ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

that they were not a burden on the allies and provinces. 150In 182, the only alliesGracchus could call on were either from his time with Philip under the Scipiones (190) orfrom the colonists of Saturnia. 151Since the games were so lavish and the senate sohorrified, it is likely that Gracchus tapped both of these sources so heavily that theremight have been a complaint sent to Rome. Nonetheless, this example suggests thepossibility that there was an acceptable amount of economic support that a magistratecould expect from his clients in the colonies.Colonial Commissions as a Stage for Rivalries and Ideological DifferencesDuring the first decades of the second century, subduing and rebuilding Northern Italybecame a focal point for ambitious senators, perhaps because the new, large citizencolonies provided greater support for the commissioners who became their patrons. 152 M.Aemilius Lepidus was on the commissions for all three of the known large citizencolonies in the north (183 and 177), as well as building a highway from Placentia toAriminum while on campaign in Liguria (187), leading a commission often men for theviritane distribution of the ager of the Statielli and Boii (173), and founding RegumLepidum along the Via Aemilia between Parma and Mutina. 153On a smaller scale, theValerii dominated the commission to supplement Placentia and Cremona and found150 Livy 40.44.12.151 Scullard (1951), pp. 25 and 172.152 Salmon (1970), p. 106. Rossignani (1995), p. 63.153 Livy 39.55.7-8,41.13.4-5, 39.2.10, and 42.4, respectively.91