Citizenship In Ancient Rome

Citizenship is a status given by a government to some or all of its people. Rome gave citizenship to most of its people, whereas Athens gave citizenship very few of its people. The Roman government was more lenient to its population 45,000,000 people. The Roman government had a system set up for those who were foreigners and wanted to become citizens. The Romans may have been lenient, but they had limits for citizens too. Along with their limits they had a social structure within the government to keep everything running smoothly. Athenian citizenship was hard to come by they gave it away to very few types of people. The Athenian government worked hard to get its citizens out of its population of 300,000 people to focus on using their rights to partake in political events. Unlinke the Athenians, Romans focused strongly on their individual responsibilities. The Romans used a republic as their form of government. The Roman Republic, was well organized; they were lenient, had a system they ran by, and controlled their vast population. When it comes down to which civilization had a better system, the answer is Rome. Citizenship in Rome may have been easier to come by, but it was a lot to up keep. In Document A created by various sources, there is a chart that explains how to get an citizenship in Rome and Athens. The chart shows that the Romans gave away citizenship more than Athens, and they had more regulations. The only people who could not obtain a citizenship in Rome were slaves and freed slaves. Whereas in Athens the only one on the chart to obtain citizenship without work or training was a, free native-born adult male, and in order to get that his parents had to be free born …show more content…
The senate contained about 300 men who would serve life long terms, if the census did not prove they were not fit to be in the Senate. The 300 men in the Roman Senate had responsibilities for controlling foreign relations,making treaties,war policy, creating alliances, control of public land,selecting ambassadors and trying cases for treason and conspiracy (Document F painting by: Cesare Maccari). The Roman Republic still managed to set aside rules for those who wanted to be citizens and were foreigners. People such as, Latini's, Foderati's, and Perrini's were foreigners from conquered lands, from foreign lands, but lived in the Italian peninsula, or citizens of states that had a treaty with Rome( Document c by: Claudius and other sources). The Roman republic was not as open or public as the Athenian Democracy. The Senate seat in Rome was passed down and their meeting was more formal than the Athenian …show more content…
The way citizens were ranked, were based upon many factors. These such factors would include wealth, heritage, marital status, administrative competence, and psychical and moral fitness. The censors could determine if you were to be demoted in rank. The senators were not excused from the census either, if they were demoted, they could be expelled from their senate position. This census occurred every five years, and helped determine what right/privileges, level of taxation, and what duties citizens were to preform until the next census. This system was well organized and planned, because it was well thought out it allowed the government to keep track of its citizens. Thus keeping the