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Citizenship in ancient Rome (Latin:civitas) was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance.Citizenship inancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, traditions, and cultural practices. There existed several different types of citizenship, determined by one's gender, class, and political affiliations, and the exact duties or expectations of a citizen varied throughout thehistory of the Roman Empire.
The oldest document currently available that details the rights of citizenship is theTwelve Tables, ratifiedc. 449 BC.[1] Much of the text of the Tables only exists in fragments, but during the time of Ancient Rome the Tables would be displayed in full in theRoman Forum for all to see. The Tables detail the rights of citizens in dealing with court proceedings, property, inheritance, death, and (in the case of women) public behavior. Under theRoman Republic, the government conducted a census every five years in Rome to keep a record of citizens and their households. As theRoman Empire spread so did the practice of conducting a census.[2]
Roman citizens were expected to perform some duties (munera publica) to the state in order to retain their rights as citizens. Failure to perform citizenship duties could result in the loss of privileges, as seen during theSecond Punic War when men who refused military service lost their right to vote and were forced out of their voting tribes.[2] Women were exempt from direct taxation and military service.[3] Anyone living in any province of Rome was required to register with the census. The exact extent of civic duties varied throughout the centuries.
Much of Roman law involving the rights and functions of citizenship revolved around legal precedents. Documents from Roman writerValerius Maximus indicate that Roman women were in later centuries able to mingle freely about the Forum and to bring in concerns on their own volition, providing they acted in a manner that was becoming of their family and station.[3]
Much of our basis for understanding Roman law comes from theDigest of EmperorJustinian.[4] TheDigest contained court rulings by juries and their interpretations of Roman law and preserved the writings of Roman legal authors.
The Edict of Caracalla (officially theConstitutio Antoniniana in Latin: "Constitution [or Edict] of Antoninus") was anedict issued in AD 212 by the Roman EmperorCaracalla, which declared that all free men in the Roman Empire were to be given full Roman citizenship and all free women in the Empire were given the same rights as Roman women, with the exception of thedediticii, people who had become subject to Rome through surrender in war, and freed slaves.
By the century previous to Caracalla, Roman citizenship had already lost much of its exclusiveness and become more available between the inhabitants throughout the different provinces of the Roman Empire and between nobles such as kings of client countries. Before the Edict, however, a significant number of provincials were non-Roman citizens and held instead theLatin rights.
The Bible'sBook of Acts indicates thatPaul the Apostle was aRoman citizen by birth – though not clearly specifying which class of citizenship – a fact which had considerable bearing on Paul's career and on the religion of Christianity.
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Citizenship in Rome could be acquired through various means. To be born as a citizen required that both parents be free citizens of Rome.[5] Another method was via the completion of a public service, such as serving in the non-Roman auxiliary forces. Cities could acquire citizenship through the implementation of theLatin law, wherein people of a provincial city of the empire could elect people to public office and therefore give the elected official citizenship.[6]
The legal classes varied over time, however the following classes of legal status existed at various times within the Roman state:
Thecives Romani were full Roman citizens, who enjoyed full legal protection under Roman law.Cives Romani were sub-divided into two classes:
TheLatini were a class of citizens who held theLatin rights (ius Latii), or the rights ofius commercii andius migrationis (the right to migrate), but not theius conubii. The termLatini originally referred to theLatins, citizens of theLatin League who came under Roman control at the close of theLatin War, but eventually became a legal description rather than a national or ethnic one. The Latin rights status could be assigned to different classes of citizens, such asfreedmen,cives Romani convicted of crime, or colonial settlers.
Under Roman law, citizens of another state that was allied to Rome via treaty were assigned the status ofsocii.Socii (also known asfoederati) could obtain certain legal rights of under Roman law in exchange for agreed upon levels of military service, i.e., the Roman magistrates had the right to levy soldier from such states into theRoman legions. However,foederati states that had at one time been conquered by Rome were exempt from payment of tribute to Rome due to their treaty status.
Growing dissatisfaction with the rights afforded to thesocii and with the growing manpower demands of the legions (due to the protractedJugurthine War and theCimbrian War) led eventually to theSocial War of 91–87 BC in which the Italian allies revolted against Rome.
TheLex Julia (in full theLex Iulia de Civitate Latinis Danda), passed in 90 BC, granted the rights of thecives Romani to allLatini andsocii states that had not participated in the Social War, or who were willing to cease hostilities immediately. This was extended to all the Italiansocii states when the war ended (except forGallia Cisalpina), effectively eliminatingsocii andLatini as legal and citizenship definitions.
Provinciales were those people who fell under Roman influence, or control, but who lacked even the rights of thefoederati, essentially having only the rights of theius gentium (rules and laws common to nations under Rome's rule).
Aperegrinus (pluralperegrini) was originally any person who was not a full Roman citizen, that is someone who was not a member of thecives Romani. With the expansion of Roman law to include more gradations of legal status, this term became less used, but the termperegrini included those of theLatini,socii, andprovinciales, as well as those subjects of foreign states.
Individuals belonging to a specific social class in Rome had modified versions of citizenship.
Roman citizens enjoyed a variety of specific privileges within Roman society. Male citizens had the rights to vote (ius suffragi) and hold civic office (ius honorum, only available to the aristocracy).[5] They also possessedius vitae necisque, "the right of life and death." The male head of a Roman family (pater familias) had the right to legally execute any of his children at any age, although it appears that this was mostly reserved in deciding to raise newborn children.[4]
More general rights included: the rights to property (ius census), to enter into contracts (ius commercii),ius provocationis, the right to appeal court decisions,[5] the right to sue and to be sued, to have a legal trial, and the right of immunity from some taxes and other legal obligations, especially local rules and regulations.
