In the New Testament book of Acts, chapter 22, Paul the Apostle, when imprisoned and on trial, claimed his right as a Roman citizen to be tried before Caesar, and the judicial process had to be suspended until he was taken to Rome:22 Up to this word they listened to him.
(ESV)[2][3]The exchange was quoted by Lord Palmerston when called to explain his decision to blockade Greece during the Don Pacifico affair.
[4][5] Charles Sumner, an American senator from Massachusetts, related a similar phrase in his famous "The Crime Against Kansas" speech in 1856, stating "I fearlessly assert that the wrongs of much-abused Sicily...were small by the side of the wrongs of Kansas...where the cry "I am an American citizen" has been interposed in vain against outrage of every kind, even upon life itself".
[6] American president John F. Kennedy used the phrase in 1963: "Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was 'civis Romanus sum'.
In Season 1, Episode 3 ("A Proportional Response"), President Josiah Bartlet states, "Did you know that two thousand years ago, a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world, free of the fear of molestation?