Loss of status. rights in which the members of that family, in their quality of agnates, could alone take part.1 If an existing status came to be lost or changed, the person suffered what was called a capitis diminutio, which extinguished either entirely or to some extent his former legal capacity. There are three changes of state or condition attended with different consequences, called maxima, media, and minima. The greatest involves the loss of liberty, citizenship, and family; and this happened when a Roman citizen was taken prisoner in war, or condemned to slavery for his crimes. But a citizen who was captured by the enemy, on returning from captivity, was restored to all his civil rights jure postliminii. The next change of state consisted of the loss of citizenship and family rights, without any forfeiture of personal liberty; and this occurred when a citizen became a member of another state, was forbidden the use of fire and water, so as to be forced to quit the Roman territory, or was sentenced to deportation under the empire. Finally, when a person ceased to belong to a particular family, without losing his liberty or citizenship, he was said to suffer the least change of state-as, for instance, where one sui juris came under the power of another by arrogation, or a son who had been under the patria potestas was legally emancipated by his father.2 CHAPTER III. OF CITIZENS AND FOREIGNERS. 1. ROMAN LAW. citizens. IN the early period of the Roman state, not only were Roman foreigners not admitted to the rights of citizens, but even the plebeians were for a considerable time deprived of many of the privileges which the patricians enjoyed. Savigny1 has observed :-" In the free republic there were two classes of Roman citizens, one that had and another that had not a share in the sovereign power. That which peculiarly distinguished the higher class, was the right to vote in a tribe and the capacity of enjoying magistracies." According to this view, those who had the suffrage at public elections and access to the honours of the state, were full citizens-cives optimo jure; while those who had the civil rights of Romans without enjoying these political privileges, were citizens of an inferior class. Citizenship, in its full sense, embraced both political and civil rights. Under the first aspect, it comprehended particularly the right of voting in the comitia, and the capacity of enjoying magistracies, jus suffragii et honorum. Political rights, however, were not held to constitute the essence of citizenship, as these were not enjoyed by many of the freeborn subjects of Rome, such as the ærarii, and those who were inscribed on the tables of the Carites. What essentially distinguished the Roman citizen was the enjoyment of the civil 1 Geschichte des Röm. Rechts im Mittelalter, c. 2. p. 22. F Position of foreigners. rights of connubium and commercium. In virtue of the connubium, the citizen could contract a valid marriage according to the jus civile, and acquire the rights resulting from it, and particularly the paternal power and the civil relationship called agnation, which was long necessary to enable him to succeed to the property of persons who died intestate. In virtue of the commercium he could acquire and dispose of property of all kinds, according to the forms and with the peculiar privileges of the Roman law. By the Porcian law, "De capite et tergo civium," B.C. 256, a Roman citizen could not be scourged or put to death without trial before the centuries, so that his person was in a manner sacred (Liv. x. 9). Of this we have a remarkable example in the history of St Paul, who asks the centurion, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned? When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest; for this man is a Roman."-Acts, xxii. 25, 26. To evade the Porcian law a subtle fiction was introduced, whereby a condemned criminal became at the moment of his sentence the slave of punishment, servus pœnæ, and so ceased to be regarded as a Roman citizen. Foreigners, peregrini, had neither political nor civil rights. They could not acquire rights under the jus civile, nor invoke the protection which it afforded to citizens. They were allowed only the benefit of what was called the jus gentium, or the natural principles of equity, which are common to all nations. Their marriages were valid, but did not produce the same effects as a Roman marriage. They could contract obligations and acquire property, but they were deprived of the absolute and efficacious protection guaranteed by the jus quiritium. Originally, indeed, the foreigner could obtain no protection at Rome, unless he was placed under the patronage of a citizen. But in proportion as the intercourse with foreigners increased, a more liberal policy was adopted; and towards the end of the fifth century of Rome, a special tribunal was established for administering justice to foreigners. Sometimes the connubium or the commercium was granted to foreigners; but these were exceptional measures, contrary to the common law. extended to Originally the Romans divided free persons into citizens and foreigners, cives et peregrini; but towards the close of the republic an intermediate class of persons sprang up, with limited citizenship, under the name of Latini, who enjoyed the commercium without the rights resulting from connubium. During the flourishing period of the republic, when the Citizenship Roman territory had been greatly extended by conquests, all Italy. treaties, and alliances, a crowd of new subjects and allies aspired to participate in the privileges of citizenship, to which great value was attached. The refusal to concede these led to the social war (B.C. 90), at the close of which the Roman citizenship was conferred, not only on the inhabitants of Latium, but on all Italy. After this change the term jus Jus Latii, Latii was used by the jurists to describe an artificial class of persons occupying an intermediate position between citizens and foreigners, in so far as they enjoyed commercium without connubium. Hence the division into cives, Latini, and peregrini, subsisted for a long time. When the free republic degenerated into a pure monarchy, citizenship lost many of its attractions for private persons. The acquisition of civil rights became more and more easy. The jus Latii was given to whole countries at once, of which the grant to Spain by Vespasian may be cited as an instance. Even the citizenship, which had been conquered by the Italian allies at the price of their blood, was lavished with extreme levity. Some emperors made the concession a source of revenue; and Marcus Aurelius, it is said, granted it to any one who asked it. Finally, Caracalla bestowed the Citizenship citizenship on all the free subjects of the Roman empire. In general taking that course the emperor was not guided by liberal Caracalla. ideas, but solely by motives of avarice; for by that expedient he subjected all the subjects of the empire to a tax of five per cent upon succession (vicesima hæreditatum), which was only exigible from Roman citizens.1 1 Caracalla raised this tax to 10 per cent; but it was reduced to its former rate by his successor. Dion Cassius, made under How citizenship acquired. How lost. Personal distinctions Here we may briefly explain how the right of citizenship was acquired, and how it was lost. Citizenship was acquired-1st, By birth. In a lawful marriage the child followed the condition of the father, and became a citizen, if the father was so at the time of conception. If the child was not the issue of justa nuptiæ, it followed the condition of the mother at the time of its birth. 2d, By manumission, according to the formalities prescribed by law, the slave of a Roman citizen became a citizen. This rule was modified by the laws Elia Sentia and Junia Norbana, according to which, in certain cases, the freedman acquired the status of a foreigner, peregrinus dedititius, or of a Latin, Latinus Junianus. Justinian restored the ancient principle, according to which every slave, regularly enfranchised, became in full right a Roman citizen. 3d, The right of citizenship was often granted as a favour, either to a whole community or to an individual, by the people or the senate during the republic, and by the reigning prince during the empire; and this was equivalent to what the moderns call naturalisation. Citizenship was lost-1st, By the loss of liberty—as, for instance, when a Roman became a prisoner of war; 2d, By renouncing the character of Roman citizen, which took place when any one was admitted a citizen of another state; 3d, By a sentence of deportation or exile, as a punishment for crime.1 Birth and fortune are the two great sources of rank and -nobles. personal distinction. The original aristocracy of Rome were the patricians, who were descended from the most ancient and illustrious families. When the plebeians became eligible to all the high offices of state, the two orders were put on the same footing as to political capacity. Every citizen, whether patrician or plebeian, who won his way to a curule magistracy, from that of ædile upwards, acquired personal distinction, which was transmitted to his descendants, who formed a class called nobiles, or men known, to distinguish them from the ignobiles, or people who were not known. "The charac1 Marezoll, § 74. |