In the Roman Republic and later in the Roman Empire, all men could be very roughly divided into three classes. See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century). ... The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. ...

• 1. the lowest class were the slaves, who, basically, were considered property and had no rights whatsoever. They could be sold, tortured, maimed, raped and killed at the whim of their owners.
• 2. the allies of Rome and the natives who lived in territories conquered by Rome were given partial citizenship, like the Latin Right's.
• 3. the Roman citizen, Roman citizenship could be stripped by the state for several reasons (like debt) but this was only exceptionally done.

Women were a class completely apart, for while they had most of the rights of their parents and of their husbands, no Roman woman could vote and in many legal aspects were little better than slaves. The Buxton Memorial Fountain, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, London. ... The Latin Right (Latin ius Latii or Latinitas or Latium) was a status given to a Roman colony intermediate between full Roman Citizenship and not being a citizen at all (peregrines or provincials). ...

• Roman citizenship was granted automatically to every child born in a legal marriage of a Roman citizen.
• People who were from the Latin states were gradually granted citizenship.
• The children of freed slaves became citizens.
• A Roman legionary could not legally marry, therefore all his children were denied citizenship, unless and until the legionary married their mother after his release from service.
• Some individuals received citizenship because of their outstanding service to the Roman republic (later, the empire).
• One could also buy citizenship, but at a very high price.
• auxilia were rewarded with Roman citizenship after their term of service. Their children also became citizens and could join the Roman legions.
• Rome gradually granted citizenship to whole provinces. (In the first century AD St Paul who had been born in Anatolia (turkey) was a Roman citizen)

Rights given: The term auxiliaries comes from latin auxilia, name for non-citizen troops supporting Roman legions. ... See also Legion software and Legion forummer. ... An early portrait of the Apostle Paul. ... Asia Minor lies east of the Bosporus, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. ...

• The right to vote in the Republic.
• The right to make contracts.
• The right to have a legal marriage.
• Citizens couldn´t be submited to torture.
• The right to have a trial (to appear before a proper court and to defend oneself).
• A Roman citizen couldn't be sentenced to death unless he was found guilty of treason. If acused of treason, a Roman citizen had the right to be tried in Rome.
• Even if sentenced to death, no Roman citizen could be sentenced to die at the cross. (Despite being found guilty of the same crime St. Paul, was beheaded. St. Peter on the other hand, not being a Roman citizen, was crucified.).
• Roman citizenship was required in order to join the Roman legions, but this was sometimes ignored.

The granting of citizenship to "the conquered and the allies" was one of the most effective political tools and (at that point in history) original political ideas (perhaps one of the most important reasons for the success of Rome). See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century). ... This article is about law in society. ... Marriage is a relationship between individuals which has formed the foundation of the family for most societies. ... The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg was an infamous torture device. ... Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offense or a capital crime. ... In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ... An early portrait of the Apostle Paul. ... According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside-down, as shown in this painting by Caravaggio. ... See also Legion software and Legion forummer. ...

• Alexander the Great had tried to "mix" his Macedonians and the Persians, Egyptians, Syrians, etc in order to assimilate the people of the conquered Persian Empire, but after his death this policy was largly ignored by his succesors.
• The idea was to assimilate, to turn a defeated and potentially rebelious enemy (or his sons) into a Roman citizen. Instead having to wait for the unavoidable revolt of a conquered people (a tribe or a city-state) like Sparta and the conquered Helots, Rome made the "known" (conquered) world roman.

• The Social War (in which the Italian allies revolted against Rome) only ended gradually, as Rome granted citizenship to all Italian freemen (with the exception of Gallia Cisalpina)

• After 212 AD, all freemen in the Empire were granted citizenship by a imperial edict (the Constitutio Antoniniana) of Emperor Caracalla.

• All these rights were (as everywhere down the ages, and even today) sometimes ignored. The definition of the crime "treason" varied largely from emperor and his goverment to another emperor.

Alexander the Great fighting the Persian king Darius (Pompeii mosaic, from a 3rd century BC original Greek painting, now lost). ... The Persian Empire is the name used to refer to a number of historic dynasties that have ruled the country of Persia (Iran). ... In the social sciences, assimilation is the process of integration whereby immigrants, or other minority groups, are absorbed into a generally larger community. ... Sparta (Greek Σπάρτη) was a city in ancient Greece, whose territory included, in Classical times, all Laconia and Messenia, and which was the most powerful state of the Peloponnesus. ... Helots were Peloponnesian Greeks who were enslaved under Spartan rule. ... The Social War (also called the Italian War) was a war from 91 – 88 BC between the Roman Republic and the other cities in Italy. ... Province of the Roman Republic, in modern-day northern Italy. ... Constitutio Antoniniana - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Caracalla Caracalla (April 4, 186–April 8, 217) was emperor of the Roman Empire from AD 211–217. ... A definition may be a statement of the essential properties of a certain thing, or a statement of equivalence between one expression and another, usually more complex expression that gives the meaning of the first. ...

References

• "The Complete Roman Army" by Adrian Goldsworthy edited by Thames & Hudson
• Roman citizenship