Municipium
Originally the Roman term for a town the inhabitants of which, called
municipes, possessed only part of the rights of Roman citizenship—viz., the
private rights of
commercium and
conubium, while
they were excluded from the political rights, the
ius suffragii and the
ius honorum, the right to elect and to be elected to office. As Roman
citizens, they did not serve (like the allies) in cohorts under a prefect, but in the legions
under tribunes; they were, however, assigned to legions distinct from the others, since they
were not inscribed on the lists of the Roman tribes, and therefore could not be levied in
accordance with those lists. After the dissolution of the Latin League in B.C. 338, the allied
towns were put into the position of municipia.
At first there were two classes of municipia, according as they retained an independent
communal constitution or not. The second class, which had no senate, magistrates, or popular
assembly of its own, and was governed directly by Rome, consisted of the
praefecturae (q. v.). As the municipia gradually obtained the full rights of
citizenship, their nature changed; all persons were now called
municipes, who did not belong to the town of Rome by birth, but were full Roman
citizens; and hence belonged to a Roman tribe, were registered at Rome, could elect and be
elected to office, and served in the Roman legions.
The Lex Iulia of B.C. 90 made all the towns of Italy municipia with full civic rights, and
every Italian country town was now called a Roman municipium. Gradually the towns in the
provinces received municipal rights, till finally Caracalla made all towns of the Empire
municipia. Originally one class of municipia had retained their own laws and their own
constitution; this arrangement underwent a change when they were received
into the Roman citizenship, inasmuch as the Roman law then became binding upon them, and a
regularly organized administration on the Roman model was introduced. The citizens were
divided into
curiae, and at their Comitia Curiata passed all kinds of
decrees, and chose officers; most of these rights, however, passed into the hands of the local
senate towards the end of the first century. This senate usually consisted of 100
life-members, called
decuriones, and in every fifth year the vacancies
were filled up from those who had held office or were qualified by their property. The highest
officials were the
duo viri, who were judges and presided at the
assemblies of the people, especially at elections, and in the senate; the two
quinquennales, chosen for a year, once in five years, and corresponding to the Roman
censors; and
quaestores and
aediles, officials with
similar duties to the Roman officials of the same name. (See
Magistratus.) Besides the decuriones, whose position became hereditary at
the end of the Empire, there were, under the heathen emperors, a second privileged class,
known as Augustales, chosen by decree of the local senate and next to that body in rank. They
made up a collegium, which was originally dedicated to the worship of the Julian family, and
in later times seems to have extended its functions to the worship of the other emperors. The
decline of the municipal system, the prosperity of which had depended on the liberty and
independence of the administration, set in at the end of the second century after Christ, when
the emperors began to transfer to the municipia the burdens of the State, and the decuriones
gradually became mere imperial officials, who were more especially responsible for the
collection of the tribute imposed.