401) deprived the Athenians of their foreign dependencies, though they were partially recovered. But Athens never succeeded in establishing a system of co lonies on a sure and lasting basis, as the Romans did.
That the Greek settlements of a kin dred race should feel a common interest in opposition to those of a rival branch is natural, and is proved, among other in stances, by the case of the deputies from Egesta in Sicily, who, while requesting the assistance of the Athenians against the Syracusans and Selinuntians, urged as an additional plea that the Leontines, who were originally Chalcidians, and therefore akin to the Athenians, had been expelled from their town by the Syra cusans, and showed that it was the in terest of the Athenians to assist a kindred people against the prevailing power of the Dorian colonies in Sicily. (Thucyd. vi.) Before we pass to the Roman colonies, we must say something of the system of colonization among the other inhabitants of the Italian peninsula in the ante Roman times. The Etruscans extended their conquests north of the Apennines in the great plain of the Po, and founded there twelve colonies, the principal of which was Felsina (Bologna). After wards, having defeated the Umbrians, many years before the assumed founda tion of Rome, they extended themselves into East and South Italy, penetrated into Latium, and took Campania from the Oscan, where they founded likewise twelve colonies, the principal of which was Capua. The Etruscans, being skilled in architecture, surrounded their towns with solid walls built of massive stones without any cement; they were also well versed in agriculture and hydraulics, and several of the earliest drains and canals in the Delta of the Po are attributed to them. They subjected, but at the same time civilized, the people among whom they settled. Their colonies seem to have formed independent communities, though allied by a kind of federation. The Etrus cans also founded colonies in the Picenum, such as Hatria, Cupra Montana, and Cu pra Maritima. They took from the Li gures the country around the gulf now called Della Spezia, and founded the city of Luna. They likewise sent colonies to the islands of Elba and Corsica, for the Etruscans were a commercial as well as agricultural people ; they navigated the sea, and in the sixth century B.C. they defeated the Phocteans, and drove them out of Corsica. The Etruscans contri buted to civilize Italy by means of their set tlements ; but, unlike Rome, they did not keep them united under a central power.
The Sabini, an agricultural and pastoral people, lived in the Apennines of Central Italy, and occupied part of the modern Abruzzi : they sent out colonies in very early times to other parts of Italy. It was a custom common among many of the old Italians, after the lapse of a cer tain number of years, to celebrate solemn sacrifices in the spring season, and to consecrate to the gods a number of young men, who were to quit their native land, and proceed under the auspices of Hea ven to seek a new country. (Dionysius, Roman Antiquities, i. 16.) In this man ner the Piceni and the Samnites are said to have been colonies of the Sabini. The Samnites in their turn sent out other colonies, and the Lucanians were one of these. The Samnites, as well as the Sa bini, were entirely given to agricultural pursuits.
Rome, in the earliest ages, adopted the system of sending out colonies to those parts of Italy which she conquered. Colonies were established during the kingly period (Livy, i. 11, 27, 56); and the practice was continued after the ex pulsion of Tarquinius Superbus, the last king (Livy, ii. 21, 39). But the Roman colonies were different from those of most other people, inasmuch as they remained strictly subject to the mother country, whose authority they were the means of enforcing upon the conquered nations. They were, in fact, like so many garri sons or outposts of Rome. Servius (/En.
i. 16) gives the following definitions of a colony, taken from much older autho rities:—" A colony is a society of men led in one body to a fixed place, furnished with dwellings given to them under cer tain conditions and regulations." Again, " Colonia is so called a colendo; it consists of a portion of citizens or confederates sent out to form a community elsewhere by a decree of their state, or with the general consent of the people from whom they have departed. Those who leave without such a consent, but in conse quence of civil dissensions, are not colo nies." The notion of an early Roman colony was this : the colonists occupied a city already existing ; and this, with perhaps one exception or two, was the general character of the early Roman colonies in Italy. These colonists were a part of the Roman state ; they secured her conquests and maintained the subject people in obedience. When the Romans afterwards extended their conquests into countries where there were no regular towns, or where the population was fierce and hostile, and the Roman settlers must be ever on their Fuard against them, they built new towns in some favourable posi tion. Such was the case in several parts of Gaul, Germany, and Spain. The first Roman colony beyond the limits of Italy was that founded oh the site of Carthage, in the tribunate of Caius Gracchus, B.C. 122. This colony, which was originally called Junonia, did not succeed, or was ne Fleeted, owing to the dissensions at Rome : it was restored, or finally established, by C. Julius Caesar. (Plutarch, Caius Grac chug, c. 11.) Narbo Martius, Narbonne in the south of France, was one of the early colonies beyond the limits of Italy. The early Roman colonies then in Italy consisted of Roman citizens, who were sent as settlers to fortified towns taken in war, with land assigned to them at the rate generally of two jugera of arable , land or plantation for each man, besides the right of pasture on the public or common land. The old inhabitants were not ejected, or dispossessed of all their property ; the general rule was, that one third of the territory of the town was confiscated and distributed among the colonists, and the rest was left to the former owners, probably subject to some charges in the shape of taxes or services. The colonists constituted the populus of the captured place ; they alone enjoyed political rights and managed all public affairs. The ownership of the publicum or public property, including the pasture land, was probably also vested in the new settlers. It is natural to suppose, our some generations at least, no great By pathy existed between the old and the new inhabitants, and hence we frequently hear of revolts of the colonies, which means, not of the colonists against the mother city, but of the old inhabitants, who rose upon and expelled the colonists. (Livy, ii. 39; vi. 21.) But these events generally ended by a second conquest of the place by Roman troops, when the old inhabitants were either pat to the sword or sold as slaves, or, under more favour able circumstances, lost at least another third of their property. In later times, during the Civil Wars of Rome, which commenced with the disputes between Marius and Sulla, new colonies were sent by the prevailing party to occupy the place of the former ones ; and the older colonists were then dispossessed of their property either wholly cr in part, just as they had dispossessed the original inhabit ants. Sometimes colonies, especially at a great distance from Rome, having dwindled away, or being in danger from the neighbouring people, asked for a re inforcement, when a fresh colony was sent, which also received grants of land. (Livy, ii. 21; vi. 30; xxxi. 49.) Each of the older colonies, it is observed by Gelling (Iv-% 13), was a Rome in minia ture; it had its senators called Decuriones, its Duumviri, Ediles, Censores, Sacer dotes, Augurs, and other officers.