[1447] Liv. xxxv. 7 (193 B.C.) “M. Sempronius tribunus plebis ... plebem rogavit plebesque scivit ut cum sociis ac nomine Latino creditae pecuniae jus idem quod cum civibus Romanis esset.” The enactment was produced by the discovery that Roman creditors escaped the usury laws by using Italians as their agents.
[1448] Macrob. Sat. iii. 17, 6.
[1449] Cic. pro Balbo 8, 20 “foederatos populos fieri fundos oportere ... non magis est proprium foederatorum quam omnium liberorum.” For the formula of acceptance (“fundi—i.e. auctores—facti sunt”) cf. Festus p. 89.
[1450] Cic. pro Balbo 24, 54 “Latinis, id est foederatis.”
[1451] The distinction is expressed in the familiar socii ac nominis Latini (Liv. xli. 8), socii et Latium (Sall. Hist. i. 17), and perhaps in socii Latini nominis, if this last expression is to be regarded as an asyndeton.
[1452] These twelve colonies, with the dates of their foundations, are—Ariminum (268 B.C.), Beneventum (268), Firmum (264), Aesernia (263), Brundisium (244), Spoletium (241), Cremona and Placentia (218), Copia (193), Valentia (192), Bononia (189), Aquileia (181).
[1453] The later Latin colonists have of right no conubium with Rome (Ulp. Reg. v. 4 “Conubium habent cives Romani cum civibus Romanis; cum Latinis autem et peregrinis ita si concessum sit”). The change may have come with this last outburst of Latin colonisation in Italy; but it may be as late as the extension of latinitas to the provinces. For the right of commercium possessed by these colonies see Cic. pro Caec. 35, 102 “jubet enim (Sulla Volaterranos) eodem jure esse quo fuerint Ariminenses, quos quis ignorat duodecim coloniarum fuisse et a civibus Romanis hereditates capere potuisse?”
[1454] Appian (B.C. i. 23), speaking of C. Gracchus’ proposal to extend the citizenship, suggests a Latin right ψῆφον ἐν ταῖς Ῥωμαίων χειροτονίαις φέρειν. Livy, with reference to the year 212 B.C., speaks of the sortitio as to the tribe or tribes in which the Latins should vote (xxv. 3, in the trial of Postumius “sitella ... lata est ut sortirentur ubi Latini suffragium ferrent”).
[1455] Liv. xli. 8 “Lex sociis ac nominis Latini, qui stirpem ex sese domi relinquerent, dabat ut cives Romani fierent.”
[1456] This was the latinitas given to Cisalpine Gaul in 89 B.C. by a law of the consul Cn. Pompeius Strabo. Ascon. in Pison. p. 3 “Pompeius enim non novis colonis eas (Transpadanas colonias) constituit, sed veteribus incolis manentibus jus dedit Latii, ut possent habere jus quod ceterae Latinae coloniae, id est ut gerendo magistratus civitatem Romanam adipiscerentur.” Consequently when Caesar refounded Comum in this district, in accordance with the lex Vatinia (59 B.C.), the new civitas possessed this right (App. B.C. ii. 26).