ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

impelled each triumvir to seek or accept the responsibility of founding a colony alsoshaped the many choices among colonial type, size, and location, with the result that therewas not a single, unified Roman colonial policy in the middle Republic. Rather, thecolonial commissioners pursued their own agendas while operating within the interest ofthe state.II.Colonization in the Middle RepublicE.T. Salmon's entire work develops the conclusion that Rome founded colonies asmilitary outposts 3 in an imperialistic effort to dominate the Italian peninsula and beyond. 4I do not argue with Salmon's basic conclusions about the military usefulness of thecolonies founded in Italy in the fourth through second centuries. 5Indeed, the eventsleading up to colonization are very militaristic in nature. They can be depicted as inFigure 2.1, a subset of the relationships introduced by the Colonial Agency Chart, Figure1.3. The relationships represented here are those between the senate and people of Rome,the generals of the Roman army, the local populations that fight with the Roman army,and the territory in and over which they fight.3 Cf. Cic. Leg. agr. 2.73 for colonies as bastions. Salmon (1970, p. 174 n. 68) cites Placentia as a primeexample of a Roman bastion against the Ligures (Livy 39.2.10).4 See especially Salmon (1970), p. 56. "[Rome] was going to found new colonies wherever necessary, evenif it meant challenging the strongest power in contemporary Italy," and these colonies establishedspringboards for further leaps forward. Scullard (1951), p. 167-8 follows Salmon's 1936 article inbelieving colonies were military and defensive, against Reid (economic and for veteran settlement), orKarlowa and F.F. Abbott (Romanizing agents), or Mommsen (Punitive against rebellious tribes).5 For a refiguring of Salmon's presentation of early Latin and Roman colonization see Bispham (2000);Bradley (2006), pp. 167-171; Williams (2001); See also MacKendrick (1952), p. 146 wherein the temporalgaps between phases of colonization are disputed.54