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{{Short description|Edict issued by Roman Emperor Caracalla (212)}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2013}}
[[File:Constitutio Antoniniana.png|thumb|The ''Constitutio Antoniniana'' (contemporaneous Greek translation) in a display case]]
The '''''Constitutio Antoniniana''''' ([[Latin]] for: "Constitution [or Edict] of Antoninus") (also called the '''Edict of Caracalla''' or the '''Antonine Constitution''') was an [[edict]] issued on 11 July in AD 212,<ref>"Late Antinquity" by Richard Lim in ''The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome''. Edinburgh: [[Edinburgh University Press]], 2010, p. 114.</ref> by the [[Roman Emperor]] [[Caracalla]]. It declared that [[Peregrinus (Roman)|all free men]] in the [[Roman Empire]] were to be given full [[Roman citizen]]ship and that all free women in the Empire were to be given the same rights as Roman women, with the exception of the ''dediticii'', people who had become subject to Rome through surrender in war, and freed slaves.<ref>Giessen Papyrus, 40,7-9 "I grant to all the inhabitants of the Empire the Roman citizenship and no one remains outside a civitas, with the exception of the dediticii"</ref>▼
[[File:Roman-legions-212-AD-Centrici-site-Keilo-Jack.jpg|thumb|The Roman empire around 211.|alt=A map of the Mediterranean labeled 'THE ROMAN LEGIONS BY THE END OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS' RULE'.]]
▲The '''''{{lang|la|Constitutio Antoniniana''}}''' ([[Latin]] for: "Constitution [or Edict] of Antoninus"), (also called the '''Edict of Caracalla''' or the '''Antonine Constitution'''), was an [[edict]] issued on 11 July in AD 212,<ref>Richard Lim, "Late AntinquityAntiquity," by Richard Lim in ''The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome''. Edinburgh: ([[Edinburgh University Press]], 2010), p. 114.</ref> by the [[Roman Emperoremperor]] [[Caracalla]]. It declared that [[Peregrinus (Roman)|all free men]] in the [[Roman Empire]] were to be given full [[Roman citizencitizenship]]ship (and thatby extension all free women in the Empire were to be given the same rights as Roman women, withsuch the exception ofas the ''dediticii'',{{lang|la|[[jus peopletrium who had become subject to Rome through surrender in war, and freed slavesliberorum]]}}).<ref>Giessen Papyrus, 40,7-9 "I grant to all the inhabitants of the Empire the Roman citizenship and no one remains outside a civitas, with the exception of the dediticii"</ref>
 
In the century before Caracalla, [[Roman citizenship]] had already lost much of its exclusiveness and become more available between the inhabitants throughout the different provinces of the [[Roman Empire]] and between nobles such as kings of client countries. Before the Edict, however; a significant number of provincials still were non-Roman citizens and held instead the [[Latin rights]]. Therefore, being a Roman citizen remained a well sought-after status till 212.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Besson |first=Arnaud |title=Citizens in the Graeco-Roman World |chapter-url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004352612/B9789004352612_010.xml |chapter=Fifty Years before the Antonine Constitution: Access to Roman Citizenship and Exclusive Rights |date=2017-01-01 |pages=199–220 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-35261-2 |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004352612_010}}</ref> Veterans of the [[Auxilia]] were also granted Roman citizenship on discharge.
Before AD 212, full Roman citizenship was mostly only held by inhabitants of [[Roman Italy]]. Colonies of Romans established in the provinces, Romans (or their descendants) living in provinces, the inhabitants of various cities throughout the Empire, and small numbers of local nobles (such as kings of client countries) also held full citizenship. Provincials, on the other hand, were usually non-citizens, although some held the [[Latin Right]].
 
As a result, [[Roman naming conventions|vast numbers of new citizens assumed]] the nomen {{lang|la|[[Aurelia gens|Aurelius]]}}, in honour of their patron (whose full name was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus), including several emperors: seven of the eleven emperors between [[Gallienus]] and [[Diocletian]] ([[Claudius Gothicus]], [[Quintillus]], [[Probus (emperor)|Probus]], [[Carus]], [[Carinus]], [[Numerian]] and [[Maximian]]) bore the name {{lang|la|Marcus Aurelius}}.<ref name=Salway136>Salway, p.136{{full|date=May 2024}}</ref><ref name=Blanco-Pérez2021>{{cite journal |last1=Blanco-Pérez |first1=Aitor |title=Nomenclature and Dating in Roman Asia Minor: (M.) Aurelius/a and the 3 rd Century AD |journal=Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik |date=2016 |volume=199 |pages=271–293 |jstor=26603724 }}</ref>
 
