picenum, while beyond these limits were outlying districts, such as the lands of the Senonian Celts, with the Roman colony of Sena, and others elsewhere in Italy, which had been confiscated by Rome and given over to Roman settlers. Since the first important annexation of territory after the capture of Veii (396), twelve new tribes had been formed, 6 358. and the number of male citizens registered at the census had risen from 152,000 to 290,000. 7 Within this enlarged Roman state were now included numerous Colonies communities with local institutions and government. an( l At their head stood the Roman colonies ("coloniae muni " . P1TMA civium Romanorum"), founded to guard especially the coasts of Latium and Campania. 8 Next to these eldest children of Rome came those communities which had been invested with the full Roman franchise, such, for instance, as the old Latin towns of Aricia, Lanuvium, Tusculum, Nomentum, and Pedum. Lowest in the scale were those which had not been considered ripe for the full franchise, but had, like Csere, received instead the "civitas sine suffragio," the civil without the political rights. 9 Their members, though Roman citizens, were not enrolled in the tribes, and in time of war served not in the ranks of the Roman legions but in separate contingents. In addition to these organized town communities, there were also the groups of Roman settlers on the public lands, and the dwellers in the village communities of the enfranchised highland districts in central Italy. The administrative needs of this enlarged Rome were obviously such as could not be adequately satisfied by the system which had done well enough for a small city state with a few square miles of territory. The old centraliza- tion of all government in Rome itself had become an impossibility, and the Roman statesmen did their best to meet the altered requirements of the time. The urban communities within the Roman pale, colonies and muni- 5 Beloch, 203. The importance of this duty of the allies is expressed in the phrase "socii nominisve Latini quibus ex formula togatorum milites in terra Italia imperare solent." 6 Four in South Etruria (387), two in the Pomptine territory (358), two in Latium (332), two in the territory of the southern Volsci and the Ager Falernus (318), two in the ^Equiau and Hernican territory (299). The total of thirty-five was completed in 241 by formation of the Velina and Quirina, probably in the Sabiue and Picentine districts, enfranchised in 268. See Beloch, 32. 7 Livy, JEpit., xvi. ; Eutrop., ii. 18; Mommsen, JR. G., i. 423; Beloch, cap. iv. p. 77 sq. 8 Ostia, Autium, Tarracina, Minturnse, Sinuessa, and, on the Adriatic, Sena and Castrum Novum. 9 To both these classes the term " municij ia " was applied. XX. 94