Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T21:18:19.834Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

THE QUESTION OF THE OPPIDA VETERIS LATII IN PLINY THE ELDER'S NATVRALIS HISTORIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2018

David Espinosa-Espinosa*
Affiliation:
University of Santiago de Compostela

Extract

This article attempts to provide a plausible explanation of a series of expressions used by Pliny the Elder to designate a significant number of communities in Hispania: [oppida] Latio antiquitus donata, [oppida] Latinorum ueterum, oppidani Latii ueteris, [oppida] Latii antiqui and oppida ueteris Latii (Plin. HN 3.7, 3.18, 3.24, 3.25, 4.117). These phrases, commonly explained from a chronological or typological viewpoint, encompass fifty Augustan ciuitates, the most important feature of which was the enjoyment of Latin rights before the sources used by Pliny were written under the Early Principate. To address this issue, the meaning and the use of the term oppidum are first examined. In a second stage, the origin and the sense of the adjectives uetus and antiquum, as well as the adverb antiquitus, are analysed. The results suggest that oppida ueteris Latii and its variants may express, in a simple and comprehensible way, the administrative changes that a group of Republican Latin colonies in Hispania underwent through their transformation into municipia Latina during the reign of Augustus.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 As Beltrán, F., ‘Locorum nuda nomina? La estructura de la descripción pliniana de Hispania’, in Cruz, G., Le Roux, P. and Moret, P. (edd.), La invención de una geografía de la Península Ibérica. II. La época imperial (Madrid, 2007), 115–60Google Scholar, at 115 has noted, it is the most relevant source for explaining the political geography and the administrative organization of the Roman provinces of Hispania at the start of the Principate. In this respect, its numerical accuracy and political-administrative perspective make Pliny's geographical description unique in comparison to the works of Strabo, Mela or Ptolemy.

2 This has been proposed in modern historiography since the beginning of the studies on the nature, compositional method and written sources of the Naturalis historia (especially those referring to the geography books, that is, the Dreiquellentheorie) at the end of the nineteenth century: Cuntz, O., De Augusto Plinii geographicorum auctore (Bonn, 1888)Google Scholar; id., ‘Agrippa und Augustus als Schriftsteller des Plinius’, Neue Jahrbücher für Philologie und Paedagogik Supp. 17 (1890), 475–526; Klotz, A., Quaestiones plinianae geographicae (Berlin, 1906)Google Scholar; Detlefsen, D., Die Geographie Afrikas bei Plinius und Mela und ihre Quellen. Die Formulae Prouinciarum, eine Hauptquelle des Plinius (Berlin, 1908)Google Scholar; de Lessert, C. Pallu, ‘L’œuvre géographique d'Agrippa et d'Auguste’, MSAF 7–8 (1909), 215–98Google Scholar. Far from refuting this chronological attribution, the most recent studies carried out in the last fifty years have underlined the fact that the administrative documentation consulted by Pliny bore the trace of Augustus. Some of the main works include Henderson, M.I., ‘Julius Caesar and Latium in Spain’, JRS 31 (1942), 113Google Scholar; Sallmann, K., Die Geographie des älteren Plinius in ihrem Verhältnis zu Varro: Versuch einer Quellenanalyse (Berlin and New York, 1971)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Desanges, J., Pline l'Ancien. Histoire Naturelle. Livre V (1–46) (Paris, 1980)Google Scholar; Christol, M., ‘Pline l'Ancien et la formula prouinciarum de la province de Narbonnaise’, in Demougin, S. (ed.), La mémoire perdue. À la recherche des archives oubliées, publiques et privées de la Rome antique (Paris, 1994), 4563Google Scholar; Beltrán, F., ‘Municipium c. R., oppidum c. R. y oppidum Latinum en la NH de Plinio: una revisión del problema desde la perspectiva hispana’, in González, J. (ed.), Ciudades privilegiadas en el Occidente Romano (Seville, 1999), 247–67Google Scholar; id. (n. 1); García-Fernández, E., El municipio latino. Origen y desarrollo constitucional (Madrid, 2001)Google Scholar; Abascal, J.M., ‘Los tres viajes de Augusto a Hispania y su relación con la promoción jurídica de ciudades’, Iberia 9 (2006), 6378Google Scholar.

