The city of Philippi was a Roman colony (Ac 16:12), i.e., a military settlement of Roman soldiers and citizens, planted there to keep in subjection a newly-conquered district. A colony was Rome in miniature, under Roman municipal law, but governed by military officers (praetors and lictors), not by proconsuls. It had an independent internal government, the jus Italicum; i.e., the privileges of Italian citizens.

Philippi was one, planted with Italian colonists, transplanted from those parts of Italy which had espoused Antony's side, and which Augustus assigned therefore to his veterans. Inscriptions and coins of Augustus are still extant, with the designation "colonia" assigned to Philippi. It had the "jus Italicum", or privileges of Italian citizens. The accuracy of Ac 16:12 appears in calling Philippi kolonia (Roman), not Greek apoikia.

The word colonia is a pure Latin word, which is written in Greek letters in the only place where it occurs in the Bible (Ac 16:12), and expresses a purely Roman institution. It is a piece of Rome transported bodily out of Rome itself and planted somewhere in the Roman Empire. In other words, it is a collection of Roman citizen-soldiers settled on a military road to keep the enemies of the Empire in check. These retained their citizenship of Rome and constituted the aristocracy of every town in which they were situated. Their constitution was on the model of Rome and the Italian States. A number of places are mentioned in the NT which were really coloni

Spoken of Philippi in Macedonia. Under Augustus that city became a Roman colony. Ac 16:12,21. Such colonies were subject to the parent government, and the townsmen enjoyed the privilege of Roman citizenship.

Colony,

a designation of Philippi, in

Ac 16:12

After the battle of Actium, Augustus assigned to his veterans those parts of Italy which had espoused the cause of Antony, and transported many of the expelled inhabitants to Philippi, Dyrrhachium and other cities. In this way Philippi was made a Roman colony with the "Jus Italicum." At first the colonists were all Roman citizens, and entitled to vote at Rome.