The colonies were one of the instruments employed by the Roman state in their legal and territorial arrangement. By transferring Roman citizens to other territories the creation of new cities was made possible. Well deserving soldiers that had been discharged from the Cantabrian wars settled in the colony of Augusta Emerita, which would become the capital of the province of Lusitania.
In this room there are materials exhibited that make reference to the public life of the colony.
The legatus Augusti pro praetore was the representative of the central authority and in charge of governing the province. We know that this high honour was invested upon, among others, Quintus Acutius Faienanus. In order to rule he had the direct support of the Senate of Merida or the ordo decurionum, the maximum authority of the city which was responsible for organizing religious acts, supervising the administration and representing the city outside of its limits. Its members were to render homage to those who deserved it, such as Sextus Furnius Julianus, governor of Lusitania (on his tombstone, note P.P.L., the abbreviation for praeses provincia Lusitaniae).
Matters related to taking care of the city, such as the preservation of the temples, the streets, the organization of games or the provision of foodstuffs to the colony were the responsibility of the aedils. In order to assure the correct functioning of the aqueducts there was a magistrate, called curator aquarum, who made sure that individuals didn’t use too much water and that water wasn’t used without imperial permission.
There were three aqueducts build in Augusta Emerita and all of them were constructed immediately after the foundation of the colony.
The first one, Acqua Augusta, today known as “Cornalvo”, began at the reservoir with the same name and ended at a water tank (castellum aquae) located under the present day bullring. There are significant remains of the second one called “Rabo de Buey-San Lazaro”: five kilometres of underground galleries, part of the elevated conduit (The Aqueduct of St. Lazarus), a water tank and several stretches of the aqueduct, one of which appeared on the grounds where the museum was constructed and which is visible in the crypt. The third and last one called “Los Milagros” began at the reservoir of “Proserpina”, five kilometres from the city and went over the valley of Albarregas by means of another elevated conduit. Impressive ruins of this part remain today. A sketch of this aqueduct is framed and hangs in this room.
On the other hand, from its very beginning, the city was constantly carrying on public works. Groups of workers (fabri) worked under the orders of a praefectus fabrum, a position not unknown in Augusta Emerita. There is an inscriptionpreserved in this room that mentions one of them, Gnaeus Cornelius Severus, and was dedicated to him by some of his friends.
The institution equivalent to the Town Hall of Mérida at that time was composed of representatives called dumviri who had specialized workers that carried out various tasks such as the production of roof tiles (tegulae) marked with the initials CIAE that stood for Ci(vitaes) A(ugusta) E(merita) referring to the place of manufacture. They also made lead pipes with the same inscription that were used to supply the colony with water.
There is a magnificent mosaic that completes the room found in the Roman villa “Las Tiendas”. Intricate geometric designs surround a scene of a wild pig hunt in which a figure probably representing the owner of the villa kills the animal with a final blow. Figures representing the four scenes are placed around the scene, identified by flowers and fruits and with their names: Autumn (AVTVMNVS), Summer (H(A)ESTAS), Spring (VIRANVS) and Winter (HIBERNVS). This floor dates back to the middle of the fourth century A.D.