Municipia , Roman Empire

Abstract

Abstract Municipia were one of the legal categories of city in the Roman empire. The rights and privileges of provincial cities depended on the category to which it belonged. The grant of municipal status was in effect a general concession of the ius Latii to foreign communities; it was also part of a historical process which involved the administrative structure of urban communities. There was no difference between Roman and Latin municipia in the imperial provinces. Grants of municipal status, however, differed from case to case and local epigraphy demonstrates that each city had its own pattern of historical development. There was a significant difference between foreign communities ( civitates peregrinae ) which acquired the legal status of a municipium and former military settlements which became municipia .