Roman Citizenship: History’s First “Nationality”?

The attempt to govern the conquered territories from the city of Rome eventually shaped the conquered peoples, who ended up undergoing “Romanization”, and not just economically and culturally, but also in the legal field.

Initially, they received a limited judicial system providing for ius latii (Latin Rights), allowing them to enter into economic and commercial agreements and operations. In 74 AD, Vespasian granted “Latin rights” to all the cities of Hispania (Caballos Rufino 2001, 104-105) but over time, these prerogatives proved insuffi­cient, and concessions of full “citizenship” multiplied. First one became a Roman citizen for having served as a magistrate, later it sufficed to form part of the corresponding urban assembly and, finally, in 212ad, Emperor Antoninus Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all inhabitants of the Empire, who thereby became cives romani.^[106]

To the extent that territorial unification entailed the application of a single law to the inhabitants of the Empire, citizenship could also be considered a kind of avant la lettre nationality—a status which politically and legally fostered a sense of belonging to Roman civilization.^[107]

TIMELINE

The Origins of Rome

753 bc Legend tells of the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus (Ab urbe condita).

509 Servius Tullius establishes the republican regime.

321 The Romans are defeated by the Samnites (“Battle” of the Caudine Forks.) 275 Defeat of Pyrrhus at Beneventum. Rome, after dominating the north and center of the Italian peninsula, controls the south.

First Extra-Peninsular Expansion (289-264 bc)

264-241 First Punic War.

219-202 Second Punic War.

The Collapse of the Republican System (88-31 bc)

88 Start of the civil war in Rome (Mario-Sertorius-Caesar against Sulla- Pompey).

86 Beginning of Sulla’s dictatorship.

82 Sertorius establishes his base at Tingis (Tangier).

80-72 Sertorian War in Hispania.

80 Landing of Sertorius in Hispania.

77 Pompey in Hispania.

72 Murder of Sertorius. Pompey destroys the Sertorian army.

63 Catilinarian Conspiracy. Cicero (106-43) manages to reestablish republican law.

60-54 First Triumvirate: Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. Clear break with the republican order.

58-52 Julius Caesar conquers Transalpine Gaul (Gallic Wars).

54 Death of Crassus.

52 Pompey is appointed sole consul.

49 Caesar crosses the Rubicon with his army and occupies Rome. Pompey takes refuge in Greece.

48 Battle of Pharsalus (Thessaly). Pompey’s army is decimated by Caesar.

46 Caesar fights in Hispania against Pompey’s children.

45 Pompeian troops defeated at Munda. Caesar manages to be named Imperator (dictator for life).

44 Assassination of Julius Caesar in the Senate of Rome on the Ides (15) of March.

43 The attempt to restore republican legality by killing Caesar fails, as the second triumvirate is established, consisting of Octavius, Mark Antony and Lepidus.

42 Death of Lepidus. Confrontation between Octavius and Mark Antony.

31 Naval battle at Actium (Egypt) ends with Mark Antony’s suicide. Octavius, ruler of Rome.

The Principate (31 bc-96 ad)

Julio-Claudian Dynasty

Flavian Dynasty

The High Empire (96-191 ad)

96-98 Nerva.

98-117 Trajan. The Roman Empire reaches its greatest dimensions.

117-138 Hadrian.

138-161 Antoninus Pius.

161-180 Marcus Aurelius.

180-191 Commodus.

The Crisis (191-284)

191-238 The Severans.

238-249 Military anarchy.

249-283 The Illyrians.

The Decline of the Roman Empire (284-395 ad)

284-293 Diocletian.

293-305 First Tetrarchy (East: Diocletian [Augustus] and Galerius [Caesar]; West: Maximian [Augustus] and Constantius Chlorus [Caesar]).

305- 306 Second Tetrarchy (East: Galerius [Augustus] and Maximinus Daia

[Caesar]; West: Constantius Chlorus [Augustus] and Severus [Caesar]).

306- 337 Rupture of the Tetrarchy system. Clashes between the different

aspirants to the imperial throne.

