Roman citizenship

Citizenship in ancient Rome (Latin: civitas) was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance.

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 the history of the Roman Empire.

The Tables detail the rights of citizens in dealing with court proceedings, property, inheritance, death, and (in the case of women) public behavior.

Under the Roman Republic, the government conducted a census every five years in Rome to keep a record of citizens and their households.

The Latin rights status could be assigned to different classes of citizens, such as freedmen, 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 of socii.

A peregrinus (plural peregrini) was originally any person who was not a full Roman citizen, that is someone who was not a member of the cives Romani.

In a manus marriage, a woman would lose any properties or possessions she owned herself and they would be given to her husband, or his pater familias.

Manus marriages had largely stopped by the time of Augustus and women instead remained under the protection of their pater familias.

Following the early 2nd-century BC Porcian Laws, a Roman citizen could not be tortured or whipped and could commute sentences of death to voluntary exile, unless he was found guilty of treason.

Ius migrationis was the right to preserve one's level of citizenship upon relocation to a polis of comparable status.

This right did not preserve one's level of citizenship should one relocate to a colony of lesser legal status; full Roman citizens relocating to a Latina colonia were reduced to the level of the ius Latii, and such a migration and reduction in status had to be a voluntary act.

in order to assimilate the people of the conquered Persian Empire, but after his death this policy was largely ignored by his successors.

This being observed in the writings of Gregory of Tours, who does not use the dichotomy Gallo-Roman-Frankish, but uses the name of each of the gens of that time existing in Gaul (arverni, turoni, lemovici, turnacenses, bituriges, franci, etc.

It must also be remembered that Clovis 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 emperor Anastasius I Dicorus as consul 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 the Romanitas did not disappear in such an abrupt way, observed its effects centuries later with Charlemagne and the Translatio imperii.

Emperor Caracalla
(Dark Green) Roman Empire in 117 AD. (Pale Green) Client states under the Roman Empire in 117 AD.
Relief showing a Roman marriage ceremony. Museo di Capodimonte
The Mausoleum of the Julii , located across the Via Domitia, to the north of, and just outside the city entrance, dates to about 40 BC, and is one of the best preserved mausoleums of the Roman era. A dedication is carved on the architrave of the building facing the old Roman road, which reads: SEX · M · L · IVLIEI · C · F · PARENTIBVS · SVEIS Sextius, Marcus and Lucius Julius, sons of Gaius, to their forebears It is believed that the mausoleum was the tomb of the mother and father of the three Julii brothers, and that the father, for military or civil service, received Roman citizenship and the privilege of bearing the name of the Julii