How did people prove citizenship in Ancient Rome?

in 91 BC the Italian Peninsula erupted in a conflict known as the social war which raged for four years while there appeared to have been a few issues being fought over not that the evidence is fantastic for any of this the court issue at stake was apparently Roman citizenship because the Romans of course had this and the Italian allies who were in Rebellion did not but wanted that citizenship because of the rights it bestowed these included the right to vote in Roman elections but also legal protection such as protection from torture as well as a perceived number of benefits like greater social status and a better chance to succeed in economic matters it was incredibly important to the world of ancient Rome so how did the Romans ensure that the status itself was protected and how did they ensure that not just anybody could claim to be a Roman citizen well there were several methods depending on whether the person in question was a civilian or a soldier and depending on the time period being examined much of it comes down to three different types of proof military diplomas civilian records and names in the original Court territory of Rome there were two types of citizenship that somebody could have Roman citizenship and Latin citizenship sometimes called Latin rights which were granted to some Latin towns after the Latin War which printed an alliance of towns roughly 30 against Rome which Rome ultimately won those privileges included the right to trade with Rome the right to vote as a single tribe and the right to upgrade one standing by obtaining Roman citizenship as Rome expanded in Italy Roman citizenship and Latin citizenship initially was expanded slightly and granted to Latin colonies in newly acquired territory men who held either of these citizenships had the right to the trio nomina which was comprised of three different names the prenomen the no men and the cognomen which denoted the personal name the gens or Clan one belonged to and then a smaller subset of the gens thus Gaius Julius Caesar was personally named Gaius belonged to the Julia Jones and to also belong to a subset of that Clan which traced its ancestry to a man who had the name Caesar there were multiple explanations of where the name comes from in Roman sources as Roman territory expanded however this system became less useful one could always invent more names for themselves and it's possible that citizenship could be claimed through those means another way of doing this was by simply the claiming one was a Roman citizen and hoping others believed the individual in question but how would you actually prove citizenship if you had to this is where legal documents enter the picture the most famous granting of citizenship is caracala's decision to make all three men in the Empire citizens in 212 but there were other decisions to Grant citizenship to large numbers of people throughout Roman history such as the decision by Augustus to do so in 40 BC and the passage of the Julian law to Grant citizenship to those Italian allies who had not revolted in the social war in addition to this Roman citizenship there were different types of social organization depending on one's legal standing Friedman women clients federati and peregrini all had different rights so to ensure that these classes and their Associated rights were properly known within 30 days of being born parents had to take their children to a local Roman official and have them recorded in their town or City's records as being a full citizen or as being a peregrini or a Freedman Etc based on the parent's own legal standing when this was done if they were a Roman citizen the child would be given a tablet which declared them as such of course this could in theory be faked So Not only was the illegal manufacturer of these tablets punishable by Death the Romans also had a security mechanism built into this document on one tablet was recorded the number of witnesses to the event normally seven and on the other tablet was the name of the individual in question their family date of birth and their Hometown and province the two sides were then placed on top of each other with the texts facing each other and the wax was poured into the space in between forming a mold the whole thing was then tied together with wire or twine should citizenship ever be called into question the seal could be broken and the tablets and the wax compared with each other and every five years these official records were updated and they were kept in local archives as well as in archives in Rome itself if a diploma was not able to be created two other types of documents were used Emperors who decreeded that groups of people were now to be regarded as Roman citizens had the decree written out on a document called a labelus which recorded the granting of citizenship by the emperor or in lieu of this higher ranking officials were given the green light to notarize documents called professios which could then be used as proof of citizenship in short there were multiple documents which could be used to verify citizenship much in the same way that citizens of the US today can have citizenship verified by producing a passport a naturalization certificate a birth certificate or a certificate of citizenship the same type of method applied to military diplomas legionaries were already citizens but auxiliaries who served their full term the length of which vary depending on the period but which usually range between 16 and 25 years were made citizens when they were honorably discharged along with their families those who showed bravery or displayed extraordinary skill on the fields certain chance of being granted citizenship by Imperial decree and Military diplomas stemming from this also referenced the decree which granted citizenship to the units if however this ever came into doubt the issue could be brought to court and the witnesses recorded on the tablet were expected to testify on the Citizen's behalf and The Archives of the hometown of the individual whose citizenship was in doubt would be searched to produce the required documents whether that be the original tablet the labellus or the professio is that the documents under extreme circumstances were never quite enough one had to refer to the actual decree which made them citizens in the first place and the witnesses to the action had to testify alongside the presentation of those documents so in summary how did Romans guarantee and verify Roman citizenship initially they were able to use the Trulia nomina to do so but once the state expanded and this became less realistic they began to refer to documents kept both in a citizen's local town or city and oftentimes in Rome itself or in a military camp and if this was ever in doubt those documents and the witnesses could be mustered to prove that somebody was indeed a citizen of Rome

Channel: The Historian's Craft

Views: 185,643

Keywords: ancient rome, roman empire, roman history, roman citizenship, roman citizenship rights, how was roman citizenship verified, how did you prove citizenship in ancient rome

Id: 0hVFOX8C9_0

Length: 7min 10sec (430 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 20 2023