Note 134 — Below is a copy of the deeds of the divine Augustus, by which he subjected the whole world to the dominion of the Roman people, and of the amounts which he expended upon the commonwealth and the Roman people, as engraved upon two brazen columns which are set up at Rome.1
Reading edition
Cf. an article by Mommsen, Hermes, XVIII, 161 ff. on the “Colonies of Italy from Sulla to Vespasian.”
When Augustus wrote, Italy was separated from Illyricum by the river Arsia. Yet Illyricum was not counted by him as a province. It had colonies at Emona, Iader, Salona, and possibly at Epidaurus and Narona. Cf. C. I. L., III, pp. 489, 374, 304, 287, 291. Mommsen thinks this omission was intended by Augustus; that he had been able to satisfy some of his veterans, to whom Italian farms had been promised, with lands over the Italian border in Illyricum, and because he could not call it a province, nor yet a part of Italy, he eludes the difficulty by omitting the Illyrian colonies.
The names of the twenty-eight Italian colonies are somewhat difficult to establish. Several perplexing questions rise in the attempt. What of the colonies founded by Antony and Octavian as triumvirs? Were they Antoniæ Juliæ, or some Juliæ and others Antoniæ? If the former were true and they dropped the name Antoniæ, the result would be far more than twenty-eight Julian and Augustan colonies. The second probability is more likely, and that the colonies Antoniæ simply dropped their name after Actium.
A third difficulty rises in the case of the enlargement of old colonies and their resettlement, as, e. g., of Minturnæ. Cf. Hyginus, De Lim., p. 177. Mommsen gives a list which nearly meets the statement of Augustus. 1. Ariminum, Augusta; 2. Ateste; 3. Augusta Prætoria; 4. Julia Augusta Taurinorum; 5. Beneventum, Julia Augusta; 6. Bononia; 7. Brixia, Augusta; 8. Capua, Julia Augusta; 9. Castrum novum Etruriæ, Julia; 10. Concordia, Julia; 11. Cumæ (?) Julia; 12. Dertona, Julia; 13. Fanum Fortunæ, Julia; 14. Falerio; 15. Hispellum, Julia; 16. Lucus Feroniæ, Julia; 17. Minturnæ; 18. Nola, Augusta; 19. Parentium, Julia; 20. Parma, Julia Augusta; 21. Pisae, Julia; 22. Pisaurum, Julia; 23. Pola, Julia; 24. Sæna (?), Julia; 25. Sora, Julia; 26. Suessa, Julia; 27. Sutrium, Julia; 28. Tuder, Julia; 29, Venafrum, Julia Augusta. Cf. Marquardt, Röm. Staatsverwaltung, I, 118-132.