Legal Status of Citizen in Roman Law
The legal status of citizens (lat. Status Civitatis) is the legal bond of a person with Roman civil society. This constituted a source of rights and obligations for the citizen, such as the provision of military service in the Roman army (Justinian). In other words, the citizenship status differentiates people who have a legal link with the city from those who do not.
Roman law in principle does not have a territorial but personal character, it applies only to Roman citizens and only to them belong the fullness of rights in both the public and private spheres, the ius civilis is reserved for Roman citizens.
A distinction is made between Roman citizens and non-citizens, at the same time, non-citizens were divided into pilgrims or foreigners and Latinos; although federated ones also existed.
§: "[...] nam quod quisque populus ipse sibi ius constituit, id ipsius proprium civitatis est vocaturque ius civile [...]" , Justiniano | Institutes: Lib. 1, Tit. 2, Para. 2.
Definition of Citizenship Status
The state of citizenship is linked to the concept that the Romans created of civitatis similar to the Greek polis, which in principle corresponded to a differential identity factor from that of other neighboring peoples, but which, according to Roman history itself, would become its only criterion of identity as a nation.
Citizenship Status: Legal situation in which a free man was found with respect to the city of Rome.
Therefore, belonging to the group of members of the city of Rome became a more important factor than for other nations, such as the Greeks, the Latins, the Etruscans or the Phoenicians; and especially from the beginning of the republican era it would be the main factor in the application of the law.
Classification of People according to their Citizenship Status
For the Romans the fundamental sociological concept that united people to Rome was citizenship, unlike other peoples of the time, whose unifying concepts would be religion, ethnicity or subject status.
This way of approaching the relationship between the individual and proto-state social structures (city, kingdom, etc.), reflects the influence that Greek culture had throughout the southern Italian peninsula, particularly the Greco-Phoenician diaspora.
For this reason, the main division that would characterize Roman law would be that of citizens and non-citizens, to the point that there is a whole set of different legal contracts, figures and institutions for Roman citizens and for pilgrims.
Citizens
Roman citizens were governed by a special legal body, called ius civile "their national law"; that endowed them with special rights, whether they resided in Rome, the Italian municipalities, the provinces or in the colonies.
During the Roman monarchy, citizenship was conditional on the individual's membership in Roman civil society (Populusque Romanus), which could only be achieved by being born into a Roman family, which required a legitimate marriage, or by being adopted into a Roman family.
However, the condition of citizen was expanding to the point that in the year 212 AD all free men acquired citizenship, through the Antoninian constitution.
Roman citizens legally enjoyed a basic nucleus of eight (8) rights, collectively called ius quiritium, from which the others were derived. These rights were divided into two groups: (a) public rights, or "ius publicum", and (b) private rights, or "ius privatum".
The exercise of these rights depended both on the state of citizenship and the state of the family, and the people who had the full use of all their rights would be called "homo optimus iure", the condition par excellence of the ideal of the Roman citizen, although in practice was not so common.
Rights of Citizens
Rome was founded on the promise that its ethnically diverse inhabitants would be an active part in the affairs of the city, for which constituencies of representation (curias), elections, and the elective monarchy system adopted for the appointment of the rex.
This sense of social belonging to the city (see ab urbe condita), a product of Greek and Etruscan influence, created the concept of civitas (citizenship), and later that of ius civile (civil law). With this, citizenship became the determining factor in Roman social relations, and from it both rights and duties would be born.
The rights of citizens implied the legal relationships that the city recognized as valid, and therefore could be legally protected. These rights can be grouped into two categories: (a) those that belonged to the relationship between the individual and the populus, called ius publicum, and (b) those that governed the relationships of the individual and the family, called ius privatum.
All these rights would be generically called ius quiritium. And in general only the homo optimus iures fully enjoyed them.
The term 'quiritium' comes from 'quirites', the name by which the Roman people were known before the period of military expansion across the Mediterranean. And the rights of the ius quiritium were the normative nucleus from which the entire Roman legal system derived: voting, magistracies, marriage, etc.
