Page:Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire (1926, Abbot and Johnson, municipaladminis00abbo).pdf/24

 empire, and is helpful in determining the foundation-date of a colony.

A municipium was not a new settlement, as a colony was, but resulted from the incorporation of a conquered town into the Roman state. The functions of its local magistrates and the limitations put upon their powers were determined in each case by the charter granted to it. Some interesting specimens of charters granted to colonies and municipia have come down to us from the time of the late republic, for Tarentum in Italy and for the colony of Urso in Spain, and from the time of the empire, for the municipia of Salpensa and Malaca in Spain. The inhabitants of a municipium received complete Roman citizenship, as in Lanuvium and Aricia, or received it in a restricted form, sine suffragio, as in Fundi and Formiae, or with such limitations as the provincial municipia of Salpensa and Malaca at a later date. As we have already noticed, all the civitates sine suffragio south of the Po were given Roman citizenship by the leges Iulia et Plautia Papiria of 90-89 Like Roman colonists the citizens in municipia were liable to service in the Legions, and were subject to all the munera to which Roman citizens were subject. Indeed the ancients believed that the word municipium was derived from munus and capere. In their juridical position the municipia differed from the colonies in the fact that they could retain their traditional procedure in cases heard by their local magistrates, whereas the colonies