Latin citizenship

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The Latin civil rights , even Latinisches law was in the Roman Empire , the civil rights of the Latins , the allies of Rome. Its rights largely, but not completely, corresponded to Roman citizenship .

history

During the Roman conquest of Italy in the 5th century BC In addition to the Roman citizenship, a new civil right was created for the Latin allies of Rome. It put their citizens on an equal footing with the Romans in private law. They were allowed to attend the Roman people's assembly and automatically acquired Roman citizenship by moving to Rome.

There was also a second group of municipalities under Latin law: it was the settlements that Rome laid out as colonies . The citizens of these colonies enjoyed roughly the same rights as the Old Latins (so-called Latinity). Such colonies with Latin citizenship existed primarily in Spain, North Africa and southern France.

The question of equal civil rights for allies sparked the alliance war (91-88 BC) towards the end of the republic , which was ended by the Lex Plautia Papiria , which granted Roman citizenship to all free residents of Italy south of the Po . Gaius Iulius Caesar then expanded the Roman civil rights area four decades later to the edge of the Alps.

In the course of the Roman Empire, more and more people and groups of people received Roman citizenship until the Constitutio Antoniniana of the year 212 granted it to almost all free residents of the Empire, so that Latin citizenship largely lost its importance.

literature