Rights of Ius Publicum
- Ius Sufragii
The rights of Roman citizens to vote in elections. To belong to the elections and vote in them, military age was required, which was 18 years. - Ius Honorum
Right to access public office and run in elections. In order to apply for a higher magistracy, it was required: i) to belong to the elections and ii) to have previously served in a lower magistracy (cursus honorum). - Ius Legionem
It constituted the right to serve in the legions, and to hold positions of command. For Roman citizens, service in the legions was a privilege. - Ius Sacrorum
It was the possibility of entering the priestly collegiate. Ius Provocationis (ad populum) The possibility of appealing criminal trials directly with the populus in the elections.
Rights of Ius Privatum
- Ius Connubii
It was the prerogative that Roman citizens had to contract a legitimate Roman marriage (Iustae Nuptiae) capable of creating parental authority and agnation kinship. - Ius Comercii
Faculty of acquiring and transferring ownership of assets (res) patrimonial; and to carry out acts and contracts of a civil order and thus be bound and bind civilly. - Ius Testamentifactio, (ad)
The right to inherit and leave inheritance properties. In addition, the active testamenti factio, or the possibility of granting a will, and the passive factio testamenti, the possibility of being instituted heir or legatee. - Ius Actionis
Right to intervene in Roman proceedings, sue and be sued. Take legal action.
Obligations of Citizens
Roman citizens, as members of the civitas, had their main obligation to serve in the army. This is important to understand the way in which the Roman Empire was formed, since the army of citizens guaranteed constant and faithful labor for military campaigns, unlike other nations of the time that had to resort to the lev.
Although Rome began as a monarchy, it was always a monarchy strongly influenced by the weight of the civil aristocracy, as can be seen with the creation of the centurian elections. This would give the city in return a solid recruitment system: the citizen served his own interest.
The obligations of Roman citizens would be:
- Census:
Roman citizens had to be registered in the city's citizen census. - Militia:
Roman citizens had to serve in the army according to their level within the census, which divided them into cavalry, heavy infantry, light infantry ..., according to their economic capacity. - Tributum:
Until 167 BC, Roman citizens had the obligation to pay the treasury, although with the money from the conquered provinces this would lose meaning.
Non-Citizens
Non-citizens were in a situation of inferiority. During the first period this distinction was of great importance since citizenship was very restricted, but later it was granted more easily because political and economic conditions demanded the existence of a greater number of citizens.
As they were not Roman citizens, they possessed the rights of ius gentium, thus acquiring a personality recognized by law, but without enjoying any right of ius civile. In the private sphere they were governed by the law of their civitas and when this could not be applied, the ius gentium was used.
Latinos
Given their cultural ties with the city of Rome, the inhabitants of Lazio, and in general almost all the inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, naturally considered themselves part of the Roman political project of the imperium sine fine, so they were not seen in the strict sense as pilgrims, which was almost synonymous with foreigners, but rather as neighbors.
They spoke understandable languages, worshiped the same gods, and shared a common history.
So they, although they were not part of the populus romanus which is the basic criterion of citizenship, had an intermediate status, which could be either: (a) that of veteres, which worked with the inhabitants of the cities of the Latin league ; (b) that of coloniarii, for all those who were adopting Roman primacy; and (c) that of iunianii, for every freed man standing on Italian soil.
Pilgrims
In general, the pilgrims were all those that the Romans really considered foreigners, due to their differences in language and culture, and who were in the city of Rome. These pilgrims had different legal situations throughout Roman law, since their main source of law would be the ius praetorium, especially after the creation of the pilgrim praetor.
Since they were governed by the ius praetorium, their situation changed as the times changed, and depending on each nationality, since (a) some pilgrims, the cum civitate, had special agreements with the city to apply their own law, while (b) others, the sine civitate had to adhere strictly to the ius gentium.
Roman Law
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