The Roman Citizenship

Examines how the rights and duties of Roman citizens in private life, were affected by certain basic differences in their formal status. Thereby, throws into sharper focus Roman conceptions of citizenship and society.

This volume examines the dynamic concept and changing reality of Roman citizenship from the perspective of the provinces in Rome's vast, multi-ethnic empire, both before and after Caracalla's grant of universal citizenship in 212 CE. In Greek communities, and in Jewish and Christian conceptual and actual constructed communities, the Roman definition of citizenship had a profound impact on the shape of abstract ideas of community, discourse about communal membership and peoplehood, and legal and civic models. Just as Roman citizenship was forever redefining its restrictions and becoming ever-more inclusive, so the borders of the other communities to which Greeks, Christians and Jews claimed "citizenship" were also flexible, adaptable, dynamic.

Explores the various influences that inform and shape our understanding of the early Roman Republic. It is common knowledge that the demise of the Roman Republic was not only the occasion for the shaping of the traditional narrative for the much earlier Republic, but that it was the source of both the discourse and the tone of that history.

Introduction / Clifford Ando and Myles Lavan -- Citizenship and its alternatives : a view from the East / Ari Z. Bryen -- Fiscal semantics in the long second century : citizenship, taxation, and the constitutio Antoniniana / Lisa Pilar Eberle -- Roman citizenship, marriage with non-citizens and family networks / Myles Lavan -- Manumission, citizenship, and inheritance : epigraphic evidence from the Danube / Rose MacLean -- The onomastics of Roman citizenship in the Greek East : from 'Second Sophistic' to local epigraphic loyalty / Aitor Blanco-Pérez -- Documenting Roman citizenship / Anna Dolganov -- Citizenships and jurisdictions : the Greek city perspective / Georgy Kantor -- Experiencing Roman citizenship in the Greek East during the second century CE : local contexts for a global phenomenon / Cédric Brélaz -- Romans, aliens and others in dynamic interaction / Clifford Ando.

The twelve studies contained in this volume discuss some key-aspects of citizenship from its emergence in Archaic Greece until the Roman period before AD 212, when Roman citizenship was extended to all the free inhabitants of the Empire. The book explores the processes of formation and re-formation of citizen bodies, the integration of foreigners, the question of multiple-citizenship holders and the political and philosophical thought on ancient citizenship. The aim is that of offering a multidisciplinary approach to the subject, ranging from literature to history and philosophy, as well as encouraging the reader to integrate the traditional institutional and legalistic approach to citizenship with a broader perspective, which encompasses aspects such as identity formation, performative aspect and discourse of citizenship.