ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

I. Colonization: Terminology and HistoriographyPreconceptions and Definitions of ColonizationIn order to engage with the idea of Roman colonization in the middle Republic, it isnecessary first to acknowledge what intellectual baggage the development of our ownculture has left us, in terms of a prior understanding of what colonization and coloniesmean. Many scholars have identified traces of nineteenth and twentieth century colonialdiscourse throughout modern scholarship on ancient Greek and Roman colonization. 4Ideologies of ancient colonization, especially Roman colonization under the Principate,informed the ideologies of modern colonization, which continue to shape the internaldefinitions of anyone affected by British colonialism in particular. 5Therefore, it is ofcritical importance to conscientiously define one's vocabulary while engaged in colonialstudies. 6 Dietler's article 'The Archaeology of Colonization and the Colonization ofArchaeology: Theoretical Challenges from an Ancient Mediterranean ColonialEncounter,' provides the most introspective and useful definitions of the vocabularyrelated to colonial studies; for the most part, I adopt his usage throughout my dissertation.Dietler uses the term 'colony' to encompass both the Greek apoikia and the Latincolonia. Founding a colony, then, merely indicates the "act of establishing new4 Especially Van Dommelen (1997), pp. 305-306 and Dietler (2005), pp. 35-47.5 This is particularly true for Americans. It is common for any American to identify not only with their cityand state of birth or residence, but also with their ancestral heritage. I do not think that many Americansrealize nor are prepared to admit how much the identity-by-descent feature of our self-image is related tolatent colonial influence.6 Cf. Osborne (1998), p. 252; Rogers (2005), pp. 336-338; and Stein (2005), pp. 3-5 and 9-13 amongothers.7 Dietler (2005), p. 54. Both of these terms "originally implied the founding of a settlement in foreignterritory, but with quite different relations of dependency within different structurations of the politicaleconomy..."3