SACRED RITES OF THE LATINS JUS ITALICUM.

65

The Latins had certain sacred rites in common with Roman citizens; as the sacred rites of Diana at Rome (instituted by Servius Tullius, Liv. 1. 45., in imitation of the Amphictyones at Delphi, and of the Grecian states in Asia in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, Dionys. iv. 26.), and the Latin holidays kept with great solemnity on the Alban Mountain [before the temple of Jupiter Latiaris] *, first for one day, the 27th of April, and afterwards for several days. The Romans always presided at the sacrifices, Liv. xxi. c. ult. xxii. i. Dionys. iv. 49. Besides these, the Latins had certain sacred rites and deities peculiar to themselves, which they worshipped; as Feronia at Terracina, Jupiter at Lanuvium, Liv. xxxii. 9.

They had also solemn assemblies in the grove of Ferentina, Liv. i. 50. which appear in ancient times to have been employed for political as well as religious purposes. From this convention all those were excluded who did not enjoy the jus Latii.+

JUS ITALICUM.

ALL the country between the Tuscan and Hadriatic seas, to the rivers Rubicon and Macra, except Latium, was called Italy. The states of Italy, being subdued by the Romans in different wars, were received into alliance on different conditions. In many respects they were in the same state with the Latins. They enjoyed their own laws and magistrates, and were not subject to the Roman Prætor. They were taxed (censi) in their own cities, and furnished a certain number of soldiers, according to treaty. But they had no access to the freedom of Rome, and no participation of sacred rites. "The proper name of this festival was Latiar, Macrob. Sat. i. 16."-Nieb. ii.

p. 33.

"After the Julian law, there were no Latin colonies, till, a year later, a new Latium was introduced. The country on the north of the Po had become filled with a mixed population, speaking Latin, and composed of Italians and natives, who had changed their Celtic character: towns were still faithful, but were bringing forward pretensions: therefore, by a law of the consul Cn. Pompeius Strabo, they were raised to the rank of Latin colonies, though no colonists were sent to them. The peculiarity of this franchise was, that persons who filled magistracies and offices of honour in such town thereby acquired the Roman franchise, and they alone : Comum and Nemausus are expressly mentioned, as colonies with this privilege. From this time forth many towns and cantons were raised to this degree, which, compared with the old Latin franchise, was termed, and with great propriety, the Lesser Latium.” — Nieb. ii. p. 78.

‡ “Italy originally was the peninsula, which is bounded by the isthmus, only twenty miles in breadth, between the Scylletic and Napetine gulf; the southernmost part of what was afterwards called Bruttium. This is on the authority of Antiochus of Syracuse, the contemporary of Herodotus, or probably younger, for he closed his Sicilian history with the year 331 - Ol. 89. 2. For his own days he drew the limits of Italia by a line from Metapontum to the river Laos, which afterwards separated Lucania from Bruttium. Tarentum he places out of Italia, in Iapygia: in the same manner as Thucydides, who wrote about the year 350, separates Iapygia from Italia. Theophrastus distinguishes Latium from Italy, in his History of Plants, which must have been published after the death of Cassander, OL. 120. 3. 454. In the time of Timæus, who wrote about 480, Italy seems, though not with any precisely defined boundary, to have stretched about as far as to the Tiber and Picenum. Half a century before the Marsic war, about 615, Polybius uses the name of Italy in the widest extent, as reaching to the Alps, comprising Cisalpine Gaul and Venetia, only perhaps leaving out the Italian half of Liguria,- Nieb. i. pp. 13. sqq.

F

66 CONDITION OF THE ITALIAN STATES OF THE PROVINCES.

After the second Punic war, several of the Italian states, for having revolted to Hannibal, were reduced to a harder condition by the dictator Sulpicius Galba, A. U. 550; especially the Brutii, Picentini, and Lucani, who were no longer treated as allies, and did not furnish soldiers, but public slaves, A. Gell. x. 3. Capua, which a little before had been taken, lost its public buildings and territory, Liv. xxiv. 16. But after a long and violent struggle in the Social, or Marsic war, all the Italians obtained the right of voting and of enjoying honours, by the Julian and other laws. Sulla abridged these privileges to those who had favoured the opposite party; but this was of short continuance, Cic. pro Domo, 30. Augustus made various changes. He ordered the votes of the Italians to be taken at home, and sent to Rome on the day of the comitia, Suet. Aug. 46. He also granted them an exemption from furnishing soldiers, Herodian. ii. 11.