3 For an overview on this problem, see García-Fernández, E., ‘El ius Latii y los municipia Latina’, SHHA 9 (1991), 2941Google Scholar; id. (n. 2).

4 Detlefsen (n. 2); Pallu de Lessert (n. 2). More recently, see Henderson (n. 2), 1–5; Brunt, P.A., Italian Manpower (Oxford, 1971), 585 and 589Google Scholar; Christol (n. 2); Beltrán (n. 1), 118; García-Fernández, E., ‘Gracurris y los oppida de antiguo Lacio’, in Andreu, F.J. (ed.), Los Vascones de las fuentes antiguas. En torno a una etnia de la Antigüedad peninsular (Barcelona, 2009), 215–30Google Scholar, at 221. According to Christol (n. 2), 45, Pliny would have confirmed the existence of documents of this kind in the description of Gallia Narbonensis, explicitly indicating that adiecit formulae Galba Imperator ex Inalpinis Avanticos atque Bodionticos quorum oppidum Dinia (Plin. HN 3.37).

5 For details, see the references cited above.

6 As García-Fernández (n. 4), 222 has argued, since the bulk of the Plinian administrative information (that is, the formulae prouinciarum) dates from Augustus, uetus, antiquum and antiquitus should be analysed in the context of the reign of Augustus, not of the Flavian period.

7 On this matter, see Henderson (n. 2); Desanges (n. 2); Beltrán (n. 2); id. (n. 1); García-Fernández (n. 2); id. (n. 4).

8 Pliny, in referring to the provinces of Hispania, provides a numerical summary of a large amount of administrative data. After that, he breaks this down selectively, enumerating the conuentus and indicating the total number of ciuitates in general terms and by legal-administrative rank. As Beltrán (n. 1), 120 has pointed out, this is a rare privilege for historians of antiquity, so often bereft of quantitative data.

9 Although Pliny indicates with satisfaction the thoroughness of his work by way of several summae, according to Naas, V., Le Project encyclopédique de Pline l'Ancien (Rome, 2002), 82Google Scholar and to Carey, S., Pliny's Catalogue of Culture. Art and Empire in the Natural History (New York, 2003), 21–2Google Scholar, expressions such as rerum dignarum cura and ex exquisitis auctoribus would suggest a discrimen, i.e. a selection of information, placing the focus more on the quantity than on the content. This could possibly be associated with Pliny's eagerness for efficiency (Plin. Ep. 3.5.12; García-Fernández [n. 2], 117; Naas [this note], 135–6), with the principle of economy found in different parts of the text (Beltrán [n. 1]) and with the scientific purpose of the work. In this sense, as Pliny himself states, the aim of his encyclopaedic project was indicare, non indagare (Plin. HN 11.8), which may explain why he did not specify the colonial or municipal status of the oppida ueteris Latii, and why he omitted their names. We should also bear in mind that he only introduces the name of populi and towns digna memoratu aut Latio sermone dictu facilia (Plin. HN 3.7, 3.139).

10 In this regard, see Henderson (n. 2), 6–7; Brunt (n. 4), 584–5; Galsterer-Kröll, B., ‘Zu den spanischen Städtelisten des Plinius’, AEA 48 (1975), 120–8Google Scholar; González, J., ‘Colonización y latinización en la provincia Baetica’, in Angeli, M.G. and Donati, A. (edd.), Il cittadino, lo straniero, il barbaro, fra integrazione ed emarginazione nell'Antichità (Rome, 2005), 289303Google Scholar, at 301; García-Fernández (n. 2), 83; id. (n. 4), 219 n. 23.

11 Henderson (n. 2), 6–7; Galsterer-Kröll (n. 10).

12 González, J., ‘Reflexiones sobre los municipios provinciales: Plinio y la Tabula Siarensis’, in González-Román, C. and Padilla, A. (edd.), Estudios sobre las ciudades de la Bética (Granada, 2002), 177–84Google Scholar, at 183.

