Italians, especially of the upper-middle class, merchants and others,[1] emigrated freely and formed tiny Roman settlements, often in districts where no troops were stationed.

Chances opened at Rome for able provincials who became Romanized.

Above all, the definite and coherent civilization of Italy took hold of uncivilized but intelligent men, while the tolerance of Rome, which coerced no one into conformity, made its culture the more attractive because it seemed the less inevitable.
[Footnote 1: The best parallel to the Italian emigration to the provinces during the late Republic and early Empire is perhaps to be found in the mediaeval German emigrations to Galicia and parts of Hungary (the Siebenbuergen Saxons are an exception), which Professor R.F.
Kaindl has so well and minutely described.

The present day mass emigration of the lower classes is something quite distinct.] The process is hard to follow in detail, since datable evidence is scanty.

In general, however, the instances of really native fashions or speech which are recorded from this or that province belong to the early Empire.