Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/277

 246 THE HISTORY Book I. • into a municipium. The latter was certainly a military municipium.: and fo afluredly were both. This appears fuf- ficiently at once from. the treatment which the inhabitants of the former received from the revolted Britons under Boadicia, and which was fhewn only to Colchefter, a colony of Roman citizens, and to London, the refidence of Roman-Belgic traders 2 Verulam as well as York was a coldny before it became a muni- cipium " ; and it as well as the other muft have been inhabited by Roman legionaries. And both enjoyed a privilege which none of the colonies poflefled, the right of exemption from the imperial ftatutes and the liberty of ena&ing their own laws 38 . But Mancunium fbon enjoyed all the advantages of- a colony without feeling the leaft inconveniencies of it. The privilege of Roman citizenfhip muft have been frequently communicated to individuals. among the Britons, and was at.iaft extended to all of them. In the towns diftinguifhed by the Latin liberties this privilege, as I have previou Qy mentioned, became the common right of all that had borne the office of aedile or of quaeftor in them. But when philolbphy and Antoninus Pius were inverted with the imperial authority, thefe narrow reftraints were taken away, and the Roman citizenfhip was reftored to every Briton of property and worth 39. It ought to have been extended to all. This Maecenas particularly recommended to Auguftus 40. This humanity didfcated. This policy prefcribed. And the cunning avarice of a Caracalla communicated what the virtuous wifdom of a Pius fhould have beftowed 4I. By this communi- cation the lower rank of the Mancunians was freed frpm a dis- graceful punifhment, and was no longer liable to be fcourged with rods 4 By this communication the higher rank of the Mancunians was delivered from a difgraceful exclufion, and was now admitted to a participation of marriages and a communion of honours with the Romans 4 And by this all the citizens of Mancunium, now created citizens of Rome, were raifed to a footing of equality with their Roman matters, were empowered to ele& their own officers, and were at liberty to be governed by their own townfmen. 1 Cicero