A colonia was a Roman town founded or re-founded as a settlement of Roman citizens, often retired soldiers. It began as a way to secure conquered land and later became the highest rank a Roman city could hold.
Key takeaways
- A colonia began as a settlement of Roman citizens planted in conquered land, and later became a mark of the highest status a city could have [1].
- Colchester was founded as a colonia under Claudius, and York gained colonial status in the early third century [1].
- A colonia, a municipium and a civitas were three different kinds of town, not three names for one.
- Our cities layer holds 9,348 places but does not mark which were coloniae.
How a colonia worked
A colonia was first a settlement of Roman citizens set up as an outpost in conquered or allied land, to help secure it. Later the word came to mean the highest status a Roman city could hold [1]. So the word shifts meaning over the centuries: an early colonia was a garrison town, and a late one was a prestige title.
Under the Republic, Rome had no standing army, so citizens were settled in conquered towns as a kind of garrison. A small coastal colony might hold about 300 veterans and their families, each given roughly one to two and a half hectares of land [1]. Later, Caesar and then Augustus settled many thousands of legionary veterans across the empire. After the civil wars Augustus needed to find land for over 100,000 of them [1].
There were two broad types. Roman colonies (coloniae civium Romanorum) were settled by citizens who kept their citizenship. Latin colonies were larger military strongholds near hostile territory, whose settlers received bigger estates but lost their citizenship, which they could regain by returning to Rome [1].
A colonia had a charter and its own local government, modelled on Rome's. Because retired soldiers lived there and used Latin, a colonia could act as a showcase for Roman customs and law. The article on Romanisation notes that about 400 towns held colonia rank, and that veterans settled there promoted Roman customs, laws and Latin [2]. See the Romanisation entry for how far that really reached.
An example from our data
Britain gives clear examples. Colchester (Colonia Claudia Victricensis Camulodunum) was founded in AD 49 under Claudius, and Lincoln in AD 71 under Domitian [1]. York was given colonial status in the early third century under Caracalla [1]. Our AD 211 page marks the moment Caracalla and his brother Geta succeeded their father Septimius Severus.
The province they sat in is Britannia, annexed in AD 43 and covering 170,292 km². Today the United Kingdom has 173 Roman places on our cities layer, which come from the Pleiades gazetteer. The layer does not say which of them were coloniae, so you cannot tell rank from the dots.
The thing people get wrong
Many people think a colonia was a place where Romans took over a native town by force and pushed the people out. Sometimes land was taken for veterans, but a colonia was also a legal status, and later it was often given as an honour to a city that already existed. Rome could raise a town to colonia rank as a reward, as York shows, so the rank says little about how the town began [1].
Colonia vs municipium vs civitas
| Colonia | Municipium | Civitas | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Town of Roman citizens, often veterans | Self-governing town with a charter | Native community or its capital town |
| Origin | Settled from Rome, or promoted | Existing town brought under Rome | Tribal or city community in the provinces |
| Status | Highest rank | Middle rank | Varies |
Frequently asked questions
Is a Roman colonia the same as a colony today?
Not quite. A modern colony is ruled from far away. A Roman colonia was a town of Roman citizens with its own local government, set up to hold land and show Roman life.
Who lived in a colonia?
Roman citizens, very often retired soldiers who were given land. Native people lived in the surrounding countryside, and some moved into town.
Can I see coloniae on the map?
No. The cities layer shows places from the Pleiades gazetteer and does not mark their legal rank.
Sources
- Colonia (Roman), Wikipedia.
- Romanization (cultural), Wikipedia.
- Every figure from our own map is worked out from the datasets on the data sources page (checked against Ancient World Mapping Center outlines and Pleiades).