324-337 Constantine I manages to reunite the Empire.

337- 340 After the death of Constantine I the Empire is divided among his three sons. The fights for power resume.

361-363 New unification with Julian. Brief pagan reaction against the excesses of Constantius II.

394-395 Theodosius I is the last emperor who manages to reunite the Empire.

395 After the death of Theodosius I the Empire is divided: the Western Empire is inherited by Honorius (395-423) and the Eastern by Arcadius (395-408).

The End of the Western Empire (395-476 ad)

476 September 4. Romulus Augustulus is deposed by Odoacer, the Germanic chieftain of the Heruli. The end of the Western Empire.

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Further Reading

Ando, C. (2000). Imperial ideology and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.

Bartel, B. (1980). Colonialism and cultural responses: Problems related to Roman provincial analysis. World Archaeology, 12(1), 11-26.

Bispham, E. (2007). FromAsculum to Actium: The municipalization of Italy from the social war to Augustus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brooks, R. O. (Ed.). (2009). Cicero and modern law. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

Corcoran, S. (1996). The Empire of the Tetrarchs, imperial pronouncements and government AD 284-324. Oxford: Clarendon.

Edmonson, J. (2009). Augustus. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Fower, H. I. (2010). Roman republics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Gaudemet, J. (1985). Les Gouvernants a Rome: Essais de droit public romain. Naples: Jovene. Gibbon, E. (2000). Decline and fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788). London: Penguin. Gwynn, D. M. (Ed.). (2008). A.H.M. Jones and the later Roman Empire. Leiden: Brill. (Some contributions originally presented at a seminar held at Oxford in 2004 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the publication of A.H.M. Jones’s Later Roman Empire, 284-602).

Harries, J., & Wood, I. (Eds.). (1993). The Theodosian Code: Studies in the imperial law of late antiquity. London: Duckworth.

Hill, H. (1974). The Roman middle class in the Republican period. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Kelley, D. R. (2002). What pleases the prince: Justinian, Napoleon and the lawyers. History of Political Thought, 23(2), 288-302.

Lintott, A. W. (2002). The constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford: Clarendon (Reprint). Mennen, I. (2011). Power and status in the Roman Empire: AD 193-284. Leiden: Brill.

Mommsen, T. (2010). Romisches Staatsrecht. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Reissue edition. From the original Leipzig: Hirzel, 1871-1888. The chronological order of the appear­ance of the five volumes is as follows: 1 (1871, 18873); 2, 1 (1874, 18873). 2,2(1875, 18873). 3, 1 (1887). 3, 2 (1888). Spanish version by Dorado, P. (1999), Compendio del Derecho Publico Romano, facsimile edition of the Madrid version: Library of Jurisprudence, Philoso­phy and History, 1893, Pamplona: Marcial Pons. French version (1984) Le droit public romain. Translated from the third German edition by Girard, Paul Frederic and Thorin, Ernest ed. 1892. Reimpression Paris De Boccard.

Montesquieu Charles de Secondat, baron de. (1734). Reflections on the causes of the grandeur and declension of the Romans. By the author of the Persian letters. Translated from the French. London: printed for W. Innys and R. Manby; C. Davis; and A. Lyon. Original French, as follows: Considerations sur les causes de la grandeur des romains et de leur decadence. Amsterdam: J. Desbordes. There is a reproduction from the original by the Bodleian Library: electronic version, 2006.

Muniz Coello, J. (2004). Moral e Imperio (siglos II-I a. C.): la tradicion romana sobre el Estado. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges Ltd.

Reid, J. S. (2006). The municipalities of the Roman Empire. Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Pub. Rees, R. (2004). Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Rosenstein, N., & Morstein-Marx, R. (Eds.). (2006). A companion to the Roman Republic. Oxford: Blackwell.

Syme, R. (1986). The Augustan aristocracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Tellegen-Coperus, O. (1993). Short history of Roman law. London: Routledge.

Virgil. (1999). [Complete works of] Virgil. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Williams, S. (2000). Diocletian and the Roman recovery. London: Routledge.