Municipium

Municipium (plural: municpia) was an administrative legal status/title that was granted to a settlement in Republican and early/mid-imperial Rome. The term is derived from the Latin municeps, a citizen, which is in turn derived from munus, duty; a municeps being one who performs their duty. Municipium was a contract upon which the people of the settlement were incorporated into the Roman state under the governance of a set of magistrates. The settlement still had local governance and some degree of autonomy, but were obliged to supply Rome with troops and material support. There were commonly two levels of muncipium, with the highest order being that the inhabitants of the town were made Roman citizens with full voting privileges, and the lower order being those that were not made full citizens and did not have the right to vote, but were afforded many other rights and protections that Roman citizens had and were in turn subject to taxation and military service. It was possible for the local magistrates of the lower order to achieve full citizenship. Municpium was originally confined primarily to settlements in Italy and was often bestowed as a reward for the loyalty of a settlement. Following the Social War (90 BCE) however, all Latin and Italian cities were granted municpium. After that point, municpium continued to be used as reward for settlements outside of Italy until about 212 CE when Caracalla issued the Constitutio Antoniniana, which granted full Roman citizenship to all inhabitants of the empire, effectively rendering the incentive of municipium obsolete. Municipium became the second highest status that could be given to a settlement behind colonia.