ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

probably not a regulated endeavor, but more an accumulation of resources and theknowledge, transferred from one magistrate to another, of how to use them, how toprotect them, and how to move them when away from the city of Rome. In a militarysituation, the senate might issue a directive to acquire supplies or move them, but theconsul or praetor was responsible for the logistics of acquisition and transportation. Theexperience with military supply applies precisely to the task of supplying colonists fromthe march to their new home until their first crops came in. Thus, it is possible that theability to ensure enough supplies for the colonists was probably one of the selling pointsby which a commission was elected. Indeed, in the cases of Q. Fabius Labeo and M.Aemelius Lepidus, we have seen direct evidence that magistrates were intimately familiarwith supply techniques before becoming tresviri. Furthermore, when the army was inenRome, the plebeian aedile supplied the troops with provisions.This task indicates thatthe former aediles on the commissions were skilled in managing grain and publicstructures in an urban setting, something that does not necessarily fall within the duties ofan army commander.IV.Founding a ColonyThe act of enrolling colonists and guiding them to their new home is well within the skillsetof men familiar with commanding an army. The steps of founding the colony itself,however, only partially overlap with the duties of a general. In order to create a new civiccommunity, the founders need to define the colony's physical space, calendar, legal andLivy 26.10.1-2.118