Chapter VI: The Tribes, the Colonies, and the Provinces

Complete equality of political and civil rights has never existed, in any republic, among those subject to the laws; and throughout the whole history of the Roman republic the most striking discriminations existed between different strata in the political and economic organizations.

The contests arising from caste distinctions among the Romans themselves are discussed in other chapters of this volume; it is here proposed to treat of the distinctions existing between Roman citizens, allies, and subjects and to describe briefly the status of each class.

Just as in the days of the Roman kingdom the test of Roman citizenship was membership in one of the curiæ, so in the time of the republic the test became membership in one of the tribes.

In the early days of the republic the number of tribes was twenty-one. Four new tribes were established in 387 B.C. in the conquered territories of Veii, Capena, and Falerii. Other tribes were from time to time created, until by the time of the close of the war with Pyrrhus the total number of tribes was thirty-three. The twelve new tribes occupied a district beyond the Tiber extending a little farther than Veii, a portion of the Sabine and Aequian territory beyond the Anio, part of Latium, part of the Volscian territory, and the coast lands as far as the Liris. The last addition to the number of tribes at Rome took place in 235 B.C., when the number was increased to thirty-five.

The struggles in Rome for the extension of political rights and privileges were always of a concrete, never of an abstract character. We find none of the philosophy of Montesquieu among the Romans; no discussion of natural rights, no effort for the securing of political equality in the abstract. The Roman contests for liberty were always of a strictly practical and, it might perhaps be added, of a strictly selfish character. We find a series of conflicts, in each of which a certain class of the citizens (or subjects) of Rome fought for the right to be enrolled among those possessed of Roman political rights.

At first the contests were all between the actual inhabitants of Rome itself. The political controversies, however, did not terminate upon the admission of the plebeians to full political rights. After the plebeians had won their contests there came the Latins, and after the Latins the Italians.

The relation between early Rome and the other cities of Latium was of the closest character. From the remotest times, long before the foundation of Rome, a league of Latin cities was in existence. At the head of this league stood Alba Longa (the long white city). Rome in an early period in her history overthrew Alba Longa and succeeded to her place at the head of the confederacy. While, however, the primary of Alba Longa had never extended beyond giving to that city the honorary presidency of the league, making it the religious center of Latium, the leadership of Rome was of a real and substantial character. By the terms of agreement between the members of the new Latin League, Rome was tacitly ranked as the equal of the other cities combined, it being agreed that all territory won by the league in war should be divided, one half to Rome and one half among the other cities. The rights of intermarriage and of trade existed between all the cities of the league.

In 384 B.C. Rome was strong enough to compel the league to agree to the closing of its membership. At that time there were in the league thirty towns with full Latin rights and seventeen towns without the right of voting. Towns which in the future should become connected with the league were to have the rights of intermarriage and of trade only with Rome.

The Latin League came to an end in 338 B.C. The extension of the rights of Roman citizenship, either complete or qualified, to other races in Italy is referred to in other chapters of this book. The history of this subject is thus summarized by Mommsen:

"It remains for us to consider the political effect of the
mighty changes consequent upon the establishment of Roman
supremacy in Italy. We do not know with exactness what
privileges Rome reserved for herself as sovereign state. It
is certain that she alone could make war, conclude treaties,
and coin money; and that, further, any war or treaty
resolved upon by the Roman people was legally binding on all
Italian communities, and that the silver money of Rome was
current everywhere in Italy.

"The relations of the Italians to Rome cannot in all cases
be precisely defined, but the main features are as follows.
In the first place, the full Roman franchise was extended as
far as was compatible with the preservation of the urban
character of the Roman community. Those who received this
franchise may be divided into three classes. First, all the
occupants of the various allotments of state lands, now
embracing a considerable portion of Etruria and Campania,
were included. Second, all the communities which, after the
method first adopted in the case of Tusculum, were
incorporated and completely merged in the Roman state....
Finally, full Roman citizenship was possessed by the
maritime or burgess colonies which had been instituted for
the protection of the coast....

"Thus the title of Roman citizen in its fullest sense was
possessed by men dwelling as far north as Lake Sabatinus, as
far east as the Apennines, and as far south as Formiæ. But
within those limits isolated communities such as Tibur,
Præneste, Signia, and Norba, were without the Roman
franchise; while beyond them other communities, such as
Sena, possessed it.

"In the next place, we must distinguish the various grades
of subjection which marked all the communities not honored
with the full Roman franchise. As in the case of the
recipients of full citizenship, so here we may make a
threefold division. To the first division belong the Latin
towns: these retained their Latin rights; that is, they were
self-governing and stood on an equal footing with Roman
citizens as regards the right of trading and inheritance.
But it is important to observe that the Latins of the later
times of the republic were no longer for the most part
members of the old Latin towns, which had participated in
the Alban festival, but were colonists planted in Latium by
Rome, who honored Rome as their capital and parent city, and
formed the main supports of Roman rule in Latium. Indeed,
the old Latin communities, with the exception of Tibur and
Præneste, had sunk into insignificance. It was but natural
that the Latin colonies, issuing as they did from the
burgess-body of Rome, should not rest content with mere
Latin rights, but should aim at the full rights of Roman
citizens. Rome, on the other hand, now that Italy was
subjugated, no longer felt her former need of these
colonies; nor did she deem it prudent to extend the full
franchise with the same freedom as she hitherto had done....

