independent of the Roman government except in certain cases of higher civil jurisdiction, which come under the direct cognisance of the praetor urbanus at Rome. On the other hand, each community is bound to perform certain services to the Imperial government, such as the contribution of men and horses for military service, the maintenance of the imperial post through its neighbourhood, and the occasional entertainment of Roman officials or billeting of soldiers. The citizens were of two classes: (1) cives, whether by birth, naturalization or emancipation, (2) incolae, who enjoyed a partial citizenship based on domicile for a certain period. Both classes were liable to civic burdens, but the incolae had none of the privileges of citizenship except a limited right of voting. The citizens were grouped in either tribes or curiae, and accordingly the assembly sometimes bore the name of Comitia Tributa, sometimes that of Comitia Curiata. The theoretical powers of these comitia were extensive both in the election of magistrates and in legislation. But the growing influence of the senate over elections on the one hand, and on the other hand the increasing reluctance of leading citizens to become candidates for office (see below), gradually made popular election a mere form. The senatorial recommendation of the necessary number of candidates seems to have been merely ratified in the comitia; and a Spanish municipal law of the 1st century makes special provision for occasions on which an insufficient number of candidates are forthcoming. In Italy, however, the reality of popular elections seems to have survived to a later date. The inscriptions at Pompeii, for instance, give evidence of keenly contested elections in the 2nd century. The local senate, or curia, always exercised an important influence on. municipal politics. Its members formed the local nobility, and at an early date special privileges were granted by Rome to provincials who were senators in their native towns. For the composition, powers, and history of the provincial senate see Decurio. The magistrates were elected annually, and were six in number, forming three pairs of colleagues. The highest magistrates were the IIviri (Duoviri) juri dicundo, who had charge, as their name implies, of all local jurisdiction, and presided over the assembly. Candidates for this office were required to be over 25 years of age, to have held one of the minor magistracies, and to possess all the qualifications required of members of the local senate (see Decurio). Next in dignity were the IIviri aediles, who had charge of the roads and public buildings, the games and the corn-supply, and exercised police control throughout the town. They appear to have been regarded as subordinate colleagues (collegae minores) of the IIviri juri dicundo, and in some towns at least to have had the right to convene and preside over the comitia in the absence of the latter. Indeed many inscriptions speak of IVviri (Quattuorviri) consisting of two IVviri juri dicundo and two IVviri aediles; but in the majority of cases the former are regarded as distinct and superior magistrates. The two quaestores, who appear to have controlled finance in a large number of municipia, cannot be traced in others; and it is probable that in the municipia, as at Rome, the quaestorship was locally instituted, as need arose, to relieve the supreme magistrates of excessive business. Other municipal magistrates frequently referred to in the inscriptions are the quinquennales and praefecti. The quinquennales superseded the IIviri or IVviri juri dicundo every five years, and differed from them only in possessing, in addition to their other powers, those exercised in Rome before the time of Sulla by the censors. Two classes of praefecti are found in the municipalities under the Empire, both of which are to be distinguished from the officials who bore that name in the municipia before the Social War. The first class consists of those praefecti who were nominated as temporary delegates by the IIviri, when through illness or compulsory absence they were unable to discharge the duties of their office. The second class, referred to in inscriptions by the name of praefecti ab decurionibus creati lege Petronia, seem to have been appointed by the local senate in case of a complete absence of higher magistrates, such as would have led in Rome to the appointment of an interrex.
From a social point of view the municipia of the Roman Empire may be treated under three heads: (1) as centres of local self-government, (2) as religious centres, (3) as industrial centres. (1) The chief feature of the local government of the towns is the widespread activity of the municipal authorities in improving the general conditions of life in the town. In the municipalities, as in Rome, provision was made out of the public funds for feeding the poorest part of the population, and providing a supply of corn which could be bought by ordinary citizens at a moderate price. In Pliny’s time there existed in many towns public schools controlled by the municipal authorities, concerning which Pliny remarks that they were a source of considerable disturbance in the town at the times when it was necessary to appoint teachers. He himself encouraged the establishment of another kind of municipal school at Como, where the leading townspeople subscribed for the maintenance of the school, and the control, including the appointment of teachers, remained in the hands of the subscribers. Physicians seem to have been maintained in many towns at the public expense. The water-supply was also provided out of the municipal budget, and controlled by magistrates appointed for the purpose. To enable it to bear the expense involved in all these undertakings the local treasury was generally assisted by large benefactions, either in money or in works, from individual citizens; but direct taxation for municipal purposes was hardly ever resorted to. The treasury was filled out of the proceeds of the landed possessions of the community, especially such fruitful sources of revenue as mines and quarries, and out of import and export duties. It was occasionally subsidized by the emperor on occasions of sudden and exceptional calamity.
2. The chief feature in the religious life of the towns was the important position they occupied as centres for the cult of the emperor. Caesar-worship as an organized cult developed spontaneously in many provincial towns during the reign of Augustus, and was fostered by him and his successors as a means of promoting in these centres of vigour and prosperity a strong loyalty to Rome and the emperor, which was one of the firmest supports of the latter’s power. The order of Augustales, officials appointed to regulate the worship of the emperor in the towns, occupied a position of dignity and importance in provincial society. It was composed of the leading and the wealthiest men among the lower classes of the population. By the organization of the order on these lines Augustus secured the double object of maintaining Caesar-worship in all the most vigorous centres of provincial life, and attracting to himself and his successors the special devotion of the industrial class which had its origin in the municipia of the Roman Empire, and has become the greatest political force in modern Europe.
3. The development of this free industrial class is the chief feature of the municipia considered as centres of industry and handicraft. The rise to power of the equestrian order in Rome during the last century of the Republic had to some extent modified the old Roman principle that trade and commerce were beneath the dignity of the governing class; but long after the fall of the Republic the aristocratic notion survived in Rome that industry and handicrafts were only fit for slaves. In the provincial towns, however, this idea was rapidly disappearing in the early years of the Empire, and even in the country towns of Italy the inscriptions give evidence not much later of the existence of a large and flourishing free industrial class, proud of its occupation, and bound together by a strong esprit de corps. Already the members of this class show a strong tendency to bind themselves together in gilds (collegia, sodalitates), and the existence of countless associations of the kind is revealed by the inscriptions. The formation of societies for religious and other purposes was frequent at Rome from the earliest times in all classes of the free population. After the time of Sulla these societies were regarded by the government with suspicion, mainly on account of the political uses to which they were turned, and various measures were passed for their suppression in Rome and Italy. This policy was continued by the early emperors and extended to the whole Empire, but in spite of opposition the gilds in the provincial towns grew and flourished. The ostensible objects of nearly all such collegia of which we have any knowledge were twofold, the maintenance of the worship of some god, and provision for the performance of proper funerary rights for its members. But under cover of these two main objects, the only two purposes for which such combinations were allowed under the Empire, associations of all kinds grew up. The organization of the gilds was based on that of the municipality. Each elected its officers and treasurers at an annual meeting, and every five years a revision of the list of members was held, corresponding to that of the senators held quinquennially by the city magistrates. It is doubtful how far these societies served to organize and improve particular industries. There is no evidence to show that any societies during the first three centuries consisted solely of workers at a single craft. But there can be little doubt that the later craft gilds were a development, through the industrial gilds of the provincial towns, of one of the most ancient features of Roman life.
Remarkable concord seems generally to have existed in the municipia between the various classes of the population. This is accounted for partly by the strong civic feeling which formed a bond of unity stronger than most sources of friction, and
