The Foundation And Effect Of The Roman Overseas Colonies

“Thy Naiad airs have brought me home to the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome.” Why was Rome grandeur? Perhaps it owns to her supremacy of the “World Empire” which other countries found too difficult to achieve, and the contributions she made to the civilizations of human beings. Roman overseas colonies first appeared in the period of Roman expansion to the Mediterranean world, at that time, Roman Republic was in the falling, and owing to the era and situation, the overseas colonies experienced a difficulty beginning in the case of imperative, but finally achieved their prosperity in the reign of Caesar and Augustus. The rise and development of overseas colonies is the very period of Roman stepping to the Empire and being ‘gradeur’ finally. Outside Italy, Roman colonies widely distributed, what contributions did these colonies make to the “grandeur” of Roman civilization? This is the very theme the dissertation trying to explore. Late republic and early empire are also significent periods in the history of Roman colonization, which also bear intimate relationship with the development of Roman Empire and her supremacy in the known world, the growing of Roman civilization and her fusion with other civilizations, so the time span of the dissertation is maily limited to these periods.The dissertation is composed of three parts, including introduction, the main body of four chapters and conclusion.Chapter one mainly interprets the processes of the rise and fall of Roman overseas colonies, and the features the colonies behave in every stage, so to comprehend the effects of overseas colonies in Roman important periods more easily.Chapter two explains the broadcasting of Roman institutions because of the establishment of overseas colonies. Once the colonies founded, what first applied and spreaded was the administrative system of the city Rome, and meanwhile, Roman citizenship and Roman laws would extended as a result of settling and governing for Roman colonists.Chapter three discusses the contributions the overseas colonies made to the economy of Roman Empire. When first appeared, these colonies shown the feature benefitting the growing of economy, which highlighted by the overall colonization of Caesar and Augustus. The colonies established in the Roman world not only promoted the development of Roman road system outside Italy, but also affected provincial agriculture, industry and business and even architecture, and what’s more, activated the commercial communications among provinces, and benefitted the economical prosperity around the Mediterranean. What’s more important, with the establishment of Roman overseas colonies, the level of urbanization under the Empire was elevated. Accordingly, the carrying out of urbanization stimulated the growth of economy.Chapter four explains the effects of overseas colonies on Roman civilization from such three aspects as language, culture and religion. Colonies were the large platform which spreading Roman civilization, this effect was perhaps not mandatory by Rome, but probably the natural thing as a result of colonial foundations. So, we can find the elements of Roman civilization exist everywhere.The last part makes a brief conclusion for the dissertation, and attempting to analysis by theory the importance of overseas colonies in the development of Roman Empire and the fusion of Roman civilization with others’.