Roman Citizenship: Selective Concessions and Legal Evolution
Roman Citizenship: Selective Concessions
When Rome was incorporating territories, it allowed each of the integrated peoples to continue to be governed by its own law, making Roman law an exclusive privilege of the Roman people. Therefore, Latin rights and citizenship awards were sporadic and individual, gradually expanding to groups.
Forms of Granting Citizenship
The two most common forms of grant of citizenship were:
- Uirtutis causa: To provide military service to Rome with courage.
- Per honorum: The exercise of magistracy, by granting particular rights by a magistrate or the emperor.
Individual awards were also given for various reasons.
Extension of Latin Rights by Vespasian
In 74 AD, Vespasian gave the Ius Latii to all Peninsula cities in gratitude for the loyalty of its people in difficult political times. The interpretation of this event has varied among scholars. The problems arise regarding whether this was a concession to the people or a general grant.
The latter case would involve the organization of life and the institutions of the Indian city according to the Roman model, from which time it becomes a municipality and its residents Latino. If these tribunals exercised accessed, per honorem, Roman citizenship. In any case, the impact of granting Latin rights by Vespasian was important.
Whether or not there was a general model of municipal law, the truth is that all obeyed common principles of organization, whether by the use of this general model or by the existence of a Joint Commission, possibly located in the capital of the province, Corduba, in whose hands all of them were.
The Granting of Citizenship by Caracalla
The culmination of the legal process of Romanization occurred with the Constitutio Antoniniana in the year 212, granting citizenship to everyone around the world, i.e., the entire Roman Empire, except the dediticios. The concession was not as attractive as it seems, pursuing the legal integration of the various personal items that made up the Roman Empire, but an imposition that results, not the Roman empire’s total, but the acceptance of diversity people within the Roman law, when the concept of contribution to government spending by citizens had changed.
This award was less effective than it would appear, for different reasons:
- Because of the large number of citizens who currently had.
- Because of the negligible impact of the grant was in various areas of empire bit romanized.
As the barbarians were gradually gaining citizenship, a sense similar to the first concessions granted studied. The Barbarians after the grant of Caracalla, they are called pilgrims and concessions are granted citizenship can be verified through the Diploma militaria.
The Vulgar Roman Law
Roman law was called vulgar to the result of the process of transformation suffered by the Roman law Postclassic, approximately from year 230 until the end of empire. This process is slow, first as customary building broad popular in the western empire. Later they appear slang in the legislation, which affect factors such as the lack of great jurists, the introduction of pre-Roman indigenous rights, the pressure of Christianity on Roman law, etc. The result of all these elements is the birth of the vulgar Roman law.