ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

in military expectations for the communities involved.Where known, the citizens,commissioners, and generals involved in these large population movements will bediscussed below, but only when they coincide with the colonial commissioners. 91III.The Impetus to Colonize: from the Commissioner's PerspectiveColonization efforts during the middle Republic did not follow a unified public policy:there were too many diverse types of colony founded in different places by uniquelycomposed commissions. As demonstrated by the history of colonization above, theirunifying factor was that they all had a military function and strategic benefit for theRoman state. Arising from his study of Northern Italy, Williams notes two trends relatingto Roman imperial intentions:1) Romans could and did sometimes have concertednotions about how to manage their freshly conquered territory, about how to put thoseplans into effect, and thus alter the local population; and 2) acknowledging theimportance of Roman intentions does not mean those intentions were uniform orunchanging over time. Thus, the colonies could have a military importance, whichcompelled the senate to mandate their formation. The colonies could also havesignificance for the commissioners themselves, creating an individual impetus to colonizeduring the middle Republic.9U Livy 41.8.6-12; Strabo 5.233, 237. MRR 1.397-8 s.v. Ti. Sempronius Gracchus.91 A full study of the phenomenon of large population movements during the middle Republic is beyond thescope of this project. My focus on the designated colonies and their commissioners arises from the need fora strictly-defined community in which to analyze religious landscapes and trends. It is methodologically toodifficult to accomplish this over wide swaths of territory where the mix of populations is poorly defined.92 Williams (2001), pp. 95-7.75