Firstly, the settlers tended to be former legionaries and their families. Secondly, the land they were settled on tended to be the richest and most fertile lands in the territory the Romans were occupying, and thirdly, even more than rich farmlands, Roman colonies were founded on defensible sites of strategic importance. There were a great many such colonies, because the Romans had a great deal of Italy both to keep down and also to defend. Therefore some colonies were not Roman but Latin, though many volunteers for these settlements were raised from the poor of Rome itself.
