Cato the elder, and all the early writers, notice the
quality of such levies as being far superior to those drawn from a
population of sedentary habits. 2dly, The Italian colonies, one and all,
performed the functions which in our day are assigned to garrisoned towns
and frontier fortresses. In the earliest times they discharged a still
more critical service, by sometimes entirely displacing a hostile
population, and more often by dividing it and breaking its unity. In cases
of desperate resistance to the Roman arms, marked by frequent infraction
of treaties, it was usual to remove the offending population to a safer
situation, separated from Rome by the Tiber; sometimes entirely to
disperse and scatter it. But, where these extremities were not called for
by expediency or the Roman maxims of justice, it was judged sufficient to
_interpolate_, as it were, the hostile people by colonizations from Rome,
which were completely organized [Footnote: That is indeed involved in the
technical term of _Deductio_; for unless the ceremonies, religious and
political, of inauguration and organization, were duly complied with, the
colony was not entitled to be considered as _deducta_--that is, solemnly
and ceremonially transplanted from the metropolis.
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