The distinction of the jus Latii and Italicum, however, still continued, and these rights were granted to various cities and states out of Italy, Plin. iii. 3, 4. In consequence of which, farms in those places were said to be IN SOLO ITALICO, as well as those in Italy, and were called PRÆDIA CENSUI CENSENDO (quod in censum referri poterant, utpote res mancipi, quæ venire emique poterant jure civili), Cic. pro Flacc. 32., and said to be in corpore census, i. e. to constitute part of that estate, according to the valuation of which in the censor's books every one paid taxes, Juvenal. xvi. 53. Dio. 38.1.

PROVINCES.

THOSE Countries were called Provinces, which the Roman people, having conquered by arms, or reduced any other way under their power, subjected to be governed by magistrates sent from Rome (quod eas provicit, i. e. antè vicit, Festus). The senate having received letters concerning the reduction of any country, consulted what laws they thought proper should be prescribed to the conquered, and sent commonly ten ambassadors, with whose concurrence the general, who had gained the conquest, might settle every thing, Liv. xlv. 17, 18.

These laws were called the FORM or formula of the province. Whatever the general, with the advice of the ten ambassadors, determined, used to be pronounced publicly by him before an assembly, after silence was made by a herald, Liv. xlv. 29. Cic. in Verr. ii. 19. Hence, In formulam sociorum referri, to be enrolled among, Liv. xliv. 16. Urbem formula sui juris facere, to hold in dependence or subjection, xxxviii. 9. In antiqui formulam juris restitui, to be brought into their former state of dependence on, &c. xxxii. 33. So xxiv. 26. The first country which the Romans reduced into the form of a province, was Sicily, Cic. Verr. ii. 1.

The condition of all the provinces was not the same, nor of all the cities in the same province, but different, according to their merits towards the Roman people; as they had either spontaneously surrendered, or made a long and obstinate resistance. Some were allowed the use of their own laws, and to choose their own magistrates; others were not. Some also were deprived of part of their territory.

Into each province was sent a Roman governor (PRÆSES), Ovid. Pont. iv. 7. 3. to command the troops in it, and to administer justice; together with a quæstor, to take care of the public money and taxes, and to keep an account of what was received and expended in the province. The provinces were grievously oppressed with taxes. * The Romans imposed on the vanquished, either an annual tribute, which was called CENSUS CAPITIS, or deprived them of part of their grounds; and either sent planters thither from the city, or restored them to the vanquished, on condition that they should give a certain part of the produce to the republic, which was called CENSUS SOLI, Cic. in Verr. iii. 6. v. 5. The former, i. e. those who paid their taxes in money, were called STIPENDIARII, or Tributarii, as Gallia Comata, Suet. Jul. 15. The latter VECTIGALES: who are thought to have been in a better condition than the former. But these words are sometimes confounded.

The sum which the Romans annually received from the stipendiary states was always the same; but the revenues of the vectigales depended on the uncertain produce of the tithes, of the taxes on the public pastures (scriptura), and on goods imported and exported (portorium). Sometimes, instead of the tenth part, if the province was less fertile, the twentieth only was exacted, as from the Spaniards, Liv. xliii. 2. Sometimes, in cases of necessity, an additional tenth part was exacted above what was due; but then money was paid for it to the husbandmen, Cic. Verr. iii. 31.; whence it was called frumentum emptum, also decumanum, or imperatum, Liv. xxxvi. 2. Xxxvii. 2. 50. xlii. 31.

