Free-Born Roman Citizens

Roman citizenship (civitas Romana) was usually acquired by virtue of birth from a legal Roman marriage or birth from an unmarried Roman woman.

Depending on their age, gender and mental capacity, free-born Roman citizens (cives Romani ingenui) enjoyed a number of legal capacities or rights. In public law, these citizens had the right to vote in the popular assemblies (ius suffragii); the right to stand for public office (ius honorum); and the right to occupy military offices in the Roman legions. In private law, they had the right to contract a legal Roman marriage (ius conubii); the right to enter into legal transactions and con­clude valid legal acts relating, for example, to the conclusion of contracts and the acquisition of property (ius commercii); and the right to litigate before the Roman courts. These primary rights of citizenship (ius civitatis) engendered a variety of derivative public and private rights or capacities, such as the right of magistrates to issue binding edicts (ius style='font-style: italic'>edicendi); the right of higher magistrates to convoke a popular assembly for legislative or other purposes (ius agendi cum populo); the right of higher magistrates to veto official acts of other state organs (ius intercessionis); the right of the owner of land to construct a building on his plot (ius aedificandi); the right of a person to dwell in another's house based on a lease contract or personal servitude (ius habitandi); the right of a creditor to sell a pledge given in security if the debtor did not pay the debt due (ius distrahendi); and the right to create or inherit under a Roman will (ius testamentifactio).^[127]

A person entitled to all the rights of the citizenship (ius civitatis) was referred to as civis optimo iure. However, not all Roman citizens were cives optimo iure.

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