Citizenship In Ancient Rome

Roman citizens were the main body and the foundation of Roman state, therefore,the change of Roman civil rights' value was related to the prosperity and decline of Roman country.To the study of Roman citizen and civil rights in ancient Rome is not only helpful for our understanding of the change of Roman civil rights' value well and its intrinsic meaning, but also has the important meaning in deepening research on the rule of Roman historical development.This article mainly elaborates on the Roman civil rights through the phrases as follows:First, in the regal period, Roman civil rights was judged by the region division instead of the blood relationship.The award of civil rights was quite loosing,whose goal was to increase the labor force and the manpower resources to solve the survival crisis.Second,in the Republican time,Roman civil rights moved from unenlightened toward being open.The value of Roman citizenship gradually rised along with the Roman national prosperousity.Rome's expansion and the extension of Roman citizenship made Roman citizens changed.So citizenship started to depreciate.Third,in the empire time,Roman citizenship had experienced the unprecedented extension,which expanded Rome's dominant foundation and the social basis.The lose of Roman citizen's virtues and enhancement of the imperial authority made Roman citizens gradually lose the enthusiasm to politics.The imperial order of Caracalla issued,which made Roman citizenship political significance vanished completely. Being a Roman citizen turned one kind of serious burden. So Roman citizenship depreciated greatly.In brief,The change of the value of Roman citizenship results from the development of Roman society.The extension of Roman citizenship,forfeiture of civil spirit's as well as the Roman national strength's declining gradually made the Roman citizenship's value depreciation.