Asconius in his commentary on Cicero, Verr. ii. 2. mentions three kinds of payment made by the provincials; the regular or usual tax, a voluntary contribution or benevolence, and an extraordinary exaction or demand: (Omne genus pensitationis in hoc capite positum est, CANONIS, quod deberetur; OBLATIONIS, quod opus esset; et INDICTIONIS, quod imperaretur.) In which sense Indictio is used by Pliny, Paneg. 29. +

Under the Emperors a rule was made out, called CANON FRUMENTARIUS, in which was comprised what corn each province ought yearly to furnish. The corn thus received was laid up in public granaries, both at Rome and in the provinces, whence it was given out, by those who had the care of provisions, to the people and soldiers.

The revenue derived from the city of Alexandria alone, during the reign of the emperors, has been calculated to amount to upwards of six millions sterling, and is supposed never to have fallen short of 2,500,000l. during the whole period of the Roman dominion in Egypt.

"The name and use of the indictions, which serve to ascertain the chronology of the middle ages, were derived from the regular practice of the Roman tributes. The emperor subscribed with his own hand, and in purple ink, the solemn edict, or indiction, which was fixed up in the principal city of each diocese, during two months previous to the first day of September. And, by a very easy connection of ideas, the word indiction was transferred to the measure of tribute which is prescribed, and to the general term which it allowed for the payment. (The cycle of indictions, which may be traced as high as the reign of Constantius, or perhaps of his father Constantine, is still employed by the Papal court: but the commencement of the year has been very reasonably altered to the 1st of January.)” — Gibbon, ch. xvii. vol. iii. p. 71.

68

PROVINCIAL TAXES - MUNICIPIA.

Under the Emperors, besides a certain sum paid for the public pastures, the people of the provinces were obliged to furnish a certain number of cattle from their flocks, Vopisc. in Prob. 15. And, besides the tax paid at the port, as in Sicily, Cic. Verr. ii. 72.; in Asia, Cic. Agrar. ii. 29.; in Britain, Tacit. Vit. Agric. 31.; they also paid a tax for journeys, Suet. Vitell. 14., especially for carrying a corpse, which could not be transported from one place to another without the permission of the High Priest or of the Emperor. But this tax was abolished.

There was also a tax on iron, silver, and gold mines, as in Spain, Liv. xxxiv. 21.; on marble in Africa; on various mines in Macedonia, Illyricum, Thrace, Britain, and Sardinia; and also on salt pits, as in Macedonia, Liv. xlv. 29.

MUNICIPIA, COLONIÆ, ET PRÆFECTURE.

MUNICIPIA were foreign [or Italian] towns which obtained the right of Roman citizens. * Of these there were different kinds. Some possessed all the rights of Roman citizens, except such as could not be enjoyed without residing at Rome. Others enjoyed the right of serving in the Roman legion (MUNERA militaria CAPERE poterant), but had not the right of voting and of obtaining civil offices. +

The Municipia used their own laws and customs, which were called LEGES MUNICIPALES; nor were they obliged to receive the Roman laws unless they chose it (nisi FUNDI FIERI vellent). And some chose to remain as confederate states (civitates fœderate), rather than become Roman citizens: as the people of Heraclea and Naples, Cic. pro Balbo, 8.

There were anciently no such free towns except in Italy, but afterwards we find them also in the provinces. Thus Pliny mentions eight in Batica, and thirteen in Hither Spain, Hist. Nat. iii. 2. ‡

"In the constitutions of the municipal towns, which, in earlier times, were not altered on their receiving the Roman franchise, the houses, so long as they were of any importance in themselves, will also have retained their political character: and when time and circumstances had done away with this, they undoubtedly continued in the undiminished possession of their civil and religious privileges. But they were not acknowledged by the Roman state, their greater country, in any political relation to itself: none but the houses which composed the three ancient tribes, were fundamental parts of the state: and thus the patricians were able to boast that they alone had a house (vos solos gentem habere, Liv. x. 8.); while, nevertheless, there were members of plebeian houses, by thousands, at Rome, who in the municipal towns possessed gentile privileges." - Nieb. i. p. 275. "Municipium, beyond doubt, like mancipium, was originally the right itself; but, as happened, at least in one sense, to the latter word, was transferred to the object to which the right was attached: in this instance, to the class that possessed it."-ii. p. 56.