With regards to theRoman family, Roman citizens possessed the right ofius conubii, defined as the right to a lawful marriage in which children from the union would also be Roman citizens. Earlier Roman sources indicate that Roman women could forfeit their individual rights as citizens when entering into amanus marriage. In amanus marriage, a woman would lose any properties or possessions she owned herself and they would be given to her husband, or hispater familias.Manus marriages had largely stopped by the time ofAugustus and women instead remained under the protection of theirpater familias. Upon his death, both the men and women under the protection of thepater familias would be consideredsui iuris and be legally independent, able to inherit and own property without the approval of theirpater familias.[4] Roman woman however would enter into atutela, or guardianship. A woman's tutor functioned similarly to apater familias, but he did not control the property or possessions of a woman and was generally only needed to give his permission when a woman wanted to perform certain legal actions, such as freeing her slaves.[4]
Officially, one required Roman citizenship status to enroll in the Roman legions, but this requirement was sometimes overlooked and exceptions could be made. Citizen soldiers could be beaten by thecenturions and senior officers for reasons related to discipline. Non-citizens joined theAuxilia and gained citizenship through service.
Following the early 2nd-century BCPorcian Laws, a Roman citizen could not be tortured orwhipped and could commutesentences of death tovoluntary exile, unless he was found guilty of treason. If accused of treason, a Roman citizen had the right to be tried in Rome, and even if sentenced to death, no Roman citizen could be sentenced tocrucifixion.
Ius gentium was the legal recognition, developed in the 3rd century BC, of the growing international scope of Roman affairs, and the need for Roman law to deal with situations between Roman citizens and foreign persons. Theius gentium was therefore a Roman legal codification of the widely acceptedinternational law of the time, and was based on the highly developed commercial law of the Greek city-states and of other maritime powers. The rights afforded by theius gentium were considered to be held by all persons; it is thus a concept ofhuman rights rather than rights attached to citizenship.
Ius migrationis was the right to preserve one's level of citizenship upon relocation to apolis of comparable status. For example, members of thecives Romani maintained their fullcivitas when they migrated to aRoman colony with full rights under the law: acolonia civium Romanorum.Latins also had this right, and maintained theirius Latii if they relocated to a different Latin state or Latin colony (Latina colonia). This right didnot preserve one's level of citizenship should one relocate to a colony oflesser legal status; full Roman citizens relocating to aLatina colonia were reduced to the level of theius Latii, and such a migration and reduction in status had to be a voluntary act.
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Roman citizenship was also used as a tool of foreign policy and control. Colonies and political allies would be granted a "minor" form of Roman citizenship, there being several graduated levels of citizenship and legal rights (theLatin rights was one of them). The promise of improved status within the Roman "sphere of influence" and the rivalry with one's neighbours for status, kept the focus of many of Rome's neighbours and allies centered on thestatus quo of Roman culture, rather than trying to subvert or overthrow Rome's influence.
The granting of citizenship to allies and the conquered was a vital step in the process ofRomanization. This step was one of the most effective political tools and (at that point in history) original political ideas.
Previously,Alexander the Great had tried to "mingle" his Greeks with the Persians, Egyptians, Syrians, etc. in order to assimilate the people of the conqueredPersian Empire, but after his death this policy was largely ignored by hissuccessors.
The idea was not toassimilate, but to turn a defeated and potentially rebellious enemy (or their sons) into Roman citizens. Instead of having to wait for the unavoidable revolt of a conquered people (a tribe or a city-state) likeSparta and the conqueredHelots, Rome tried to make those under its rule feel that they had a stake in the system.[6] The ability of non-Roman born individuals to gain Roman citizenship also provided increased stability for those under Roman rule, and the system of sub-division within the different types of citizenship allowed for Roman rulers to work cooperatively with local elites in the provinces.[6]
With the settlement ofRomanization and the passing of generations, a new unifying feeling began to emerge within Roman territory, theRomanitas or "Roman way of life", the once tribal feeling that had divided Europe began to disappear (although never completely) and blend in with the new wedge patriotism imported from Rome with which to be able to ascend at all levels.
TheRomanitas,Romanity orRomanism would last until the last years of unity of thepars occidentalis, a moment in which the old tribalisms and the proto-feudalism of Celtic origins, until then dormant, would re-emerge, mixing with the new ethnic groups of Germanic origin. This being observed in the writings ofGregory of Tours, who does not use the dichotomyGallo-Roman-Frankish, but uses the name of each of thegens of that time existing inGaul (arverni, turoni, lemovici, turnacenses, bituriges, franci, etc.), considering himself aArverni and not a Gallo-Roman; being the relations between the natives and the Franks seen not as Romans against barbarians, as is popularly believed, but as in the case of Gregory, a relationship of coexistence between Arverni and Franks (Franci) as equals.
It must also be remembered thatClovis I was born in Gaul, so according to the Edict of Caracalla that made him a Roman citizen by birth, in addition to being recognized by the emperorAnastasius I Dicorus asconsul of Gaul, so his position of power was reinforced, in addition to being considered by his Gallo-Roman subjects as a legitimate viceroy of Rome; understanding that theRomanitas did not disappear in such an abrupt way, observed its effects centuries later withCharlemagne and theTranslatio imperii.
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