ABSTRACT
According to Velleius, from the time of Marius’s sixth consulship only veteran colonies were founded by Rome. After referring to the colonies of the second cen tury BC, he says: neque facile memoriae mandaverim quae nisi militaris post hoc tempus deducta est.1 There is no evidence to suggest that either the coloniae civium Romanorum or the Latin colonies founded down to the middle of the second century BC, or the colonies founded in Italy or overseas later in the same century were veteran colonies of the later type. Nor is this perhaps surprising, since the pre-Marian army was still, in theory at least, a national army, and such a person as a veteran, in the later sense, did not theoretically exist.
