Constitutio Antoniniana: Roman citizenship for all!

All in all, this might well be the most relevant Imperial Roman Edict ever, at least on the same level than the Edict of Mediolanum (313)

It is actually not easy to find: AFAIK no Roman historian included it in their works.

Even the contemporary Cassius Dio, by then already a former consul, just laconically and collaterally commented it while denouncing the taxing abuses of this emperor

This was the reason why he [BASSIANUS aka ANTONINUS aka CARACALLA] made all the people in his empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honouring 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.

Click to expand...

(RH, LXXVIII: IX: IV).

The following Greek text is the opening of this decree and it comes from a contemporary fragmetary papyrus of Egypt (P. Giss. I, 40, col. I, 1-12):

[Αὐτοκράτωρ Καῖσαρ Μά]ρ̣κ̣ο̣ς̣ Α̣ὐρήλ̣ι̣[ος Σεουῆρος] Ἀ̣ντων̣ῖνο[ς] Ε̣[ὐσεβὴ]ς λέγει· | [ - ca. ? - ]η μᾶλλο̣ν̣ α̣ν̣[........ τὰ]ς αἰ̣τ̣ί̣α̣ς κ̣α̣ὶ̣ τ̣ο[ὺς] λ̣[ογι]σμ̣οὺ[ς] | [ - ca. ? - θ]εοῖς [τοῖ]ς ἀθ[αν]άτοις ε̣ὐχα̣ριστήσαιμι, ὅτι τῆ̣[ς] τ̣οιαύτη[ς] | [ - ca. ? - ]η̣σ̣με συ[νετ]ή̣ρησα̣ν. τοιγ[α]ροῦν ν̣ομ̣ίζω [ο]ὕτω με | [ - ca. ? - ]ω̣ς δύ[ν]α̣σθαι τ̣ῇ μεγαλ̣ειό̣τητι αὐτῶ̣ν τὸ ἱκ̣αν̣ὸν ποι-|[εῖν - ca. ? - ὁσ]άκις ἐὰν ὑ̣[π]ε̣ι̣σέλθ[ωσ]ι̣ν εἰς τοὺς ἐ̣μ̣ο̣ὺ̣ς ἀν[θρ]ώπους | [ - ca. ? - ]ν̣ θεῶν συνε̣ι̣[σ]ενέγ[κοι]μ̣ι. δίδωμ̣ι τοῖς συνάπα-|[σιν - ca. ? - κατὰ τ]ὴ̣ν οἰκουμέν̣η̣ν π[ολιτ]είαν Ῥωμαίων, μ̣έ̣νοντος | [τοῦ δικαίου τῶν πολιτευμ]άτων̣, χωρ[ὶς] τῶν [..]δ̣ειτ̣ικίων. ὀ̣[φ]ε̣ίλει γὰρ τὸ | [ - ca. ? - ]ν̣ε̣ιν πάντα α̣[..]α ἤδη κ[α]ὶ τῇ νίκῃ ἐνπεριει-|[ληφ - ca. ? - ]α̣γμα̣ .[..]λώσει [τὴν] μεγαλειότητα [το]ῦ̣ Ῥωμα[ί]-|[ - ca. ? - ]. περὶ τοὺς .[....]υς γε̣γεν̣ῆσ̣θα[ι] ᾗπερ δ[ - ca. ? - ] | [ - ca. ? - ].αλειφ[ - ca. 10 - ]ω̣ν τῶ[ν ἑ]κάστης | [ - ca. ? - ]ητω[ - ca. 10 - ]..[.]ο̣ς̣[ - ca. ? - ] | [ - ca. ? - ]θη[ - ca. ? - ] | [ - ca. ? - ]ο̣λω[ - ca. ? - ] | [ - ca. ? - ]τ̣ο | [ - ca. ? - ]α̣ | [ - ca. ? - ]ν̣ελλη | [ - ca. ? - ]μω | [ - ca. ? - ]υ̣π̣ο̣ | [ - ca. ? - ]κυ | [ - ca. ? - ]ι̣ειη | [ - ca. ? - ]ο̣ιεσαν | [ - ca. ? - ]ε̣γδια | [ - ca. ? - ] | [ - ca. ? - ].ος

Click to expand...

This is the Latin translation

Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Seuerus Antoninus Augustus dicit : Nunc uero . . . . potius oportet querellis et libellis sublatis quaerere quomodo diis immortalibus gratias agam, quod ista uictoria . . . . me seruauerunt. Itaque existimo sic magnifice et religiose maiestati eorum satisfacere me posse, si peregrinos, quotiens cumque in meorum hominum numerum ingressi sint, in religiones (?) deorum inducam. Do igitur omnibus peregrinis, qui in orbe terrarum sunt, ciuitatem Romanorum, manente omni genere ciuitatum, exceptis dediticiis. Oportet enim multitudinem non solum omnia . . . . sed etiam uictoria circumcingi. Praeterea hoc edictum augebit (?) maiestatem populi Romanorum cum facta sit eadem aliorum (?) ( peregrinorum ? ) dignitas. . . . . . .

Click to expand...