13 Henderson (n. 2), 7–8; Brunt (n. 4), 584.

14 Henderson (n. 2), 5–12; Sherwin-White, A.N., The Roman Citizenship (Oxford, 1973), 230–2Google Scholar; González (n. 12), 182–3; García-Fernández (n. 2), 102–4.

15 Galsterer-Kröll (n. 10), 127–8. On the Latin status of the Turdetani during the Augustan age, see Strabo 3.2.15.

16 This thesis has been supported and developed by Henderson (n. 2), 10; García-Fernández (n. 3), 37–41; id. (n. 2), 71, 73–8, 82–7, 95–104 and 132; id. (n. 4), 223–5; Espinosa-Espinosa, D., Plinio y los ‘oppida de antiguo Lacio’. El proceso de difusión del Latium en Hispania Citerior (Oxford, 2014)Google Scholar.

17 With respect to the latter, see Henderson (n. 2), 10–11; Brunt (n. 4), 588; García-Fernández (n. 4), 230.

18 On the probable Latin colonial status of Pompelo, see García-Fernández (n. 2), 81. In his opinion, this town may have suffered a process of deminutio as a result of providing hypothetical support to the political and military cause of its conditor (Pompey the Great, according to Strabo 3.4.10) during the bellum ciuile. This decision would explain why the Pompelonenses appear in the Naturalis historia as stipendiarii (Plin. HN 3.24).

19 On the possible Latin colonial status of Cesse/Tarraco, see Mar, R. and de Arbulo, J. Ruiz, ‘Tarraco. Morfología y trazado urbano’, in Ribeiro, M.C. and Sousa, A. (edd.), Evolução da paisagem urbana: transformação morfológica dos tecidos históricos (Braga, 2013), 6389Google Scholar, at 80; Espinosa-Espinosa, D., ‘Reflexiones sobre la probable promoción de Cesse/Tarraco a colonia latina’, Klio 98 (2016), 570604CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Tarraco is described as colonia in the Naturalis historia (Plin. HN 3.21). On the Roman colonial status of Tarraco, see Alföldy, G., ‘Wann wurde Tarraco römische Kolonie?’, in Paci, G. (ed.), Epigraphai. Miscellanea epigrafica in onore di Lidio Gasperini (Rome, 2000), 322Google Scholar; de Arbulo, J. Ruiz, ‘La fundación de la colonia Tarraco y los estandartes de César’, in Jiménez, J.L. and Ribera, A. (edd.), Valencia y las primeras ciudades romanas de Hispania (Valencia, 2002), 137–56Google Scholar.

