In the history of the Roman empire, civitas (pl. civitates) mainly referred to the condition of Roman citizenship. The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus). ... The word citizen may refer to: A person with a citizenship Citizen Watch Co. ...

As the empire grew, inhabitants of the outlying Roman provinces would either be classed as dediticii or capitulants, or be treated as client kingdoms with some independence guaranteed through treaties. The latter group were known as civitates foederate and were exempt from paying tribute or the rule of Roman Law. Map of the Roman Empire, with the provinces, after 120 AD. In Ancient Rome, a province (Latin, provincia, pl. ... Client state refers to the notion of one state being subservient to another. ... A tribute (from Latin tribulum, contribution) is wealth one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often case in historical contests, of submission or allegiance. ... Roman Law is the legal system of ancient Rome. ...

Prestigious and economically important settlements such as Massilia and Messana are examples of occupied regions granted semi-autonomy during the Roman Republic. The new, Romanised urban settlements of these client tribes were also called civitates and were usually re-founded close to the site of the old pre-Roman capital. At Cirencester for example, the Romans made use of the army base that oversaw the nearby tribal oppidum to create the civitas. Marseilles redirects here. ... Map of Italy showing Messina in the northeast point of Sicily Messina is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, Italy and the capital of the province of Messina. ... See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century) The Roman Republic (Latin: Res Publica Romanorum) was the republican government of the city of Rome and its territories from 510 BC until the establishment of the Roman Empire, which sometimes placed at 44 BC the year of Caesar... Location within the British Isles. ... To the Romans, an oppidum was the main settlement in any administrative area. ...

During the later empire the term was applied not only to friendly native tribes and their towns but also to local government divisions in peaceful provinces that carried out civil administration. Land around the civitas was officially divided up, some being granted to the locals and some being owned by the civil government. A basic street grid would be surveyed in but the development of the civitas from there was left to the inhabitants although occasional imperial grants for new buildings would be made.

Tacitus describes how the Romanised Britons embraced the new urban centres:

They spoke of such novelties as 'civilisation', when this was really only a feature of their slavery (Agricola, 21)

The civitates differed from the less well-planned vici that grew up haphazardly around military garrisons, the coloniae which were settlements of retired troops or the formal political entity created from an existing settlement called a municipium. They were regional market towns with a basilica and forum complex providing an administrative and economic focus. These civitates had a primary purpose of stimulating the economy in order to raise taxes and produce raw materials. All this was administered by an ordo or curia, a civitas council consisting of men of sufficient social rank to be able to stand for public office. A colonia was a Roman outpost, usually established by veterans of a Roman Legion, who received land as a part of their retirement from the Legions. ... A municipium was the second highest class of a Roman city, and was inferior in status to the colonia. ... The Basilica of St. ... The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum, although the Romans referred to it more often as the Forum Magnum or just the Forum) was the central area around which ancient Rome developed, in which commerce, business, trading and the administration of justice took place. ...

Defensive measures were limited at the civitates, rarely more that palisaded earthworks in times of trouble, if even that. Towards the end of the empire, the civitates' own local militias, led by a decurion likely served as the only defensive force in outlying Romanised areas threatened by barbarians. There is evidence that some civitates maintained some degree of Romanisation and served as population centres beyond the official withdrawal, albeit with limited resources. Palisade and Moat A palisade is a Medieval wooden fence or wall of variable height, used as a defensive structure. ... A militia is a group of citizens organized to provide paramilitary service. ... A Decurion is a cavalry officer in command of a troop or Turma of thirty men in the army of the Roman Empire. ...