The Relationships Between Rome and its Italian Colonies

The movement toward increased differentiation between Rome and its Italian allies was accompanied by a greater imitation of Roman institutions and practices. Latin colonies, founded by Roman officials, had long been organized in a Roman manner. Now, some allied communities began to imitate Rome more closely. Especially in the south of Italy, more communities began to use Latin in official inscriptions, and there are signs of an increased use of Roman law, even in communities that were not formally bound by it. Moreover, some allied communities began to give to their officials Latin titles, such as aedile or quaestor, or to call their own advisory council a senate.The political and social orders of Rome and its municipia and allies each rested on small groups of wealthy, prominent families, who held magistracies and priesthoods, and who filled out the ranks of the senate or its equivalent in the many smaller cities of Italy. In the second century, these ruling elites of Rome and of many other Italian cities grew richer through the profits of empire. They began to beautify their cities, and to proclaim their position in them through public building projects on an ever larger scale. They also came to adopt an increasingly similar way of life, strongly influenced by Hellenistic Greece. The social orders of Italian towns and cities were complicated and hierarchical.

All forms of wealth were not considered equally honorable or desirable. The holders of magistracies based their wealth on land, on government, and on the profits of war; by contrast, direct participation in trade, even on a fairly large scale, could threaten their status. Successful merchants sometimes sought to improve their own position and that of their descendants by abandoning trade and becoming landowners themselves. In Rome, moreover, senators were specifically debarred from participating in trade and in holding public contracts as publicani. Even so, ways could be found around the limits imposed by law and custom. Finance, for example, was honorable if undertaken on a sufficiently large scale, and if the lending of money was divorced from any direct participation in the activities funded.

Status certainly affected the ways in which individuals could profit from Roman expansion. Roman magistrates and senators had the greatest opportunities and the greatest benefits. In Italy, transfers of wealth had long accompanied Roman warfare. Victorious Roman armies plundered the cities and camps of the defeated, and Roman conquest often resulted in mass enslavements and the confiscation of land. The wars outside of Italy, in Greece and Asia Minor especially, resulted in seizures of property and enslavements on a scale that the Romans had never experienced before. Immense wealth certainly changed hands amidst combat and the disorder that followed. Soldiers of the victorious armies plundered houses, temples, and camps. Prominent Romans also arranged for the transfer home of art treasures, furniture, and other valuables in addition to objects of gold, silver, and precious metals. Through plunder, the seizure of royal and sacred treasuries, and the imposition of tribute, Roman commanders themselves came to control large amounts of wealth. Some they probably apportioned to allies, but they brought the bulk of their gains back to Italy, where they displayed it in their triumphs. Afterwards, they distributed some formally to their soldiers according to rank, turned over another part to Rome’s treasury, and retained a portion for their own use.

Plunder was not the only reward of victory. Roman commanders who were assigned provinciae, together with their assistants, as well as legates either on embassies or on missions to observe and help settle affairs, all had regular opportunities for personal gain. Members of the Roman elite in the provinces routinely demanded that the local inhabitants feed and house them, often at great expense, and provide them with transport. The biographer Plutarch (Cato the Elder 6) claims that the general practice of governors of Sardinia was to make the Roman treasury pay for their personal upkeep and transport, while requiring Sardinians to bear the cost of maintaining their servants and friends in luxury. When he was governor, however, Cato the Elder, famed for his frugality, required the Sardinians to contribute remarkably little to his own support and that of his entourage. Plutarch’s account may well be exaggerated, but there is no question that governors and legates did arrange support by these means, and some even demanded gifts as an inducement to reduce requisitions or to grant exemptions from them altogether.In addition, governors and their closest advisors received or extorted gifts from people who wished to ingratiate themselves or to receive favors. The acquisition of new wealth on a large scale was not limited to magistrates, senators, and members of their entourages.

Article Source: ArticlesMaker.com

About the Author: If you wish to visit Rome you can start from your Rome airport shuttle .If you are headed towards the south of Italy, visit ischia lastminute 

Next and Previous Articles

Next Article - The gallery of Antiques

Article Statistics

ArticlesMaker.com » Arts-and-entertainment » Humanities » The Relationships Between Rome and its Italian Colonies

Author: saturnino  |  Total views: 17  |  Word Count: 776