20 Among the authors who support a Latin colonial status for all or some of these communities are Galsterer, H., Untersuchungen zum römischen Städtewesen auf der Iberischen Halbinsel (Berlin, 1971)Google Scholar; id., La trasformazione delle antiche colonie latine e il nuovo ius Latii’, in Calbi, A. and Susini, G. (edd.), Pro Populo Arimenese (Faenza, 1995), 7994Google Scholar; Humbert, M., ‘Libertas id est ciuitas: autour d'un conflit négatif de citoyennetés au IIe s. avant J.-C.’, MEFRA 88 (1976), 221–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Knapp, R.C., Aspects of the Roman Experience in Iberia 206–100 b.c. (Valladolid, 1977)Google Scholar; Marín, M.A., Emigración, colonización y municipalización en la Hispania republicana (Granada, 1988)Google Scholar; id., Observaciones sobre las colonias latinas en la Hispania meridional’, in González-Román, C. and Padilla, A. (edd.), Estudios sobre las ciudades de la Bética (Granada, 2002), 277–87Google Scholar; Canto, A.M., ‘Colonia Patricia Corduba: nuevas hipótesis sobre su fundación y nombre’, Latomus 50 (1991), 846–57Google Scholar; id., La Vetus Vrbs de Itálica, quince años después. La planta hipodámica de D. Demetrio de los Ríos, con otras novedades’, CPAM 25 (1999), 145–91Google Scholar; García-Fernández (n. 2); id. (n. 4); Alföldy, G., ‘In omnes prouincias exemplum: Hispanien und das Imperium Romanum’, in Urso, G. (ed.), Hispania terris omnibus felicior. Premesse ed esiti di un proceso di integrazione (Pisa, 2002), 183–99Google Scholar; Ripollès, P.P. and Velaza, J., ‘Saguntum, colonia latina’, ZPE 141 (2002), 285–91Google Scholar; Pena, M.J., ‘La tribu Velina en Mallorca y los nombres de Palma y Pollentia’, Faventia 26 (2004), 6990Google Scholar; Caballos, A., ‘Colonizzazione cesariana, legislazione municipale e integrazione provinciale: la Provincia Hispania Ulterior’, in Urso, G. (ed.), Cesare: precursore o visionario? (Pisa, 2010), 6384Google Scholar; id., Colonización, integración y vertebración. El caso de Itálica’, in Demougin, S. and Scheid, J. (edd.), Colons et colonies dans le monde romain (Rome, 2012), 739Google Scholar; Le Roux, P., La Péninsule Ibérique aux époques romaines (fin du IIIe s. av. n. È. – début du VIe s. de n. È.) (Paris, 2010)Google Scholar; Beltrán, F., ‘Les colonies latines d'Hispanie (IIe siècle av. n. È.): émigration italique et intégration politique’, in Barrandon, N. and Kirbihler, F. (edd.), Les gouverneurs et les provinciaux sous la République romaine (Rennes, 2011), 131–44Google Scholar; Vaquerizo, D., Murillo, J.F. and Garriguet, J.A., ‘Novedades de arqueología en Corduba, colonia Patricia’, in González, J. and Saquete, J.C. (edd.), Colonias de César y Augusto en la Andalucía romana (Rome, 2011), 946Google Scholar; Ribera, A., ‘La realidad material de la fundación de Valentia, una colonia en Iberia a mediados del siglo II a.C., y la situación previa de su entorno territorial inmediato’, in Mercuri, L., González-Villaescusa, R. and Bertoncello, F. (edd.), Implantations humaines en milieu littoral méditerranéen: facteurs d'installation et processus d'appropriation de l'espace (Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen Âge) (Antibes, 2014), 149–61Google Scholar.

21 de Quiroga, P. López Barja, ‘La provincia Transduriana’, in Sánchez-Palencia, F.J. and Mangas, J. (edd.), El Edicto del Bierzo. Augusto y el Noroeste de Hispania (Ponferrada, 2000), 3145Google Scholar, at 32.

22 On this matter, see Detlefsen (n. 2); Pallu de Lessert (n. 2); Christol (n. 2), 47. For an approach to the concept of prouincia, see Richardson, J., The Language of Empire: Rome and the Idea of Empire from the Third Century b.c. to the Second Century a.d. (Cambridge and New York, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Henderson (n. 2), 1–5.

24 As an acceptable working hypothesis, it could be proposed that the formulae prouinciarum of Hispania were created at the same time as those of Sicily and Gallia Narbonensis. For details on the date of these formulae prouinciarum, see Pallu de Lessert (n. 2), 289–90; Christol (n. 2), 55–7 and 61; Wilson, R.J.A., Sicily under the Roman Empire. The Archaeology of a Roman Province, 36 b.c.a.d. 535 (London, 1990), 35–8Google Scholar and 42; Vera, D., ‘Augusto, Plinio il Vecchio e la Sicilia in età imperiale. A proposito di recenti scoperte epigrafiche e archeologiche ad Agrigento’, Kokalos 42 (1996), 3158Google Scholar, at 32–3. For a comprehensive overview on the three stays of Augustus in the West, see Abascal (n. 2).

