Latin rights

Latin rights or Latin citizenship (Latin: ius Latii or ius latinum) were a set of legal rights that were originally granted to the Latins and therefore in their colonies (Latium adiectum). Latinitas was commonly used by Roman jurists to denote this status.^[1] With the Roman expansion in Italy, many settlements and coloniae outside of Latium had Latin rights.

All the Latini of Italy obtained Roman citizenship as a result of three laws which were introduced during the Social War between the Romans and their allies among the Italic peoples (socii) which rebelled against Rome.^{[clarification needed]} The Lex Iulia de Civitate Latinis (et sociis) Danda of 90 BC conferred Roman citizenship on all citizens of the Latin towns and the Italic towns who had not rebelled. The Lex Plautia Papiria de Civitate Sociis Danda of 89 BC granted Roman citizenship to all federated towns in Italy south of the River Po (in northern Italy). The Lex Pompeia de Transpadanis of 89 BC granted the ius Latii to the communities of Transpadania, a region north of the Po, which had sided with Rome during the Social War. It also granted Roman citizenship to those who became officials in their respective municipia (cities).

The exact content of the ius Latii, under Roman law, varied from city to city. It could include some or all of the following rights:^{[citation needed]}

• Ius commercii: the right to trade, i. e., the right to have commercial relations and trade with Roman citizens on equal status and to use the same forms of contract as Roman citizens;
• Ius connubii: the right to marry pursuant to law;
• Ius migrationis: the right to migrate, i. e., the right to retain one's degree of citizenship upon relocation to another municipium. In other words, Latin status was not lost when moving to other locales in Italy.
• Ius civitatis mutandae: the right to become Roman citizens.

Some also had, under certain conditions, the Ius suffragii ("right to vote"); this was exercised as part of a single tribe and only if they migrated to Rome (differently from Roman citizens, who could exercise their right to vote, if they were in Rome, as part of their various tribes).^[2] Outside of Italy, the term Latinitas continued to be used for other cases. Cicero used this term in relation to Julius Caesar's grant of Latin rights to the Sicilians in 44 BC.^[3] This status was later given to whole towns and regions: Vespasian granted it to the whole of Hispania^[4] and the emperor Hadrian gave it to many towns.^[5] The ius Latii or Latinitas persisted to the reign of Justinian I in the sixth century AD.^[6]