MUNICIPIUM, a term which properly denotes, according to its etymology (mama and capio), the capacity of enjoying rights with the liability to duties. It is however used in the ancient Roman writers to express a class or body, the members of which are called Municipes.
Munielpium, as a collective name for a number of individuals, had different et different periods of Roman history. In its oldest sense, it signified those inhabitants of Italian towns which had a league or treaty with the Roman state, by which the citizens of such towns, though not Roman citizens, enjoyed, when at Rome, all the privileges of Roman citizens, except the suffrage and the eligibility to the honours of the state (magistratus), and were also subject to the burdens of Roman citizens; the Fundani, Formiani, Cumani, 7acerrani, Lanuvini, and Tusculani, are mentioned as examples. A Roman jurist (Serviue, the son) says that municipals originally signified those who became citizens, their own state remaining perfectly distinct from and unconnected with the Roman state, and who were not allowed to attain to the dignities of the Roman state. (Fest. Epit., '31unicipium.') A second class of munieipes is defined to be those whose State had become a part of or was blended with the Roman state, as was the case with the inhabitants of Caere, Arida, and Anagnia. (Festus, 31unicipium., But this would appear to be a misapplication or improper application of the term, inasmuch as this class of municipal comprehended those who ceased to have a State of their own, but were incorporated with the Roman state on such terms as the latter chose to grant.
A third class is defined (but the definition is somewhat obscure) to comprehend those towns which received the Roman citizenship, and at the same time became municipia : Tiber, Prteneste, and other towns are cited as examplea. Niebuhr observes that the places mentioned in this third class were either "all Latin colonies or Italian towns, such as by the Julian Law, or by those which followed and gave it a wider application, became innnicipia in the later general sense." It scorns to be clear from this definition that municipium must here be understood not in the sense which it has in the first definition, but in the later Reuse of a town called a municipium. For the first part of the defini
tion gives to the municipes of this class the full Itoinnn citizenship ; and the second part adds (what might very well have been understood without the addition) that the towns included in this definition must have had a local administration. These towns in effect became integral parts of the Roman etate, having before been separate, and as a 'meets nary consequence their local administration, which must still have subsisted, became subject to tho general Roman law, instead of being independent of it. Such towns were the municipia of the Imperial period. The definition of municipes by Paulus is, "those who are natives of the same municipiurn." Ulpian, who also (D. 60, i. 1.) gives the same definition of municipes, refers to the original signification of the term : " muneris participes recepti in civitstem nt munera nobiscum facerr_nt." lie adds: " but now, by an abuse of the term, municipes is the name given to the citizetusof Any particular town, as for example, a Campanus or Puteolanus. lie who is born of a Campanian father and mother is therefore a Campanian : if his mother be of Puteoli, he is still • Campanian rnuniceps, unless by some special privilege (privi legium) he is a =nicer)a of his mother's city, a favour which is granted to some cities." It appears then that the municipinrn, as an ancient Roman institu tion, may be defioed generally as the communication of the rights of Roman citizens (and as a consequence, their liabilities) to Italian towns by treaty or agreement.. It thus resembles the isopolity (hrovearrda) of the Greeks. It Is easy to conceive that the rights thus conferred might be either the complete rights of Roman citizenship or only part of such rights. After the freedom of the city was extended to all Italy, and subsequently to the provinces, there was no essential difference between • colonia and • municipium, though the origin of their connection with the Roman state was very different. [Cosoer.] Thus, wider the emperors, all the inhabitants of the same town, whether it was a colonia or a municipium, might with propriety be called municipes, notwithstanding the criticism of Genius (xvi. 13).