# Marius' Veteran Colonies (c. 103 BCE)

URL: https://allhistories.com/tunisia/timeline/-103-marius-veteran-colonies
Location: Thibaris and Uchi Maius, Tunisia
Themes: main-event

Gaius Marius' reforms during the Jugurthine War had opened the legions to volunteers without property, who expected land when their service ended. In 103 BC the tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, Marius' political ally, carried a law granting each of Marius' veterans of the African war allotments of about 100 iugera in Africa. The settlers were planted in the middle Medjerda and the high plains west of the fossa regia, in territory that was formally part of the client kingdom of Numidia. Inscriptions from towns such as Thibaris, Uchi Maius and Thuburnica later honoured Marius as their founder, and the presence of Gaetulian auxiliaries granted land alongside the Romans is also recorded. These communities were not full colonies at first but clusters of Roman citizens living beside Numidian towns. The grants were the first systematic settlement of Roman soldiers in North Africa and an important precedent for the later practice of rewarding armies with land. They spread Latin speech and Roman law among the Berber population of the Tunisian Tell and tied the region to Marius' faction, which later sought refuge there during the civil war with Sulla. At this point in the timeline (c. 103 BC), the territory was governed by the Roman Republic (146–27 BC) through its proconsuls; the King of Numidia was Gauda (c. 105–88 BC).

## Why it matters
The veteran settlements were the first Roman rural communities deep in the Tunisian interior and an early model for military colonisation.

Ruler at the Time: [Roman Republic](https://allhistories.com/tunisia/rulers/roman-republic)

King of Numidia: Gauda

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Gaius Marius](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Marius)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Gaius Marius](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Gaius+Marius)
- [World History Encyclopedia — Gaius Marius](https://www.worldhistory.org/search/?q=Gaius+Marius)
- [Wikipedia — Roman Africa (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_(Roman_province))