Quite distinct from the civitates stipendiariae and municipia were the Roman colonies implanted on the provincial landscape by Julius Caesar, the triumvirs and, most of all, by Augustus in the period from 30 to 13 bce, with occasional foundations in subsequent years (Vittinghoff 1951; Brunt 1987: 589-601). While municipia were in theory governed according to local law and political traditions (although they were often strongly influenced by Roman practice), colonies used Roman law and had their constitutions directly modeled on that of Rome. In his work Attic Nights, composed in the mid-second century ce, Aulus Gellius underlined the key differences as follows:
Colonies do not come into the Roman state from outside nor grow from their own roots, but they are, as it were, propagated from the Roman state and have all the laws and institutions of the Roman people, not those of their own choosing. This condition, even though it is more exposed to control and is less free, is nonetheless thought to be preferable and more prestigious because of the greatness and majesty of the Roman people, of which these colonies seem to be almost small-scale images and reflections. (Gel. 16.13.8-9)
The initial settlers in most colonies were veteran soldiers, large numbers of whom had to be demobilized after the civil wars of the 40s and 30s bce. Some colonies included members of the urban poor, siphoned out of the city of Rome in an attempt to alleviate some of the social, economic, and political problems that beset the city as its population rose steeply to almost one million by the mid-first century bce. Occasionally a number oflocal provincials were integrated within their initial citizen bodies (Suet. Jul. 42.1; Brunt 1987: 246-59). Since most colonies possessed full Roman status, all citizens of colonies as a result also held Roman citizenship. In some areas, as at Nemausus (Nimes) in southern Gaul, colonies with the Latin rights of citizenship were established, whereby as in municipalities the local magistrates were automatically granted full Roman citizenship after holding local office.
In some of the remoter provinces - Britain, for instance, or the military zones of the Rhineland - colonies were established on or near sites that had previously served as legionary camps. Camulodunum (Colchester) was founded in 49 ce on the site of the camp of the Legio XX, while in the 80s a colony was settled at Lindum (Lincoln), which from the 60s onwards had been the base of the Legio IX and then Legio II Adiutrix (Hurst 1999, 2000). In both cases the former military facilities were reused for the new civilian settlements, with barrack-blocks, for instance, simply converted into civilian housing. Similarly in the new province of Dacia Trajan founded the Colonia Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa in 108 on the site of the former encampment of the Legio IV Flavia. In Germania Inferior, the Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinen-sium (Cologne) and the Colonia Ulpia Traiana at Xanten were established as colonies in 50 and 98 respectively, but in the vicinity of, rather than on the site of, Roman military bases (Galsterer 1999).
During the second century colonial status was granted to certain municipia in response to the familiar routine of an embassy sent with a petition to the emperor. Lepcis Magna (Lebda in modern Libya), for example, which had become a munici-pium with the Latin rights under Vespasian, was granted colonial status by Trajan in 109 without a deductio of new settlers (D. J. Mattingly 1994: 116-22). Trajan’s generosity was commemorated on a monumental arch erected in 110 by the senate and citizen body of Lepcis:
To Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Augustus, son of the deified Nerva, Germanicus, Dacicus, pontifex maximus, with tribunician power for the fourteenth time, saluted six times as imperator, consul for the fifth time, father of the fatherland. The senate and people of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana Fidelis Lepcis Magna erected this arch with its decoration by unanimous consent at public expense. (IRT 353)
As we shall see (below, section 4), promotions in status such as this often led to significant expansion and development of urban centers. A further privilege that was occasionally granted to colonies was the ‘‘Italic rights’’ (ius Italicum), whereby they were assimilated to the communities of Italy and so were no longer liable to taxation by Rome (D. 50.15.1, 6-8). Septimius Severus, for example, bestowed this privilege in c.203 upon his native city of Lepcis Magna, a point to which we shall return.
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