Ancient Roman citizenship?

Question: Ancient Roman citizenship!?

I know that non-citizens could get their citizenship after 25 years service in the legions, but if he died, could his family still claim roman citizenship!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

That was a gray area in Roman law!. The famous historical example was the fate of a child whose father was a citizen and whose mother was not!. Usually, that meant that the child was given their full citizenship, but the gray area was regarding what would happen if the father died before the child was born!.

Romans typically answered the question on a case by case basis, much as how we do with the Gray areas in our laws (such as intellectual property vs freedom of speech cases)!. It probably depended a lot on the judge, which in early history was called an iudex privatus (a private citizen whom both parties agreed upon to judge the case) or later later on, when the local magistrate would have handled it!. Thus, the only answer that is really completely truthful is that the results for such cases would have varied widely!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It was after 20 years in the army, don't know if the family could claim it, but they inherited the land at any rate!.
Roman citizens were free of taxation for a long time, when the excesses of the Empire forced it, they turned to Infanticide, abortion after the fact!. They laid their newborns out on the rocks to die of exposure because they couldn't afford to feed them!. The fact of the Christens picking them up and raising them to adulthood did much towards the acceptance of Christiannity by the Paegans!.Www@QuestionHome@Com