The Roman Agrarian Laws, or the laws for the 'distribution of public land, were often passed with the view of found ing a colony : and this became a usual mode of providing for veteran soldiers. Perhaps one of the earliest instances is mentioned by Livy (xxxi. 4). The senate passed a decree for the measurement and distribution of public land in Samnium' and Apulia among those veteran soldiers who had served in Africa under P. But after Sulla had defeated his opponents, the grants of lands to soldiers became more common, and they were made to gratify the demands of the army, at the cost of former settlers, who were ejected to make way for the soldiers. Julius Caesar and Octavianus Augustus added to the number of these military colonies, and the practice of establishing them in parts beyond Italy existed under the Empire.
These colonies are distinguished by having military ensigns on their coins, while the Colonic: Togatre, or citizen colonies, have a plough on theirs. The coins of some colonies have both marks, which means that the original colony consisted of citizens, after which a second was sent, composed of soldiers. In Tact tus (Annul. i. 17), the veterans complain that, after their long service, they were rewarded only with lands situated in I swampy tracts or on barren mountains.
The early system of colonies adopted by Rome had a double political object to secure the conquered parts of Italy, and to satisfy the claims of its own poorer citizens by a division of lands among them. The importance of the Roman colonies is well expressed by Cicero, who calls them " propugnacula imperil et spe cake populi Romani." Such they doubtless were, and at the same time, by their ex tension beyond Italy, they were the germ of the civilization of Northern and West ern Europe. A nation of civilized con querors, whatever evils it may inflict, confers on the conquered people greater benefits. By their colonies in Spain, Gaul, on the banks of the Rhine, and in Britain, the Romans established their language and their system of administra tion. The imprint of their Empire is indelibly fixed on all the most civilized nations of Europe.
The difference between a Roman Co Ionia and an Italian Municipium is, that the latter was a town of which the inha bitants, being friendly to Rome, were left in undisturbed possession of their pro perty and their local laws and political rights, and obtained moreover the Roman citizenship, either with or without the right of suffrage; for there were several descriptions of Municipia. The Roman colonies, on the contrary, were governed according to the Roman law. The Mu nicipia were foreign limbs engrafted on the Roman stock, while the colonies were branches of that stock transported to a foreign soil. There is, however, some difficulty as to the precise character of an Italian Municipium in the republican period of Rome ; and the opinions of modern writers are not quite agreed.
The Roman Provincial system must not be confounded with their Colonial system. A Roman province, in the later sense of that term, meant a country which was subjected to the dominion of Rome, and governed by a praetor, propraetor, or proconsul sent from Rome, who generally held office for a year, but sometimes for a longer period. Thus Spain, after the Roman conquest, was a Roman province, and was divided into several administra tive divisions. The earliest foreign pos session that the Romans formed into a province was Sicily (n.c. 241). Sardinia (p.c. 235) became a Roman province, and the system was extended with the exten sion of the Roman power to all those parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa which were subjected to Roman dominion. A pro vinoe was originally a foreign dependency on Rome ; after all Italy became Roman, at the close of the Republican period, we may view all the provinces of Rome as foreign dependencies on Italy, of which Rome was the capital. The condition of the provinces, viewed as a whole, with respect to Rome was uniform : they were subject countries, subject to the ruling country, Italy. But the condition of the towns in the provinces varied very greatly : some had the his Italicum, or privilege of Italian towns, in the sense already ex plained, and these were probably in most cases settlements of Roman citizens; some towns retained most or perhaps all of their old privileges ; and others were more directly under the Roman governor. Thus while the whole country was a de pendency on Rome, particular cities might have all the privileges of Italian cities ; and others would be in a less favoured condition. Both under the Republic and the Empire, but still more under the Em pire, the Romans established colonies both of Roman citizens and Latin colonies, in their provinces ; and in this way they introduced their language and their law. Tracts of land were doubtless seized as public land and distributed ftom time to time, but there does not appear to have been any claim on all the lauds in any pro vince, as lands that the Roman state might distribute, though undoubtedly the theory under the Empire was that all land in the provinces belonged to the Ctesar or the Roman state (Gaius, ii. 7). And this theory would have a practical effect in all cases where an owner of land died and left no next of kin, or anybody who could claim his laud. The maxim also implied the duty of obedience to the Ro man state, and that rebellion or resistance to the Romans would at once be a for feiture of that land which was held by provincials, according to this theory, as a precarious possession. But the Romans never gave the name of Colony to any of their Provinces. There were Roman colonies in Britain, but Britain itself was not a Colony ; it was a Province. In mo dern usage, whenever the word colony is applied to a country, it includes all the territory of such country.