The-colony

noun
1.
The, a city in NE Texas.
noun (pl) -nies
1.
a body of people who settle in a country distant from their homeland but maintain ties with it
2.
the community formed by such settlers
3.
a subject territory occupied by a settlement from the ruling state
4.

a community of people who form a national, racial, or cultural minority: an artists’ colony, the American colony in London
the area itself

5.
(zoology)

a group of the same type of animal or plant living or growing together, esp in large numbers
an interconnected group of polyps of a colonial organism

6.
(bacteriol) a group of bacteria, fungi, etc, derived from one or a few spores, esp when grown on a culture medium

colony col·o·ny (kŏl’ə-nē)
n.
A discrete group of organisms, such as a group of cells growing on a solid nutrient surface.
colony
(kŏl’ə-nē)
A group of the same kind of animals, plants, or one-celled organisms living or growing together. Organisms live in colonies for their mutual benefit, and especially their protection. Multicellular organisms may have evolved out of colonies of unicellular organisms.

The city of Philippi was a Roman colony (Acts 16:12), i.e., a military settlement of Roman soldiers and citizens, planted there to keep in subjection a newly-conquered district. A colony was Rome in miniature, under Roman municipal law, but governed by military officers (praetors and lictors), not by proconsuls. It had an independent internal government, the jus Italicum; i.e., the privileges of Italian citizens.