==''Dediticii''==
{{See|Dediticii#Dediticii and the Constitutio Antoniniana}}
The one exclusion to the universal grant occurs in a vexed passage referring to {{lang|la|[[dediticii]]}}, a class of technically free people who lacked either full Roman citizenship or [[Latin rights]]. In the Imperial era, there were two categories of ''dediticii'': the ''peregrini dediticii'' ("foreigners under treaty") who had surrendered and former slaves who were designated ''libertini qui dediticiorum numero sunt,'' freedmen who were counted among the ''dediticii'' because of a penal status that denied them the citizenship usually bestowed with [[Slavery in ancient Rome#Manumission|manumission]]. The exclusion is most often taken to refer to the former slaves who had been treated as criminals by their master but for whatever reason were freed from ownership.<ref>Herbert W. Benario, "The ''Dediticii'' of the ''Constitutio Antoniniana''," pp. 188–189, 191.</ref>
 
== Analysis ==
The [[Roman politicslaw|Roman jurist]] [[Ulpian]] ({{circa}} 170{{snd}}223) states in the [[Digest (Roman law)|''Digest'']]: "All persons throughout the Roman world were made Roman citizens by an edict of the Emperor Antoninus Caracas,Caracalla" (D. 1.5.17).
 
The context of the decree is still subject to discussion. According to historian and politician [[Cassius Dio]] ({{circa}} AD 155{{snd}}{{circa}} AD 235), the main reason [[Caracalla]] passed the law was to increase the number of people available to tax. In the words of Cassius Dio: "This was the reason why he made all the people in his empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honoring them, but his real purpose was to increase his revenues by this means, inasmuchin as much as aliens did not have to pay most of these taxes."<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/78*.html Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'', book 78, chapter 9.]</ref> However, few of those that gained citizenship were wealthy, and while it is true that Rome was in a difficult financial situation, it is thought that this could not have been the sole purpose of the edict. Cassius Dio generally saw Caracalla as a bad, contemptible emperor.
 
Another goal may have been to increase the number of men able to serve in the legions, as only full citizens could serve as [[legionaries]] in the [[military history of the Roman Empire|Roman Armyarmy]]. In scholarly interpretations that agree with a model of moral degeneration as the reason for the fall of the Roman Empire, most famously the model followed by British historian [[Edward Gibbon]], the edict came at a cost to the [[Auxiliaries (Roman military)|auxiliaries]], which primarily consisted of non-citizen men.
 
In the analyses of more recent scholars, the ''Constitutio Antoniniana'' marks a major milestone in the provincialisation of Roman law, meaning that the gap between private law in the provinces and private law in ItalyItalia narrowed. This is because, in granting citizenship to all men in the provinces, much private law had to be re-written to conform with the law that applied to Roman citizens in Rome. To these scholars, it therefore also marks the beginning of a process by which imperial constitutions became the primary source of Roman law.<ref>{{cite book |titlechapter=Laws' Empire: Roman Universalism and Legal Practice |date=2013 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748668175 |location=Edinburgh |page=87 |language=en |author1=Caroline Humfress |author-link=Caroline Humfress |book-title=New Frontiers: Law and Society in the Roman |editor1-last=du Plessis |editor1-first=Paul}}</ref>▼
Additionally, before the edict, one of the main ways to acquire Roman citizenship was to enlist in the [[Roman Army]], the completion of service in which would give the citizenship to the discharged soldier. The edict may have made enlistment in the army less attractive to most, and perhaps the recruiting difficulties of the Roman army by the end of the 3rd century were related to this {{Citation needed|date=November 2009}}.
 
[[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]] distinguishes the history of ancient Rome up until 212 to be different to the era that follows, "effectively a new state masquerading under an old name".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beard |first1=Mary |title=SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome |date=2015 |publisher=Profile |isbn=978-1-84765-441-0 |page=530 }}</ref> [[Anthony Kaldellis]] says ''Rome'' went from an empire to a world and this decision would later underpin the enforcement of uniform religious belief.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197549322.001.0001 |title=The New Roman Empire |date=2024 |last1=Kaldellis |first1=Anthony |isbn=978-0-19-754932-2 |pages=20, 66, 71 }}</ref>
▲In the analyses of more recent scholars, the ''Constitutio Antoniniana'' marks a major milestone in the provincialisation of Roman law, meaning that the gap between private law in the provinces and private law in Italy narrowed. This is because, in granting citizenship to all men in the provinces, much private law had to be re-written to conform with the law that applied to Roman citizens in Rome. To these scholars, it therefore also marks the beginning of a process by which imperial constitutions became the primary source of Roman law.<ref>{{cite book|title=Laws' Empire: Roman Universalism and Legal Practice|date=2013|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=9780748668175|location=Edinburgh|page=87|language=en|author1=Caroline Humfress|author-link=Caroline Humfress|book-title=New Frontiers: Law and Society in the Roman|editor1-last=du Plessis|editor1-first=Paul}}</ref>
 
==See also==
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==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120831060912/http://web.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Cours/Ak/ The Roman Law Library, incl. ''Constitutiones principis'']
 
* [https://www.judaism-and-rome.org/pgiss-40-and-constitutio-antoniniana P.Giss. 40 and the Constitutio Antoniniana]
 
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[[Category:212]]
[[Category:3rd century in law]]
[[Category:Roman nationality law]]
[[Category:Severan dynasty]]
[[Category:Roman citizenship]]
[[Category:Edicts]]
[[Category:210s in the Roman Empire]]
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