(S. Riccobono, Fontes iuris Romani antejustiniani, I, Firenze, 1941, pp. 445-449, n. 88)

Don't worry, this is the English translation

Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Augustus Antoninus Pius says:
[. . .] rather [. . .] the causes and considerations [. . .] that I give thanks
to the immortal gods, because [when that conspiracy occurred] they
preserved me, thus I think that I should be able [magnificently
and piously] to make a suitable response to their majesty, [if] I were
able to lead [all who are presently my people] and others who should
join my people [to the sanctuaries] of the gods. I give to all of
those [who are under my rule throughout] the whole world, Roman
citizenship, [(with the provision that) the just claims of communities]
should remain, with the exception of the [ded]iticii.

The [whole population] ought [. . .] already to have been included in the victory.
[. . .] my edict will expand the majesty of the Roman [people. . .].

Click to expand...

So almost overnight, at the early CMLXV AUC / 212 AD, millions of Roman subjects suddenly adopted the surname Antonianus.

And the Roman World forever changed...

As usual, any commentary will be highly welcomed.
Thanks in advance.

okamido said:

In Sparta, a large majority of men all supposedly took the name of Marcus Aurelius, rather than Antonianus, to show their thanks.

Click to expand...

Excellent observation; the same as several other emperors, the former Bassianus aka Caracalla (who was ostensibly never called as emperor by such nickname) had a long imperial name.

By CMLXV AUC / 212 AD his full official name was:

Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Pius Augustus Britannicus maximus Parthicus maximus Arabicus maximus Adiabenicus maximus

It's clear that the Spartans and no doubt several other citizens preferred the fourth over the the sixth name.

Mosquito said:

"Constitutio Antoniniana: Roman citizenship for all!"

- actually this statement is false.

There was a cetegory of free people who didnt recive citisenship, it were peregrini dediticii. In fact Constitutio Antoniniana gave roman citisenship to peregrini certae civitatis .

Dediticii - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Click to expand...

Glad someone perceived it; you are right; and of course, citizenship was not granted to slaves either, even less women.

The problem here was just that all such qualifications were too many for being posted within the title of this thread.
Trust me, I tried.

Anyhow, it's indeed good to verify that some readers here are eager to take some time to cheack out what is posted; a million thanks.

BTW, this short wiki-article is based on a far more detailed article of William Smith's Dictionary of Roman Antiquities; too few of good stuff.

The sober article of Daremberg et Saglio is even far better.

The dediticii were actually at least two quite diverse categories of non-citizen residents.

This term was originally applied to illegal alien immigrants (peregrini, i.e. former barbarians).

In the specific case of the second and most prevalent category, the freedmen dediticii were essentially those former slaves who had deserved any formal punishment from their masters for any misconduct while they were still slaves.

This legal limitation came from some old Augustan legislation which prevented such people from receiving the benefits of full Roman citizenship.

In legal terms, their status was equivalent to non-naturalized foreign immigrants.

This legislation was required under the time of Augustus due to the manumission abuse of late republican politicians who tried to increase their own clients.

Admittedly , directly opposing the legal wisdom of the Divine Augustus would have probably asking a bit too much to good ol' Bassianus aka Antoninus aka Caracalla; don't you think so?

So in practice, the son of Severus was a priori formally granting Roman citizenship status to absolutely all the potential candidates under the already long extant Roman legislation on this matter.

In plain English, no additional or extraordinary requirements were asked for any of them, as it has been the case all along almost a millennium of the Roman history.

The case of the Constitutio Antonianiana would be analogous to any modern nation (let say the US) granting citizenship to all illegal residents withoud any explicit legal disqualification, let say any criminal record.

It's just exactly for this detail that this Edict was such an historical watershed.

Mosquito said:

Actually women had some kind of citisenship. If they hadnt, such rights like "ius conubii" wuldnt have any sense.

I would say that Roman women had limited citisenship which included:

- ius conubii (especially thisone is very important for Roman citisenship)
- ius commercii
- testamenti factio activa
- testamenti factio passiva

They didnt have such rights like ius suffragii and ius honorum.

But what is important is the fact that even adult, free, male Roman citisen wasnt completelly legally free because he still could have been under "Patria potestas" which was allowing "Pater Famillias " even to kill the people under his power.

Click to expand...

Good post.

What is relevant here is that neither women nor slaves nor any of both kinds of dediticii (foreigners & freedmen with dirty record) were eligible for true Roman citizenship.

And that good ol' Antoninus in a single stroke transformed literally all the other peregini (i.e. all the legally potentially viable candidates) into regular bona fide Roman citizens.

That's exactly why this Edict was such a critical watershed on such a huge historical scale.

Something entirely unimaginable for virtually any other ancient state (and some modern states too, we might add).

Its immense impact is more easily grasped if we remember that as late as 48 AD no more than one ninth of the subjects of the Roman Empire were citizens; that the Roman citizens were still minority by the early Severan dynasty is clear from the distribution of auxiliary and legionary units.
On the other hand, the global proportion of slaves was presumably around 10%.
It is evident that the lives of tens of millions of people were directly and suddenly affected by this Edict.

okamido said:

In Sparta, a large majority of men all supposedly took the name of Marcus Aurelius, rather than Antonianus, to show their thanks.

Click to expand...

Checking out this issue with more care, "Aurelius" was indeed the prevalent surname adopted by the brand new freed clients of Bassianus aka Antoninus aka Caracalla.