Got Citizenship in the
Ancient World?
Touraj Daryaee (UC Irvine)
Citizenship
Important Factors in discussing Citizenship
1. Class: Upper / lower – Free/slave
2. Economic Relationship: to city, state, etc.
3. Polis / City: Polity
4. Government: Managing the Polis
Examples
Greece, Mesopotamia, Rome
Indo-European People
Greece / Hellas
Indo-European Invasion /Settlement (1000 BCE)
Invasion of the Hellas / Greece
Indo-European Greek speaking people
Second millennium BCE (Knossos / Crete
destroyed 1450 BCE)
Mycenaeans
Greek speaking Indo-European invaders
Second Millennium BCE
Classical Period
Greek City-States: independent
Sparta, Athens, Corinth, Argos, etc.
The Two Cities: Sparta & Athens
Examples of diversity among the Helens
Our thought and ancient thought
Sparta
City-State
Helots
Plots of land
Food production
Group solidarity
Athens:
It’s been Revolutionary for Ages!
8th-6th BCE
Athens
Archons: Aristocrats
Kylon: Revolutionary
Tyranny: Order
Miasma: shedding of blood
Drakon: Man or Myth?
Law: Orality vs. Written
Solon
Athenian Democracy
Demos = people
Solon 594 BCE
Tyranny
Cleisthenes 509 BCE
Democracy
Direct involvement
Women/slaves/foreigners
Democracy / Mediocrity
Philosopher-King
Ostracism / Ostracon
No one citizen is above others
Aristotle: Athenian Constitution 22:
“The first person banished by ostracism was
one of his relatives, Hipparchus son of
Charmus of the deme of Collytus, the desire
to banish whom had
been Cleisthenes'
principal motive in
making the law”
Mesopotamia
City clusters / Fourth millemium BCE
Politics of the City
Warfare: enslavement of the other
Economic benefits
Citizens
“Sons of the City”
Polis
Social-Economic
Rights & Laws
Mesopotamian Law
Be it enacted forever and for all future days: If a son say to
his father: “You are not my father,” he (the father) can
cut off his (son’s) locks, make him a slave and sell him
for money. If a son say to his mother, “you are not my
mother,” she can cut off his locks, turn him out of town,
or (at least) drive him away from home, deprive him of
citizenship and of inheritance, but his liberty he loses not
Roman
Indo-European Invasion
Italic Speaking Indo-European People
Invasion, assimilation
Co-existence
Romans
509 BCE
I. Roman Republic (509 BCE – 31 BCE)
City of Rome 8th BCE
Roman Politics
Forum = Agora
Senate
Senators 300
Kings and
Imperium
Class Conflict
Citizenship & Participation: 509-343 BCE
Patricians = upper class
Plebeians = lower class
4 Tribunes
12 Tables
Law Code (450 BCE)
Plebeian agitation / Class
Curbing arbitrary power
I “If he has broken the bone of a free man,
the penalty is to be 300 (large copper
coins); in the case of a salve, 150
12 Tables: Privileges & Protections
IX: Concerning a citizen’s rights, they are to
declare under oath what they consider
best for the community
XI: There is not to be intermarriage with the
plebs
Slavery
Spartacus 109 BCE-71 BCE
Soldier / Slave
Gladiator
73 BCE with 70 gladiators
Ravaging Rome
Support from Slave
Pompey: victor
Roman Expansion
Punic Wars
Roman Republic & Carthaginian Kingdom
3 wars
Second war
Attack on Rome
Hannibal
Mediterranean Sea
mare nostrum = “our sea”
Male Citizen of Rome
Paterfamilias = man of the house
money
life & death
Slaves
Sell family into slavery
Emperor Caracalla
Edict of Caracalla: Civis “Citizen”
212 CE Full Citizenship beyond Italia to all
free men of the empire