ተ "Munus properly signified a duty which a citizen was bound to discharge, whether by personal or pecuniary services: and municeps was the opposite of immunis, which designated a person exempt from such burthens, as vesticeps was of investis. The last syllable, though it has a deceptive look of coming from a verb, is nothing more than one of those manifold terminations in which the Latin language luxuriates. Facere, or fungi, are the proper verbs in this phrase."— Nieb. ii. p. 53.

"Municipia in Britain are alluded to by Tacitus, Agric. § 32."— T.

FORMS OF FOUNDING COLONIES, AND BUILDING CITIES. 69

COLONIES were cities or lands which Roman citizens were sent to inhabit. They were transplanted commonly by three commissioners, (per triumviros coloniæ deducenda agroque dividendo, Liv. [v. 24.] viii. 16.) sometimes by five, ten, or more. Twenty were appointed to settle the colony at Capua, by the Julian law, Dio. Xxxviii. 1. The people determined in what manner the lands were to be divided, and to whom. The new colony marched to their destined place in the form of an army, with colours flying (sub vexillo, Cic. Phil. ii. 40.) The lands were marked round with a plough, and his own portion assigned to every one, Virg. Æn. i. 425. v. 755. All which was done after taking the auspices, and offering sacrifices.* When a city was to be built, the founder, dressed in a Gabinian garb, (Gabino cinctu ornatus †, v. Gabino cultu incinctus, Liv. v. 46. i. e. with his toga tucked up, and the lappet of it thrown back over the left shoulder, and brought round under the right arm to the breast, so that it girded him, and made the toga shorter and closer,) yoking a cow and a bull to the plough, the coulter whereof was of brass, marked out by a deep furrow the whole compass of the city; and these two animals, with other victims, were sacrificed on the altars. All the people or planters followed, and turned inwards the clods cut by the plough. Where they wanted a gate to be, they took up the plough and left a space. Hence PORTA, a gate (a portando aratrum). And towns are said to have been called URBES from being surrounded by the plough (ab ORBE, vel ab URVO, i. e. buri, sive aratri curvaturâ, Varro de Lat. Ling. iv. 2. Festus). The form of founding cities among the Greeks, is described by Pausanias,

:

"It is an essential part in the notion of an old Roman colony, that it takes possession of a city already inhabited; modelling itself there after the laws of the people out of which it has issued. Now among those relations, which are nothing else than accounts of the earliest institutions cast in a historical form, are the two following that originally the Roman territory was divided into three districts, whence the three tribes received their name; consequently each had its corresponding region, as the share allotted to it: and that Romulus took a third of their territory from the cities he conquered, and settled 300 Roman colonists in each. If these two relations are combined, we here discover that it was the system, in a conquered town, the dependence of which was to be secured, and its forces appropriated to Rome, to settle citizens who were to have the whole government in their hands: for although but a third of the land was assigned to them, so that they were only a single tribe, this was the ruling one, out of which alone undoubtedly the senate was formed, as it was originally at Rome likewise out of but one race: they, too, were exclusively eligible to magistracies. Not that the old inhabitants were reduced to servitude: they were distributed into tribes, enjoyed many privileges, and generally became incorporated with the colonists into one people: instances of insurrections in colonial towns are not very numerous. Yet it is true, some such happened: thus Fidene and Velitræ revolted; which would sound incredible, if in agreement with Livy's description (iii. 4.) their citizens had been Roman colonists, who in that case would have thrown away the lands they had received: but it is very intelligible if the colonists were overpowered or massacred, as at Sora (Liv. ix. 23.), by the old inhabitants."- Nieb. i. p. 256. ii. p. 42.

"The cincture in the Gabine fashion, was by throwing back the toga, then winding its skirt round the body. The inhabitants of Gabii, whilst engaged in sacrifice, were once surprised by a hostile inroad: leaving the altar, they instantly, in this dress, attacked and defeated the enemy. Before the introduction of armour, the ancient Latins often went into action with the toga wound round their bodies. Hence the military term in procinctu esse, Serv.". Notes on Virg. Æn. vii. 612. by Valpy.