11.
[27]
But not only was that a most ignorant thing to say, which was said, about
states ratifying and accepting our laws, as that is a privilege common to
all free peoples, and not peculiar to federate cities; from which it must
inevitably be understood, either that no one of the allies can be made a
Roman citizen, or else that an inhabitant of the federate states may
likewise be made one; but this great teacher of ours is ignorant also of the
whole bearings of the law respecting a man's change of citizenship; which, O
judges, is a thing which is not only clearly laid down in the public laws,
but which depends also on the inclination of individuals. For, according to
our law, no one can change his city against his will, nor can he be
prevented from changing it, if he pleases, provided only that he be adopted
by that state of which he wishes to become a citizen. As, for instance, if
the people of Gades passed a bill
concerning any Roman citizen by name, that he should become a citizen of
Gades, our citizen would in
consequence of that bill acquire a complete power of changing his city, and
would not be hindered by any treaty from becoming a citizen of Gades after having been a citizen of
Rome.
[28]
According to our civil law, no one can be a citizen of two cities at the same
time; a man cannot be a citizen of this city, who has dedicated himself to
another city. And he may do so not only by dedication, which is a thing
which we have seen happen in their misfortunes to most illustrious men, to
Quintus Maximus, and Caius Laenas, and Quintus Philippus at Nuceria, and to
Caius Cato at Tarraco, to Quintus
Caepio and Publius Rutilius at Smyrna, who all became citizens of those cities. (They
could not lose their rights of citizenship here, before they had as it were
changed their country by their change of citizenship.)
But a change of citizenship can also take place by a man's
returning to his original city. Nor was it without reason that a motion was
submitted to the people concerning Cnaeus Publicius Menander, a freedman,
whom in the time of our ancestors some ambassadors of ours when going into
Greece wished to take with them
as an interpreter, that that Publicius if he returned to his home, and after
that again came back to Rome,
should still be a Roman citizen. For, in the recollection of earlier times,
many Roman citizens of their own free will, not having been condemned by any
process of law, nor having been in danger, have left our state and joined
themselves as citizens to other cities.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.