The Roman Army, 31 BC–AD 337: A Sourcebook

214 The Roman Army
Augustus himself linked the settlements of 14 BC with those of 31 BC, and
soldiers recruited after Actium will have been ready for discharge in 14 BC,
perhaps about 30–35,000 men.
345 Dio (2nd–3rd C.AD), 53. 25
(Marcus Terentius Varro Murena attacked the Salassi in 25 BC) When
he had compelled them to come to terms he demanded a fixed sum of
money, as if he were intending to inflict no other punishment. Then he
sent soldiers to all areas of the country apparently to collect the money,
but in fact he arrested all those of military age and sold them into
slavery on the understanding that none of them should be set free within
twenty years. Furthermore, the best of their land was granted to some
of the praetorians, and on it the city called Augusta Praetoria was
established.
Augusta Praetoria Salassorum (modern Aosta), was founded probably in 25
BC with 3,000 veterans on the site of Varro’s encampment. The layout of the
town, square in outline and divided into sixteen large blocks by two avenues
running east-west and north-south, and several smaller streets all intersecting
at right angles, resembles that of a Roman military camp, and it may suggest
the close relationship of military and town planning manuals in the early empire
(Keppie 1983:205–7).
346 Hyginus (1st-2nd C.AD), Categories of Land (Thulin 1913:
82–3)
Indeed the following situation, which I have found in several places,
will need to be examined; namely, when the founder (of a colony) had
taken lands from the territory of another community for the purpose
of allocation (to the colonists), he naturally conferred ownership rights
on each person to whom he allocated land, but did not remove rights
of jurisdiction from the territory within which he was making
allocations. There are also several edicts of the divine Augustus in which
he makes clear that whenever he had taken land away from the territory
of another community and had allocated it to veteran soldiers, nothing
except whatever was granted and allocated to the veterans should belong
to the jurisdiction of the colony.
When a colony was being established, the lands available in the existing
community were sometimes insufficient for the colonists and additional land
was confiscated from a neighbouring community. Confiscated land that was
divided up and allocated to colonists came under the jurisdiction of the new
colony. But any other land such as unusable areas (subseciva), or small towns,