Was colonization important to the Romans?

AnswerYes. Roman soldiers who completed twenty years in the legions were permitted to retire but instead of a pension they were given land to farm in the empire, usually near where they had served. This created colonies of ethnic Romans within the conquered peoples of the empire. This helped spread Roman culture and assimilate the disparate peoples into a common Roman identity and also assured that there would always be at least a nucleus of loyal citizens in all provinces. Thus colonization brought about ethnic homogenization and political stability.

Michael Montagne

Philosophically, the Romans believed that it was their 'duty' to 'civilize' other 'less fortunate' peoples. This ideology came about from the teachings of Panaetius, and is part of the Stoic school of philosophy.

Panaetius explains that "such an imperium is rightful because servitude is in the interest of such people ... in place of anarchy and struggle of all against all and perpetual feuds of individual population groups against one another emerge peace ad order, or in short the rule of law." The Romans believed that only their 'civilizing influence' could save these lesser peoples, and thus romanization became very important to them. it must be said, however, that in the process of colonization, the Romans did not merely exert their own ideas, beliefs and philosophies onto the subjugated peoples, rather a bilateral and often multilateral exchange occurred between cultures, in which Rome took aspects of their cultures, and made it Roman. Further on into the imperium, colonization became important as a device to secure wealth, power and fame, as well as a sense of stability and 'world order'.