Rome and the East
occur, and the story may very likely be legend. But the Severan period was
exactly that in which a whole series of places not far away—Heliopolis, Tyre,
Sebaste, Emesa, Sidon, Petra, Bostra, followed in the midcentury by Neapo-
lis and Philippopolis—did gain this status. It had been something to which
a middle-rank town like Tiberias could then reasonably have aspired.
That aspiration, whether a historical reality in itself or not, reflects the
third, final, and most complex stage of Roman ‘‘colonisation’’ in the Near
East. The three stages can be regarded as quite distinct: firstly, the settlement
of a veterancoloniaat Berytus under Augustus; secondly, the threecoloniaeof,
or on the borders of, Judaea, namely Ptolemais, Caesarea, and Aelia Capi-
tolina, founded between the mid-first and mid-second century..;and,
thirdly, the widespread grants of the status ofcoloniain the Severan period
and the mid-third century, extending far into the newly conquered territory
of Mesopotamia. The successive phases will be discussed in order here; given
the importance and novelty of the nature of ‘‘colonisation’’ under Severus,
that period will be discussed separately from the remaining period up to the
mid-third century.
Berytus and Itsterritorium; Heliopolis
Alone of all thecoloniaeto be considered here, Berytus belongs in the only
major phase of organized veteran settlement outside Italy in Roman history,
the age of Caesar and Augustus.^11 Before that period organised colonial settle-
ment outside Italy was almost unknown: thecoloniaof Narbo in southern
Gaul (..) was indeed the only example of a pre-Caesarian provincial
colony which was successfully established and survived as a formal entity.
After the reign of Augustus, actualcoloniae, involving the establishment of
settlers and the formation of a new city constitution, can be found; but they
are not common, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish such a
settlement from the mere conferment of the titlecoloniaon an existing city,
with some or all of the associated rights. An extra complication is added to
the question by the fact that one of our best and most used items of evidence
ontheformalandlegalcharacterofcoloniaecomes not only from the main
. Among more recent works on this major topic, note F. Vittinghoff,Römische Kolo-
nisation und Bürgerrechtspolitik unter Caesar und Augustus(); B. M. Levick,Roman Colonies
in Southern Asia Minor(); P. A. Brunt,Italian Manpower, ..–..(), chap.
and app. ; L. J. F. Keppie,Colonisation and Veteran Settlement in Italy, –..(); J. C.
Mann,Roman Colonisation and Veteran Settlement during the Principate().