25 ------ / M. Drus[o L. Pisone co(n)s(ulibus)] / decre[to decurion(um)] (AE 2004, 809 = HEp 13, 2003/2004, 332). On this inscription and the Latin municipal status of Segobriga under Augustus, see Alföldy, G., Abascal, J.M. and Cebrián, R., ‘Nuevos monumentos epigráficos del foro de Segobriga. Parte primera: inscripciones votivas, imperiales y de empleados del Estado romano’, ZPE 143 (2003), 255–74Google Scholar; Abascal, J.M., Almagro-Gorbea, M. and Cebrián, R., ‘Segobriga: caput Celtiberiae and Latin municipium’, in Abad, L., Ramallo, S. and Keay, S. (edd.), Early Roman Towns in Hispania Tarraconensis (Portsmouth, 2006), 184–96Google Scholar; Abascal, J.M., Alföldy, G. and Cebrián, R., Segóbriga V: inscripciones romanas, 1986–2010 (Madrid, 2011), 51–2Google Scholar, no. 27; Abascal, J.M. and Almagro-Gorbea, M., ‘Segobriga, la ciudad hispano-romana del sur de la Celtiberia’, in Carrasco, G. (ed.), La ciudad romana en Castilla-La Mancha (Cuenca, 2012), 287370Google Scholar.

26 A second inscription from Segobriga is associated with its promotion to a Latin municipium. The text provides information on M. Porcius M. f. Pup., Caesaris Augusti scriba and patronus Segobrigensium (HEp 10, 2000, 301). This may be connected to the delivery of the document that granted the community its municipal status, as well as to the organization of the new local tabularium and the administrative and financial structure. On this matter, see Abascal, Almagro-Gorbea and Cebrián (n. 25), 188; Abascal (n. 2), 71–2.

27 López Barja de Quiroga (n. 21), 31.

28 The division of Hispania into three provinces in 27 b.c. was questioned by scholars including Syme, R., The Roman Revolution (Oxford, 1939), 326Google Scholar.

29 On these warlike actions, see Flor. 2.33.55–8; Oros. 6.21.10–11. For a reconstruction of P. Carisius’ military operations, see Alföldy, G., Fasti Hispanienses. Senatorische Reichsbeamte und Offiziere in den spanischen Provinzen des römischen Reiches von Augustus bis Diokletian (Wiesbaden, 1969), 131–2Google Scholar.

30 López Barja de Quiroga (n. 21), 35. Dio Cassius (53.26.1) dates the founding of Augusta Emerita to 25 b.c. This town minted a series of coins with the inscriptions P CARISIVS LEG PRO PR (RIC I, 9a and 9b) and P CARISIVS / LEG / AVGVSTI (RIC I, 11a and 11b) between 25–23 and 23–22 b.c. respectively.

31 Syme, R., ‘A governor of Tarraconensis’, in Badian, E. (ed.), Roman Papers II (Oxford, 1979), 732–41Google Scholar, at 733; Étienne, R., ‘L'horloge de la Civitas Igaeditanorum et la creation de la province de Lusitanie’, REA 94 (1992), 355–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 361–2.

32 Similarly, see Cuntz (n. 2), 11; Abascal (n. 2), 77.

33 Without any pretensions to being exhaustive, see RPC 405 (Turiaso): obverse IMP AVGVSTVS P P, reverse TVRIASO, MVN; RPC 392 (Bilbilis): obverse AVGVSTVS DIVI F PATER PATRIAE, reverse MVN AVG(V)STA BILB(ILIS) M SEMP TIBERI L LICI VARO, II VIR; RPC 205 (Dertosa): obverse MVN HIBERA IVLIA, reverse ILERCAVONIA; RPC 433 (Calagurris): obverse MVN CAL IVL, reverse L GRANIO C VALER(IO) II VIR; RPC 234 (Emporiae): obverse EMPORIA, reverse MVNICI(P); RPC 259 (Ilerda): obverse IMP CAESAR DIVI F, reverse MVN ILERDA; RPC 459 (Ercavica): obverse AVGVSTVS DIVI F, reverse MVN ERCAVICA.

34 RPC 429 (Graccurris): obverse TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS, reverse MVNICIP GRACCVRRIS; RPC 425 (Cascantum): obverse TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS, reverse MVNICIP CASCANTVM; RPC 468 (Osicerda): obverse TI CAESAR AVGVSTVS, reverse MVN OSICERDA.

