Roman Citizenship

The Roman Citoyen neté offers wide and fundamental rights. The whole of these rights forms the established among Roman ( juice civitas or civitas ). The established among , i.e. the recognition of the citizenship, for the origin, is reserved to the free men registered in the tribe S of the town of Rome and its territory. Its extension was a powerful vector of attraction of the ancient Rome.

Rights and duties of the Roman citizen

Political and military rights

They are rights located below:

Juice suffragii : the Right to vote
Juice militae : right to incorporate in the Roman Legion, and to receive there a Balance
Juice Honorum : right to be elected Magistrate
Juice census : the Property right
juice sacrorum : right to take part in priesthoods

The exercise of the vote is carried out according to the electoral cutting of the Comices tributes, any citizen is thus attached to a tribe.

The election with the quaestorship, first magistrature of the Course honorum , required a minimum taxable quota of 400.000 Sesterce S. the juice honorum was thus restricted with richest. In the same way, only the citizens of the richest classes could be built-in the legion, until the reform of Marius which raised this restriction in -105.

Political and military duties

These rights imply also duties for the Roman citizen:

census : obligation to be made count, under penalty of loss of the citizenship. The census is accompanied by the fastening of the citizen to an urban or rustic tribe, kind of electoral constituency. The fortune of the citizen is also evaluated, it determines its row in the company and its Centurie of membership for the operations of military incorporation (Comices centuriates)
juice militae : obligation to serve in the Roman Legion, right to perceive a pay. Under the Republic, before the marianic Réforme only is built-in the citizens of the centuries having a certain threshold of richness, one indeed privileged the soldiers who could finance their own armament.
tributum : payment of the tribute, occasional contribution to the military expenditure, removed in 167 av. J.C
death duty, established by Auguste to pay the premiums of vacation of end of service of the soldiers

Civil laws

The Roman citizen also has civil laws:

juice connubii : right of legal marriage with a Roman
juice commercii : right to buy and sell on the Roman territory
juice legis actionis : right to bring an legal action in front of a Roman court
right to carry the Toga and the Tria nominated (first name, family name and nickname), distinctive signs of the citizen.
right to make a will
juice commercium : capacity to conclude from the legal documents

Laws were taken to repress the usurpation of the Roman citizenship (in -95, lex Licinia Mucia , against the fraudulently registered Italians)

Vis-a-vis Roman justice, the citizen profits from protections:

Juice auxilii : right to the assistance of a Powerful orator of the plebs for his defense
Juice provocationis : right to call upon the people of it when bad a legal decision is considered, according to the lex Valeria of -300. This right is not exerted however in the army, because the Imperium of the consul gives him right of life and of died on the citizen-soldiers.
body Sorrow and capital punishment inflicted by the Lictors only by whip with rods and Decapitation with the axe, excluding any other defamatory torment. Other punishments are planned for very particular cases (Parricide, loss of chastity for a Vestale)

The rods were prohibited for a citizen by the lex Porcia of Caton Old the, and it was allowed that one avoids the capital punishment by a voluntary exile.

Women's right Roman

Latin citizenship

As of its beginnings, Rome practiced a policy of narrow alliance with the cities of the Latium within the Latin Ligue. After various tensions, whose revolt of Latin in -340, Rome had to concede in -338 the Roman citizenship to the free inhabitants of the cities of Latium. However, as the exercise of the vote could be done only in person and to Rome even, this citizenship was granted without right to vote (citizenship sine suffragio known as also Latin citizenship ), and thus without the access to the Roman magistratures. The Latin citizens have the civil laws, and of the protection of the Roman laws, can acquire or sell goods ( juice commercii ), but are deprived of political rights except in the Latin cities (municipe Latin). Their children have the Latin citizenship automatically. A Latin citizen can marry a Roman, but the children are Latin citizens, except if the husband has the juice connubii (with personal capacity).

The Latin citizen could nevertheless thanks to the juice migrationis settle in Rome, fit in a tribe and consequently to have the full exercise of the citizenship.

These two levels of citizenship were diffused in Italy and beyond at the time of the foundation of Roman colony which profited from citizenship full and whole ( civitas cum suffragio ), and of Latin colony with more limited rights ( civitas sine suffragio ).

Acquisition of the Roman citizenship

The Roman citizenship is acquired by birth, if one is child of a Roman citizen or one freed Roman, or by naturalization of a free man. In this last case, the new citizen takes the family name of his owner (see customer) and is registered in his tribe. On the other hand, freed is registered in one of the urban tribes, to prevent that ambitious constitutes by stamping a mass of new voters in his own tribe.

The citizenship is granted more and more largely especially under the Empire, without criterion of origin, birth or of religion, Rome is shown thus much more accessible than the Greek cities. One finds for example and in spite of important cultural differences of the Jews Roman citizens, such Cn. Pompeius Paullus (Paul de Tarse, in the acts, Paul announces his Roman citizenship after being beaten without judgment (cf Acts 16 verse 37) or Flavius Josèphe.

At the end of the Republic and under the Empire, the military service in the auxiliary Troupes is for many provincial means of acquiring the Roman citizenship at the conclusion of their service.

The citizenship is also granted to a whole city because of services rendered at the time of the wars carried out by Rome. The granting of this citizenship is done then by stages: Latin citizenship initially, then Roman later on. Sometimes, the citizenship is granted to all the free men of a territory pacified for a long time:

the Lex Iulia de Civitate Latinis Danda or lex Julia (- 90) and the Lex Plautia Papiria (- 89) extend the complete established among with the inhabitants of the Latium, then the Latin citizenship with all the free inhabitants of Italy. These measurements make it possible to close the social Guerre by satifaisant its principal demand.
in -65, the Lex Papia represses the usurpation of Roman citizenship
in -49, the lex Roscia grants the Roman citizenship to all the inhabitants of Italy, including in Gaulle Cisalpine at the beginning of the civil war
in -44, on the initiative of Marc-Antoine, the Roman citizenship is given to all the free men of Sicily
Vespasien (69-79) finally grants the Latin citizenship all the towns of Hispanie
in 212, Roman citizenship with all the free men of the Empire (Édit of Caracalla)

See too

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