ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

the commissioners were invested with imperium and provided with a supporting staff,supplies, and money with which to procure anything else they needed. 43In order to findmen who could accomplish all of these tasks, the commissions were filled with formermagistrates, especially consuls and praetors. The most obvious reason for this choice, butone that is rarely if ever explored, is that the commissioners as a group needed thenecessary experience to plan and establish a functioning colony. This experience derivedfrom the commissioners' previous military duties and magistracies.The following sections explore the specific duties required to found a colony witha view to the skills deriving from the magistracies held by the commissioners, namelyconsulships and praetorships, pro-magistracies, legateships, tribunates of the plebs, andaedileships. The chapter then turns to a discussion of the foundation of the colony itself,the organization of the space and creation of new religious institutions accomplished bythe tresviri as priests and religious men.Enrollment of soldiersThe dilectus was the official enrollment of soldiers into the Roman army; our main sourcefor this process is Polybius 6.19-21. In this passage, Polybius relates the significant roleof the military tribune in the enrolment process and neglects to mention the consul or42 There were servipublici at least by the Second Punic War. When Scipio conquered New Carthage inSpain, he enslaved the men and made them servipublici for the duration of the war with Carthage,depending on their good behavior as such. (Polyb. 10.17.9)4jSalmon (1970), p. 19. Salmon lists the assets given to the commissioners as supporting staffs, equipment,transportation, clothing, and money. However, the senate oversaw the public purse, so it is much morelikely that the commission was given the right to petition a quaestor for a draw on the public funds withwhich to procure their own supplies, or perhaps to petition an aedile to release a portion of the city's grain.Otherwise, we would have to imagine the senate as owning a warehouse full of clothing and supplies that111