The RomanColoniaeof the Near East Judaea to settle these disputes, had to bring any significant legionary forces
with him, or thatcolonifrom Ptolemais subsequently played any role in re-
pressing troubles in Judaea, or in the Jewish War itself (as a contingent from
Berytus had done earlier, after Herod’s death in ..).^82 There is also the
puzzle of the limited legal rights given to the newcolonia. We would naturally
suppose that the Empire saw a progression from ‘‘real’’coloniae,involvingthe
settlement of veterans and the granting ofius Italicumand full remission of
tribute, to ‘‘nominal’’coloniae, which might receive full or partial rights de-
pendingontheindulgentiaof the emperor. But in fact Ulpian is categorical as
to the absence of privileges on the part of thiscolonia(Dig.,,):Ptole-
maeensium enim colonia, quae inter Phoenicen et Palaestinam sita est, nihil praeter
nomen coloniae habet. Can it be that, far from being a fundamental conception
ofRomanpubliclaw,integraltotheoverseascoloniaeof the classical period,
theius Italicumwas a legal construct which evolved in the course of the Em-
pire?^83 Or was it, as Miss Levick suggested to me, that Ptolemais had lost
some rights in the period between the foundation and the composition of
Ulpian’sDe Censibusunder Caracalla?
A closely comparable question presents itself in the case of the nextcolonia
founded in the Holy Land, Caesarea. Pliny the Elder (Nat. Hist. , ) care-
fully brings the history of the town right up to date:Stratonis Turris, eadem
Caesarea ab Herode rege condita, nunc Colonia Prima a Vespasiano Imperatore de-
ducta. In doing so he reproduces almost in full the formal titulature of the
newcolonia, as it was to appear on the coins, from the reign of Domitian on-
wards:Colonia Prima Flavia Augusta Caesarea.^84 In this case there can be no
reason to doubt that the new status reflected the role of Caesarea as a military
base in the Jewish War, conducted of course by Vespasian himself up to the
moment of his coup d’état; indeed if we follow Josephus, it had been there
that Vespasian had first been hailed as emperor by his troops, in the summer
of...^85
No source suggests that anydeductioof veterans took place, and no legion-
ary standards appear on the colonial coinage. As Isaac has pointed out, the
. Josephus,BJ, ;Ant.,.
. For this view, see F. T. Hinrichs,Die Geschichte der gromatischen Institutionen(),
–. Compare, however, J. Bleicken, ‘‘InprovincialisolodominiumpopuliRomaniestvelCae-
saris. Zur Kolonisationspolitik der ausgehenden Republik und frühen Kaiserzeit,’’Chiron
(): , attributing the concept ofius Italicumto Augustus.
. See L. Kadman,The Coins of Caesarea Maritima().
.BJ, –; see Isaac (n. ), –.