35 On the coinage of Ercavica, see Gomis, M., La ceca de Ercávica (Barcelona and Madrid, 1997)Google Scholar.

36 On this subject, see Capalvo, A., ‘El léxico pliniano sobre Hispania: etnonimia y designación de asentamientos urbanos’, Caesaraugusta 63 (1986), 4967Google Scholar; Papazoglou, F., ‘Oppidum Stobi ciuium Romanorum et municipium Stobensium’, Chiron 16 (1986), 213–37Google Scholar; Beltrán (n. 2); id. (n. 1); García-Fernández (n. 2), 113–17; Andreu, F.J., ‘En torno al ius Latii flavio en Hispania. A propósito de una nueva publicación sobre latinidad’, Faventia 29 (2007), 3746Google Scholar, at 44.

37 One clear example is provided by Ruscino, mentioned by Mela as a colonia during the time of Claudius (Mela 2.84) but catalogued by Pliny as an oppidum Latinum during the Flavian period (Plin. HN 3.32). The use of the same sentence by Pliny and Mela to describe Illiberis (magnae quondam urbis tenue uestigium) would seem to suggest that both authors took their information from the same source, but that Pliny replaced the term colonia with the more generic term oppidum. On this matter, see Gascou, J., ‘Duumvirat, quattuorvirat et statut dans les cités de Gaule Narbonnaise’, in Epigrafia. Actes du colloque en mémoire de Attilio Degrassi (Rome, 1991), 547–63Google Scholar, at 553 n. 23.

38 Among the supporters of this thesis are Braunert, H., ‘Ius Latii in den Stadtrechten von Salpensa und Malaca’, in Corolla Memoriae Erich Sowoboda dedicata (Graz and Cologne, 1966), 6883Google Scholar; Le Roux, P., ‘Municipe et droit latin en Hispania sous l'Empire’, RHD 64 (1986), 325–50Google Scholar; Chastagnol, A., ‘A propos du droit latin provincial’, Iura 38 (1987), 124Google Scholar; Kremer, D., Ius Latinum. Le concept de droit latin sous la République et l'Empire. Romanité et modernité du droit (Paris, 2006)Google Scholar.

39 García-Fernández (n. 2), 75; Andreu (n. 36), 44–5. According to Beltrán (n. 2), 249, it is surprising and significant that there is no numismatic, epigraphic or literary evidence of the existence of this administrative status. As García-Fernández (n. 2), 107 n. 92, 113 n. 105 and Andreu (n. 36), 43–4 n. 44 have pointed out, the only epigraphic references to the term oppidum seem to refer to an urban context: oppidum coloniae or oppidum municipii (Lex Vrs. 73 and 75; Lex Tarent. line 32; CIL II2/5.871: Sabora; AE 1985, 326: Alba Fucens; CIL VIII.9228: Usinaza).

40 On this date, see Christol, M. and Gascou, J., ‘Volubilis, cité fédérée?’, MEFRA 92 (1980), 329–45Google Scholar, at 330 n. 4.

41 See Henderson (n. 2); García-Fernández (n. 3); id. (n. 2).

42 Canto, A.M., ‘Oppida stipendiaria: los municipios flavios en la descripción de Hispania de Plinio’, CPAM 23 (1996), 212–43Google Scholar, at 231 has made an important observation about the adverbial and non-adjectival nature of the term antiquitus. Thus, the expression Latio antiquitus donata refers to a Latium that was received ‘a long time ago’.

43 While there can be no doubt that the transformation of the Latin colonies into Roman municipia was a legal-administrative improvement, the transformation of these colonies into Latin municipia should not be considered in terms of an administrative deminutio but instead as an administrative adjustment following the development of a new procedure of Latin colonization in 89 b.c. On this topic, see García-Fernández (n. 2), 13–29 and 73–8.

44 Roux, P. Le, ‘Droit Latin et municipalisation en Lusitanie sous l'Empire’, in de Urbina, E. Ortiz and Santos, J. (edd.), Teoría y práctica del ordenamiento municipal en Hispania (Vitoria, 1996), 239–53Google Scholar, at 241; Canto (n. 42), 230–8; Beltrán (n. 2), 254; id. (n. 1), 120–1 n. 29. For a discussion on this matter, see García-Fernández (n. 4), 220–5.

