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