Civitas foederata

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{{short description|Autonomous community bound to the Roman Empire by formal treaty}}

A {{lang|la|civitas foederata}}, meaning "allied state/community", was the most elevated type of autonomous cities and local communities under Roman rule.

Each Roman province comprised a number of communities of different status. Alongside Roman colonies or {{lang|la|municipia}}, whose residents held the Roman citizenship or Latin citizenship, a province was largely formed by self-governing communities of natives ({{lang|la|peregrini}}), which were distinguished according to the level of autonomy they had: the lowest were the {{lang|la|civitates stipendariae}} ("tributary states"), followed by the {{lang|la|civitates liberae}} ("free states"), which had been granted specific privileges.{{sfn|Eilers|2010|p=274}}{{sfn|Mousourakis|2007|p=210 (note 2)}}

Unlike the latter, the {{lang|la|civitates foederatae}} were individually bound to Rome by formal treaty ({{lang|la|foedus}}). Although they remained formally independent, the {{lang|la|civitates foederatae}} in effect surrendered their foreign relation to Rome, to which they were bound by perpetual alliance.{{sfn|Mousourakis|2007|pp=198 (note 22), 210 (note 2)}} Nevertheless, the citizens of these cities enjoyed certain rights under Roman law, like the {{lang|la|commercium}} and the {{lang|la|conubium}}.{{sfn|Mousourakis|2007|p=198 (note 22)}} In the Greek East, many of the Greek city-states ({{lang|la|poleis}}) were formally liberated and granted some form of formal guarantee of their autonomy. As they had a long history and tradition of their own, most of these communities were content with this status, unlike in the Latin West, where, with their progressive Romanization, many communities sought a gradual advancement to the status of a {{lang|la|municipium}} or even a {{lang|la|colonia}}.{{sfn|Eilers|2010|p=274}}