45 Desanges (n. 2), 150–60, 165–9. Similarly, E. Ortiz de Urbina, Las comunidades hispanas y el derecho latino. Observaciones sobre los procesos de integración local en la práctica político-administrativa al modo romano (Vitoria, 2000), 42 n. 59.

46 Pena, M.J., ‘Consideraciones sobre el estatuto jurídico de Valentia’, Saguntum 22 (1989), 303–17Google Scholar, at 313; Seguí, J.J., ‘Las familias de Valentia durante el Alto Imperio Romano (I)’, Saitabi 41 (1991), 167–87Google Scholar, at 182; Stylow, A.U., ‘Die Accitani veteres und die Kolonie Iulia Gemella Acci. Zum Problem von veteres, Alt-Stadt und Kolonie in der Hispania Ulterior’, Chiron 30 (2000), 775806Google Scholar, at 781–4.

47 Stylow (n. 46), 805–6.

48 Stylow (n. 46); HEp 10, 2000, 321 = AE 2000, 782.

49 de la Vega, S. García-Dils, ‘Colonia Augusta Firma Astigi (Écija, Sevilla). La estructura urbana de una fundación romana en la Baetica’, in González, J. and Saquete, J.C. (edd.), Colonias de César y Augusto en la Andalucía romana (Rome, 2011), 99128Google Scholar, at 101–3.

50 García-Dils de la Vega (n. 49), 104.

51 The passage from Strabo shows that there were more populi Latini in Gallia Aquitania. The text explicitly states: ‘the Romans have given the Latin rights to certain of the Aquitani just as they have done in the case of the Auscii and the Conuenae’.

52 For a general overview on these ciuitates, see Christol, M., ‘Le droit latin en Narbonnaise: l'apport de l’épigraphie’, in Castillo, C. (ed.), Actas del Coloquio Internacional AIEGL sobre Novedades de epigrafía jurídica romana en el último decenio (Pamplona, 1989), 6576Google Scholar; id. (n. 2); Gascou (n. 37); Chastagnol, A., La Gaule Romaine et le Droit Latin (Lyon, 1995)Google Scholar; id., ‘Les cités de la Gaule Narbonnaise. Les statuts’, in M. Christol and O. Masson (edd.), Actes du Xe Congrès International d’Épigraphie Grecque et Latine (Paris, 1997), 51–73; García-Fernández (n. 2), 38–67.

53 On these populi Latini, see Wilson, R.J.A., ‘Towns of Sicily during the Roman empire’, ANRW 2.11.1 (1988), 90206Google Scholar; id. (n. 24); Manganaro, G., della, ‘A propositolatinizzazione” della Sicilia’, in González, J. (ed.), Roma y las provincias: realidad administrativa e ideología imperial (Madrid, 1994), 161–8Google Scholar.

54 For a historical commentary on these communities, see Teutsch, L., Das Städtewessen in Nordafrika in der Zeit von C. Gracchus bis zum Tode des Kaisers Augustus (Berlin, 1962)Google Scholar; Desanges (n. 2); Shaw, B.D., ‘The Elder Pliny's African geography’, Historia 30 (1981), 424–71Google Scholar.

55 As has been proposed by Teutsch (n. 54), 164, Gascou, J., La politique municipale de l'Empire romain en Afrique proconsulaire de Trajan à Septime Sévère (Rome, 1972)Google Scholar, 25 n. 3, 34–5 and Desanges (n. 2), 201–3, Hippo Regius would also have been a municipium Latinum (Plin. HN 5.22).

56 On the status of these communities, see Letta, C., ‘La creación del municipio de Segusio (Alpes Cottiae) y el problema de los municipia Latina en el Occidente romano’, FlorIlib 17 (2006), 115–34Google Scholar.

