Expert: Maria - 1/30/2010

Question
Was Roman citizenship in the ancient world determined by birth records, property holdings, tax records??  How did that work?

Answer
Hello,

Generally speaking, Roman citizenship, that was a privileged social status afforded to certain individuals, was acquired by birth when both parents were Roman citizens (“Romani cives ” in Latin), although one of them, usually the mother, might be a foreigner (Latin “peregrinus”) with the right to contract a Roman marriage(Latin, “conubium”).

Anyway I have to point out that it is hard to offer meaningful generalities across the entire Roman period from 753 BC, when Rome was founded, to 476 AD when the Roman Empire fell, as the nature and availability of citizenship was affected by legislation over the centuries.

We can  say however that:

-Roman citizenship was granted automatically to every child born in a legal marriage of a Roman citizen.

-People who were from the Latin states in Italian peninsula were gradually granted citizenship especially after the Social War (90–88 BC).

-Some individuals received Roman citizenship as a reward for outstanding service to Rome.

-Finally Rome gradually granted citizenship to whole provinces, until  the Edict of the emperor Caracalla (Latin, “Constitutio Antoniniana“) in 212 AD granted it to all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire which embraced Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Switzerland , England, Germany, former Czechoslovak, former Yugoslavia, Hungary, Albania, Greece and the  islands of the Mediterranean sea, Romania, Bulgaria, all of continental Europe west of the Rhine and south of the Danube, Turkey, Mesopotamia (modern  Iraq),Arabia, most of Asia west of the Euphrates and finally northern Africa, that is Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt.
  
Have a nice day,
Maria