2/19/09 16 continued

Since we talked about Paul's and Silias' Roman Citizenship yesterday, I thought it would be helpful if I share couple things I learned about Roman Citizenship.  When Rome was growing and extending alliances within the Italy, they offered Roman Citizenships to the people and provinces who wanted to make alliances with Rome.  However, as Roman Empire extended to Spain and Greek area, Rome started to take over the provinces.  In Roman empire the hierachy of the ranks were 

Roman Citizenship -> Latin Citizenship -> plebabians (Regular normal) ->Freed man(freed from slave status) -> slaves

This Roman Citizenship was very critical in this era because of many reasons.  Main reason was that you had to have Roman Citizenship if you wanted to have power in Roman Empire.  Achieving power at Rome can be viewed as entering into the senates or one of the offices.  However, one of the requirement for running for offices or senate was to have Roma Citizenship.  Also, if you wanted to do anything at Rome, it was critical to have Roman Citizenship.  This was important because Rome was the city where you can get your fortune.  Lastly, Roman Citizenship was very difficult to achieve in this era.  Normal people was unable to get Roman Citizenship at all.  There was a chance for Latin Citizens to achieve Roman Citizens.  However, the requirement they had to complete is very difficult.  For example, they had move and live in Rome for specific amount of years at Rome, leaving their homes.  Also, they could only receive Roman Citizenship in specific event which was held every five years.

This just shows how critical Roman Citizenship was in this era.