57 On this point, see Henderson (n. 2), 10; Teutsch (n. 54), 164; Desanges (n. 2), 285; Wilson (n. 53), 95–9; id. (n. 24), 41–5; Manganaro, G., ‘Per una Storia della Sicilia romana’, ANRW 1.1 (1972), 442–61Google Scholar, at 458; id., ‘La Sicilia da Sesto Pompeo a Diocleziano’, ANRW 2.11.1 (1988), 3–89, at 19–21; id. (n. 53), 161–7; García-Fernández (n. 3); id. (n. 2), 78–104; Letta (n. 56), 121–34. Despite this, scholars such as Chastagnol, A., ‘Considérations sur les municipes latins du premier siècle ap. J.-C.’, in L'Afrique dans l'Occident Romain. Ier siècle av. J.-C. – IVe siècle ap. J.-C. (Rome, 1990), 351–65Google Scholar, Le Roux (n. 38), 331–40 and Kremer (n. 38), 3, 139 and 175 suggest that the Latin municipium did not appear until the time of Claudius or Vespasian.

58 On this matter, see Saumagne, Ch., Le droit Latin et les cités romaines sous l'Empire. Essais critiques (Paris, 1965)Google Scholar; Gascou (n. 37), 552–3; id., ‘Magistratures et sacerdoces municipaux dans les cités de Gaule Narbonnaise’, in M. Christol and O. Masson (edd.), Actes du Xe Congrès International d’Épigraphie Grecque et Latine (Paris, 1997), 75–140, at 107–8, 113–14 and 118–20; Goudineau, C., ‘Le statut de Nîmes et des Volques Arécomiques’, RAN 9 (1976), 105–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roman, D., ‘Aix-en-Provence et les débuts de la colonization de droit latin en Gaule du Sud’, RAN 20 (1987), 185–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Christol (n. 52); Le Roux, P., ‘La question des colonies latines sous l'Empire’, Ktema 17 (1992), 183200Google Scholar; Christol, M. and Heijmans, M., ‘Les colonies latines de Narbonnaise: un nouveau document d'Arles mentionnant la Colonia Iulia Augusta Avennio’, Gallia 49 (1992), 3744CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 40–3; Chastagnol (n. 52); Galsterer-Kröll, B., ‘Latinisches Recht und Municipalisierung in Gallien und Germanien’, in de Urbina, E. Ortiz and Santos, J. (edd.), Teoría y práctica del ordenamiento municipal en Hispania (Vitoria, 1996), 117–29Google Scholar; García-Fernández (n. 2), 38–67.

59 See, in this respect, Christol and Heijmans (n. 58), 40–3; Gascou (n. 37), 560–1; id. (n. 58), 118–20; García-Fernández (n. 2), 38–67. In the opinion of Henderson (n. 2), 10, the Latin colonies in Gallia Narbonensis were preserved because Augustus did not tamper with the affairs of Narbonensis before it was handed over to the Senate in 22 b.c.

60 On this event, see Wilson (n. 53), 94; id. (n. 24), 35; Manganaro (n. 53), 163.

61 Wilson (n. 53), 93; id. (n. 24), 20. Furthermore, Morgantina might also have had Latin colonial status. As proposed by Manganaro (n. 53), 166–7, it is very likely that the town had received the Latium at the end of the Second Punic War, coinciding with the settlement of mercenaries from Hispania in Morgantina (Livy 26.21.13–17).

62 In this regard, see Wilson (n. 24), 33.

63 On this point, see Wilson (n. 24), 33–5 and 44–5.

64 Moreover, there was one municipium ciuium Romanorum on the island of Lipara (Plin. HN 3.93). On these ciuitates, see Wilson (n. 53), 94–101; (n. 24), 35–6.

65 This may be the case of Agrigentum, Haluntium, Halaesa and Lilybaeum. On this matter, see Wilson (n. 53), 98; (n. 24), 42; Manganaro (n. 53), 165; Vera (n. 24).

66 This work was supported by the research groups ‘Ciudades Romanas’ (UCM/930692/HIST—Complutense University of Madrid) and ‘Sincrisis. Investigación en Formas Culturais’ (GI–1919—University of Santiago de Compostela), as well as the research project ‘Nuevas bases documentales para el estudio histórico de la Hispania romana de época republicana: onomástica y latinidad (III–I a.C.)’ (HAR2015–66463–P—Complutense University of Madrid). I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Estela García-Fernández for her valuable contributions in preparing and writing this paper. I would also like to thank the anonymous referees for their insightful comments and suggestions which improved the manuscript, as well as Dr. Charlotte Tupman who kindly revised the final version of the English text.