Got Citizenship in the Ancient World?

Touraj Daryaee (UC Irvine)

CitizenshipImportant 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

ExamplesGreece, Mesopotamia, Rome

Indo-European People

Greece / Hellas

Indo-European Invasion /Settlement (1000 BCE)

Invasion of the Hellas / GreeceIndo-European Greek speaking people

Second millennium BCE (Knossos / Crete destroyed 1450 BCE)

MycenaeansGreek 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 BCEAthensArchons: AristocratsKylon: RevolutionaryTyranny: Order Miasma: shedding of bloodDrakon: Man or Myth? Law: Orality vs. Written

Solon

Athenian Democracy

Demos = peopleSolon 594 BCETyranny Cleisthenes 509 BCEDemocracyDirect involvement Women/slaves/foreignersDemocracy / Mediocrity Philosopher-King

Ostracism / OstraconNo 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 CityWarfare: enslavement of the other

Economic benefits

Citizens

“Sons of the City”

Polis

Social-Economic

Rights & Laws

Mesopotamian LawBe 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 TablesLaw 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 CaracallaEdict of Caracalla: Civis “Citizen”

212 CE Full Citizenship beyond Italia to all free men of the empire