Civitas

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Civitas

In the history of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
term civitas (plural civitates) referred to the condition of Roman citizenship. It was also used to describe a type of settlement.

As the empire grew, inhabitants of the outlying Roman province

Roman province

In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italia ....
s would either be classed as dediticii, meaning "capitulants," or be treated as client kingdoms with some independence guaranteed through treaties.

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In the history of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

Latin

Roman province

Tribute

A tribute is wealth one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance....
or the rule of Roman law

Roman law

Roman law is the law system of ancient Rome. As used in the West the term commonly refers to legal developments prior to the Roman/Byzantine state's adopting Greek language as its official language in the 7th century....
.

Prestigious and economically important settlements such as Massilia and Messana are examples of occupied regions granted semi-autonomy during the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
. The island of Malta

Malta

Malta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed country European microstates microstate in the European Union....
was granted this status as a reward for loyalty to Rome during the Second Punic War

Second Punic War

The Second Punic War lasted from 218 BC to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. It was the second of three major wars between Carthage and the Roman Republic....
. The new Romanised urban settlements of these client tribes were also called civitates and were usually re-founded close to the site of an old, pre-Roman capital. At Cirencester

Cirencester

Cirencester is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in Cotswold ....
for example, the Romans made use of the army base that originally oversaw the nearby tribal oppidum

Oppidum

Oppidum is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome. The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space," possibly from the Proto-Indo-European language *ped?m-, "occupied space" or "footprint."...
to create a civitas.

During the later empire, the term was applied not only to friendly native tribes and their towns but also to local government

Local government

Local governments are administrative offices that are smaller than a state. The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government....
divisions in peaceful provinces that carried out civil administration. Land destined to become a civitas was officially divided up, some being granted to the locals and some being owned by the civil government. A basic street grid would be surveyed in but the development of the civitas from there was left to the inhabitants although occasional imperial grants for new public buildings would be made.

Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Senate and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories —examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors....
describes how the Romanised Britons

Roman Britain

Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
embraced the new urban centres:

They spoke of such novelties as 'civilisation', when this was really only a feature of their slavery (Agricola, 21)

The civitates differed from the less well-planned vici

Vicus

In the history of the Roman empire, a vicus was an ad hoc provincial civilian settlement that sprang up close to and because of a nearby official Roman site, usually a military garrison or state-owned mining operation....
that grew up haphazardly around military garrisons, from the colonia

Colonia (Roman)

A Roman colonia was originally a Roman Empire outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of Roman city....
e which were settlements of retired troops and from the formal political entities created from existing settlements called municipia

Municipium

A municipium belonged to the second highest Social class of Ancient Rome cities, being inferior in status to the colonia . The first municipium was Tusculum....
. The civitates were regional market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a law term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host Market, distinguishing them from villages and city....
s complete with a basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a ancient Rome public building , usually located in the Forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC....
and forum

Forum (Roman)

The Forum was the public space in the middle of a Ancient Rome city.A gathering place of great social significance, it was often the scene of diverse activities, including political discussions, meetings, et cetera....
complex providing an administrative and economic focus. Civitates had a primary purpose of stimulating the local economy in order to raise taxes and produce raw materials. All this activity was administered by an ordo or curia, a civitas council consisting of men of sufficient social rank to be able to stand for public office.

Defensive measures were limited at the civitates, rarely more than palisade

Palisade

A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure....
d earthworks in times of trouble, if even that. Towards the end of the empire, the civitates' own local militia

Militia

The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service....
s, led by a decurion

Decurion (military)

A decurion was a cavalry officer in command of a troop or turma of thirty soldiers in the army of the Roman Empire. A Decurion was also in the first century AD a commander of a decuria, an eight-man group sleeping in the same tent....
, likely served as the only defensive force in outlying Romanised areas threatened by barbarians. There is evidence that some civitates maintained some degree of Romanisation and served as population centres beyond the official Roman withdrawal, albeit with limited resources.

External links

(article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)