User:Ifly6/Latin rights
Ancient Roman set of legal rights / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Latin rights (Latin: ius Latii) refers to a legal status in Roman law. It was first granted to specific Latins in 338 BC and gave rights to marry and engage in commerce with Romans. These rights were attached to communities: a Roman moving to a town with Latin rights would give up citizenship for those rights; a Latin moving to Rome would gain Roman citizenship.[1] With the Roman expansion in Italy, many settlements and coloniae outside of Latium had Latin rights.
All the Latini of Italy obtained Roman citizenship as a result of three laws which were introduced during the Social War between the Romans and their allies among the Italic peoples ("socii") which rebelled against Rome. The Lex Iulia de Civitate Latinis (et sociis) Danda of 90 BC conferred Roman citizenship on all citizens of the Latin towns and the Italic towns who had not rebelled. The Lex Plautia Papiria de Civitate Sociis Danda of 89 BC granted Roman citizenship to all federated towns in Italy south of the River Po (in northern Italy). The Lex Pompeia de Transpadanis of 89 BC granted the ius Latii to the communities of Transpadania, a region north of the Po, which had sided with Rome during the Social War. It also granted Roman citizenship to those who became officials in their respective municipia (cities).
The exact content of the ius Latii, under Roman law, varied from city to city. It could include some or all of the following rights:
- Ius commercii: the right to trade, i. e., the right to have commercial relations and trade with Roman citizens on equal status and to use the same forms of contract as Roman citizens;
- Ius connubii: the right to marry pursuant to law;
- Ius migrationis: the right to migrate, i. e., the right to retain one’s degree of citizenship upon relocation to another municipium. In other words, Latin status was not lost when moving to other locales in Italy.
- Ius suffragii: the right to vote, but only if they migrated to Rome.[2]
- Ius civitatis mutandae: the right to become Roman citizens.
Outside of Italy, the term Latinitas continued to be used for other cases. Cicero used this term in relation to Julius Caesar's grant of Latin rights to the Sicilians in 44 BC.[3] This use of "ius Latii" or "Latinitas" persisted to the reign of Emperor Justinian I in the sixth century AD. This status was later given to whole towns and regions: Emperor Vespasian granted it to the whole of Hispania[4] and Emperor Hadrian gave it to many towns.[5][6]