| Abstrakt: |
A city of Cisalpine Gaul (north Italy), at the southwestern extremity of Lake Larius (Como). Settled by the Insubrian Gauls, but plagued by incursions by Rhaetian tribesmen, Comum was occupied by the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus in 196 BC, receiving colonists in 89 (later reinforced), and 59, with Latin rights (conferring citizenship on its annually elected officials) and the full Roman franchise respectively. The second of these settlements—known as Novum Comum—carried out by Julius Caesar under a law enabling him to organize such foundations at his own discretion, comprised a draft of 5,000 colonists (including 500 Greeks). But the colony created a cause celèbre in 51, when one of the consuls, named, like the original captor of the city, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, had a man of Novum Comum flogged—a penalty from which Roman citizens were exempted by law—in order to show his contempt for Caesar's action: this helped to widen the gulf between conservatives and Caesarians which became civil war two years later. |
