COLONY (κολωνία, G3149). The word derives from Lat. colere, “to cultivate.” Colonus was the common Lat. for a tenant farmer, and a colonia was an assemblage of such cultivators. Early in Rom. history the word assumed political and military connotations, and was used for groups of free Romans planted in conquered territory for reasons of security or strategy.

The earliest recorded colonies are groups of some 300 families sent to garrison the coastline at Ostia, Antium, and Terracina in the 4th cent. b.c. By 200 b.c. such coastal colonies were numerous. The first colony outside Italy was Junonia, an unsuccessful foundation by C. Gracchus, and part of his huge program of social reform in 123 b.c. The site was successfully colonized by Julius Caesar and Augustus, by whose time the foundation of colonies had assumed imperial significance.

The settlement of Rom. citizens in overseas territories received strong stimulus from the need to employ and reward large numbers of retired veteran legionaries. This immediate purpose tied in with a policy of imperial Rome, which may be traced back to Julius Caesar and Augustus, to Romanize the Mediterranean world and disguise the military power which held its multiracial mass together.

Philippi was such a foundation, as were Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, Corinth, and possibly Iconium, but the word “colony” is used in the NT only in connection with Philippi (Acts 16:12), where Augustus planted a group of demobilized veterans in 30 b.c., to form an outpost and bastion of Rom. power in northern Greece. The citizen soldiers formed the petty aristocracy of the place, and three generations later, when Paul arrived, the tradition of self-conscious Romanism was still active. Perhaps this is to be accounted for by the fact that Augustus, following his usual policy of clemency, settled troops of his defeated rival Antony in Philippi. Their privileges, here and in all such foundations, included exemption from the oversight of the provincial governor, immunity from poll and property tax, and the judicial rights of Rom. citizenship. Luke’s account shows clearly the care with which these special privileges were guarded. The magistrates were considerably perturbed to learn that they had hastily denied a Rom. citizen his proper regard.

No new colonies appear to have been founded after Hadrian.

Bibliography A. N. Sherwin-White, The Roman Citizenship (1939); E. M. Blaiklock, The Cities of the New Testament (1965).