The Self-Governing Cities: Elements and Rhythms of Urbanisation

Provincial civitas capitals, as had been the case with the cities in the Italian peninsula, required structures that would allow the cives to participate in public and political life. This does not translate into the Romans forcing indigenous communities to develop civic spaces.¹ Rather, as Emilio Gabba would say, the Roman government was expecting and encouraging these new semi-autonomous centres and their elites to provide the citizens with suitable areas and buildings where they could fulfil their newly acquired rights and obligations.² In this sense, we can understand why the process of urbanisation in the north-western provinces followed some common