The ''Constitutio Antoniniana'' (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
for: "Constitution
r Edictof Antoninus") (also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution) was an
edict
An edict is a decree or announcement of a law, often associated with monarchism, but it can be under any official authority. Synonyms include "dictum" and "pronouncement".
''Edict'' derives from the Latin edictum.
Notable edicts
* Telepinu Pr ...
issued in AD 212, by the
Roman Emperor Caracalla
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor ...
. It declared that
all free men in the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...
were to be given full
Roman citizen
Citizenship in ancient Rome (Latin: ''civitas'') was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in Ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, t ...
ship (by extension all free women in the Empire were to be given the same rights as Roman women, such as the ''
jus trium liberorum
The jus trium liberorum, meaning "the right of three children" in Latin, was a privilege awarded to Roman citizens who had produced at least three children or freedmen of either sex who had produced at least four children. It was a direct result ...
''), with the exception of the ''
dediticii'', people who had become subject to Rome through surrender in war, and freed slaves.
Before AD 212, full Roman citizenship was mostly only held by inhabitants of
Roman Italy
Roman Italy (called in both the Latin and Italian languages referring to the Italian Peninsula) was the homeland of the ancient Romans and of the Roman empire. According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home promised by Jupiter to ...
. Colonies of Romans established in the provinces, Romans (or their descendants) living in provinces, the inhabitants of various cities throughout the Empire, and small numbers of local nobles (such as kings of client countries) also held full citizenship. Provincials, on the other hand, were usually non-citizens, although some held the
Latin rights
Latin rights (also Latin citizenship, Latin: ''ius Latii'' or ''ius latinum'') were a set of legal rights that were originally granted to the Latins (Latin: "Latini", the People of Latium, the land of the Latins) under Roman law in their origin ...
. Veterans of the
Auxilia
The (, lit. "auxiliaries") were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 30 BC. By the 2nd century, the Auxilia contained the same number of in ...
were also granted Roman citizenship on discharge. Being a Roman citizen remained a well sought-after status till 212.
As a result, vast numbers of new citizens assumed the nomen ''
Aurelius'', in honour of their patron (whose full name was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus), including several emperors: seven of the eleven emperors between
Gallienus
Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...
and
Diocletian (
Claudius Gothicus,
Quintillus
Marcus Aurelius Claudius Quintillus (died 270) was a Roman emperor. He was a brother of Emperor Claudius Gothicus, whom he succeeded after Claudius' death in 270. Quintillus' claim to be emperor was challenged by Aurelian, who was proclaimed e ...
,
Probus Probus may refer to:
People
* Marcus Valerius Probus (c. 20/30–105 AD), Roman grammarian
* Marcus Pomponius Maecius Probus, consul in 228
* Probus (emperor), Roman Emperor (276–282)
* Probus of Byzantium (–306), Bishop of Byzantium from 293 t ...
,
Carus
Marcus Aurelius Carus (c. 222 – July or August 283) was Roman emperor from 282 to 283. During his short reign, Carus fought the Germanic tribes and Sarmatians along the Danube frontier with success.
He died while campaigning against ...
,
Carinus,
Numerian
Numerian ( la, Marcus Aurelius Numerius Numerianus; died November 284) was Roman emperor from 283 to 284 with his older brother Carinus. They were sons of Carus, a general raised to the office of praetorian prefect under Emperor Probus in 282. ...
and
Maximian
Maximian ( la, Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus; c. 250 – c. July 310), nicknamed ''Herculius'', was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then '' Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his ...
) bore the name "Marcus Aurelius".
[Salway, p.136]
Analysis
The
Roman jurist Ulpian
Ulpian (; la, Gnaeus Domitius Annius Ulpianus; c. 170223? 228?) was a Roman jurist born in Tyre. He was considered one of the great legal authorities of his time and was one of the five jurists upon whom decisions were to be based according t ...
( 170223) states in the
''Digest'': "All persons throughout the Roman world were made Roman citizens by an edict of the Emperor Antoninus Caracalla" (D. 1.5.17).
The context of the decree is still subject to discussion. According to historian and politician
Cassius Dio
Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...
( AD 155 AD 235), the main reason
Caracalla
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor ...
passed the law was to increase the number of people available to tax. In the words of Cassius Dio: "This was the reason why he made all the people in his empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honoring them, but his real purpose was to increase his revenues by this means, inasmuch as aliens did not have to pay most of these taxes." However, few of those that gained citizenship were wealthy, and while it is true that Rome was in a difficult financial situation, it is thought that this could not have been the sole purpose of the edict. Cassius Dio generally saw Caracalla as a bad, contemptible emperor.
Another goal may have been to increase the number of men able to serve in the legions, as only full citizens could serve as
legionaries
The Roman legionary (in Latin ''legionarius'', plural ''legionarii'') was a professional heavy infantryman of the Roman army after the Marian reforms. These soldiers would conquer and defend the territories of ancient Rome during the late Repu ...
in the
Roman army
The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval contin ...
. In scholarly interpretations that agree with a model of moral degeneration as the reason for the fall of the Roman Empire, most famously the model followed by British historian
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, '' The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is ...
, the edict came at a cost to the auxiliaries, which primarily consisted of non-citizen men.
Additionally, before the edict, one of the main ways to acquire Roman citizenship was to enlist in the Roman army, the completion of service in which would give the citizenship to the discharged soldier. The edict may have made enlistment in the army less attractive to most, and perhaps the recruiting difficulties of the Roman army by the end of the 3rd century were related to this .
In the analyses of more recent scholars, the ''Constitutio Antoniniana'' marks a major milestone in the provincialisation of Roman law, meaning that the gap between private law in the provinces and private law in Italy narrowed. This is because, in granting citizenship to all men in the provinces, much private law had to be re-written to conform with the law that applied to Roman citizens in Rome. To these scholars, it therefore also marks the beginning of a process by which imperial constitutions became the primary source of Roman law.
See also
*
Constitution (Roman law)
*
Peregrinus (Roman)
In the early Roman Empire, from 30 BC to AD 212, a ''peregrinus'' (Latin: ) was a free provincial subject of the Empire who was not a Roman citizen. ''Peregrini'' constituted the vast majority of the Empire's inhabitants in the 1st and 2nd centur ...
References
External links
The Roman Law Library, incl. ''Constitutiones principis''
{{Italic title
212
3rd century in law
Roman nationality law
Edicts
210s in the Roman Empire
Caracalla