"To the second division belong those towns whose inhabitants
were passive citizens of Rome (_cives sine suffragio_). They
were liable to service in the Roman legions and to taxation,
and were included in the Roman census. A deputy or prefect
appointed annually by the Roman prætor administered justice
according to laws which were subjected to Roman revision.

"In the third and last division we may include all allied
communities which were not Latin states; the relation of
these towns to Rome was defined by separate treaties, and
therefore varied in accordance with the terms imposed by
such agreements....

"It had taken Rome 120 years to complete the union of the
Italian peninsula, broken up as it was by mountain ranges
and naturally favoring the formation and preservation of
various isolated states. But union it was, rather than a
subjugation, and each nation was left to the practical
management of its own affairs. Content with self-government,
the various communities, for the most part, easily bore the
yoke of Roman supremacy. Eventually all the municipal towns
received the full Roman franchise (90 B.C.), and thus
established the municipal principle of government which
endures to the present day."

The rights of Roman citizenship were never generally given outside of the Italian peninsula, although such rights were granted to a few favored individuals in all portions of the Roman world. The possession of these rights was the greatest privilege which could be acquired by any subject of Rome. Even when the strictly political rights of such citizen disappeared under the empire, the personal distinction and protection connected with this citizenship remained. As striking an evidence of the dignity and privileges of a Roman citizen as could be desired is found in the Bible in the twenty-second chapter of Acts:

"The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the
castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging;
that he might know wherefore they cried so against him.

"And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the
centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a
man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?

"When the centurion heard _that_, he went and told the chief
captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is
a Roman.

"Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me,
art thou a Roman? He said, Yea.

"And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I
this freedom. And Paul said, But I was _free_ born.

"Then straightway they departed from him which should have
examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after
he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him."

At the close of the Second Punic War Rome was in possession of five provinces--Sicily, Sardinia, Hither Spain, Farther Spain, and the Gallic coast of Umbria. This latter province soon became an integral part of Italy, but the number of Roman provinces was kept at five by the creation of the province of Cisalpine Gaul. From this time on the number of Roman provinces rapidly increased. The existence of the provinces perpetuated the existence of various classes of political rights.

We will close this account with a description by Gibbon of the relations between Rome and the provinces as they existed during the closing years of the republic and the early days of the empire:

"Till the privileges of Romans had been progressively
extended to all the inhabitants of the empire, an important
distinction was preserved between Italy and the provinces.
The former was esteemed the centre of public unity, and the
firm basis of the constitution. Italy claimed the birth, or
at least the residence, of the emperors and the senate. The
estates of the Italians were exempt from taxes, their
persons from the arbitrary jurisdiction of governors. Their
municipal corporations, formed after the perfect model of
the capital, were intrusted, under the immediate eye of the
supreme power, with the execution of the laws. From the foot
of the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, all the natives of
Italy were born citizens of Rome. Their partial distinctions
were obliterated, and they insensibly coalesced into one
great nation, united by language, manners, and civil
institutions, and equal to the weight of a powerful empire.
The republic gloried in her generous policy, and was
frequently rewarded by the merit and services of her adopted
sons. Had she always confined the distinction of Romans to
the ancient families within the walls of the city, that
immortal name would have been deprived of some of its
noblest ornaments. Virgil was a native of Mantua; Horace was
inclined to doubt whether he should call himself an Apulian
or a Lucanian; it was in Padua that an historian was found
worthy to record the majestic series of Roman victories. The
patriot family of the Catos emerged from Tusculum; and the
little town of Arpinum claimed the double honor of producing
Marius and Cicero, the former of whom deserved, after
Romulus and Camillus, to be styled the Third Founder of
Rome; and the latter, after saving his country from the
designs of Catiline, enabled her to contend with Athens for
the palm of eloquence.

"The provinces of the empire (as they have been described in
the preceding chapter) were destitute of any public force,
or constitutional freedom. In Etruria, in Greece, and in
Gaul, it was the first care of the senate to dissolve those
dangerous confederacies, which taught mankind that, as the
Roman arms prevailed by division, they might be resisted by
union. Those princes whom the ostentation of gratitude or
generosity permitted for a while to hold a precarious
sceptre were dismissed from their thrones as soon as they
had performed their appointed task of fashioning to the yoke
the vanquished nations. The free states and cities which had
embraced the cause of Rome were rewarded with a nominal
alliance, and insensibly sunk into real servitude. The
public authority was everywhere exercised by the ministers
of the senate and of the emperors, and that authority was
absolute and without control. But the same salutary maxims
of government, which had secured the peace and obedience of
Italy, were extended to the most distant conquests. A
nation of Romans was gradually formed in the provinces, by
the double expedient of introducing colonies, and of
admitting the most faithful and deserving of the provincials
to the freedom of Rome."