Colonies

Levels at a glance

	Level	Cost	Build time	Minimum settlement	Upgrades to	Excludes
	Small Colony	6,000	8	town	Large Colony	Homeland at Homeland or above
	Large Colony	12,000	10	large town	—	Homeland at Homeland or above

Costs in denarii, build time in turns.

Small Colony

A small Latin colony to gain a cultural, military and economic foothold.

The intent behind the establishment of Latin coloniae is to project Roman influence into defeated regions which remain hostile and are beyond the reach of territory explicitly controlled by the res publica. They are designed for defence and have relatively large populations: the numbers given by Livy vary from 2500 colonists, that is males with families in tow, at Cales to 6000 at Alba Fucens, giving an average of 3500-4000 (Liv. 8.16.13-4, 10.1.1).

As the name implies, the colonists of a Colonia Latina held Latin rights, rather than full citizen rights. In spite of this, the majority of the colonists were originally full Roman citizens (Livy 9.24, 9.26, 27.9). Both the landless and small landholders apparently felt that exchanging full citizenship for Latin rights plus a relatively large piece of land was a good bargain.

Politically, the Coloniae Latinae were independent city-states allied to Rome, required to supply soldiers to the Roman army. However, they were not subject to taxation or Roman magistrates, and even had the right to coin their own money. In spite of this high degree of political independence, the bond with Rome was very strong. During the second Punic War, most of the cities allied to Rome in Campania, Apulia, Samnium, and southern Italy abandoned her or were captured. Yet every one of the nine Coloniae Latinae in those areas remained loyal, and none fell to Hannibal. During the Social war, only one of the 33 remaining Coloniae Latinae took up arms against Rome.

Strategy

This level enables factional recruitment outside the unit's homeland up to tier 3 and grants a minor trade bonus, but also causes a minor public order penalty. It increases the spread of the factional culture in 50% (unless Homeland is built).

Requirements: all of these must hold before this level can be built.

• Any Government except Dependency (Indirect Rule, Direct Rule or Homeland)
• Not Homeland region

What it does

• +1 public order (law)
• +1 trade income
• +4 taxable income

Religious belief: spreads 41 beliefs, by how much depending on what the region already believes.

Excludes: building this rules out Homeland at Homeland or above. Choose deliberately: this is not reversible by demolition in every case.

Large Colony

A major colony of Roman veterans that solidifies our grip on these lands, our people are here to stay.

This level enables top tier factional recruitment outside unit's homeland and grants a better trade bonus, but also causes a bigger public order penalty. It increases spread of the factional culture in 80% (unless Homeland is built).

Roman veteran colonies, the Coloniae Militaris, were by far the most numerous type of military settlements established by Rome. Roughly 180 were founded in just over a century, from the time of Marius through the reign of Augustus. The practice of establishing military colonies continued throughout the Principate. The primary purpose of the Coloniae Militaris was much different from the other types of Roman coloniae. They were not meant to secure a frontier (though they certainly did so), but to provide security in retirement for the landless soldiers of the professional army.

In the first century BC, almost all Roman soldiers were Roman citizens and naturally preferred to settle in Italy. As a consequence, about 70 of the 180 Roman military colonies founded in and around the 1st century BC were established in Italy. Yet there was relatively little unsettled land available at this time. Sulla solved this problem by settling his veterans on land confiscated from his political enemies. Caesar and the triumvirs preferred to avoid the political problems this caused and settled more of their veterans outside of Italy. Faced with the problem of reducing the size of the army by hundreds of thousands of men at the end of the civil war period, Augustus was forced to expel some Italians from their land in order take care of his soldiers, but was usually able to offer compensation.

During the 1st century BC, large numbers of coloniae were also founded in Spain (26), Africa (23), Asia Minor (14), Gaul (13), and Mauretania (12).

Requirements: all of these must hold before this level can be built.

• Direct Rule, Not Homeland region, the region's terrain is not Desert or Mountains and the region's climate is not Sub artic, Alpine or Arid; or the region's water source is River, Springs, Lake or Oasis

What it does

• +2 public order (law)
• +2 trade income
• +8 taxable income

Religious belief: spreads 41 beliefs, by how much depending on what the region already believes.

Excludes: building this rules out Homeland at Homeland or above. Choose deliberately: this is not reversible by demolition in every case.

Traits and retinue

Traits