How 'bout a little history lesson for a change?
You'll recall from the book of Acts (Acts 22:25-29, etc) that Paul was a Roman citizen. When Paul claimed his citizenship, the guards acted scared. How come? What does "Roman citizenship" imply, and what rights did it confer?
Let's start off by taking a look at how you could get it.
How do I get it?
Roman citizenship was granted automatically to every child born in a legal marriage of a Roman citizen. You were automatically granted citizenship if you were born to a freed slave, or to a legionary who had been released from military duty. Other ways of acquiring citizenship were by paying for it (for an exhorbitant price), or by doing something extra special for the Roman republic (later empire). As time went on more and more men in the empire were awarded citizenship, until finally, under Constitutio Antoniniana, all free men in the Empire were granted citizenship.
No girls allowed!
I say men, because only men could be full-fledged Roman citizens. Women could own property, but couldn't vote, run for office, and so forth.
What's in it for me?
So what good was citizenship? Well, it was a lot of good. Citizens could vote, own property, and make legal contracts. If you were a citizen you could legally marry another Roman citizen, and your children would automatically become citizens. A citizen could run for office, sue in the courts, appeal court decisions, and retained the right to a trial (to appear in court and defend oneself). Also, Roman citizens were immune from some taxes and stuff like that right there.
But there were a few rights that were important to Paul, in particular with regard to the story in Acts. A Roman citizen had the right not to be subjected to scourging and torture.
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.
ACTS 22:25
He also could not be sentenced to death except for treason, and even then could not be crucified (which is why Paul died by beheading, rather than crucifixion). And of course every Roman citizen had the right to be tried at Rome, which right Paul asserted.
For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die: but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar. Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go.
ACTS 25:11-12
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