Latinĭtas
or
Ius Latii designated, in the later republican and early imperial
period, a special legal status conferred upon the inhabitants of many provincial
municipalities—a status midway between that of Roman citizens (
cives) and that of aliens (
peregrini). Historically, the Latin
allies of Rome had always enjoyed special treaty rights; and when the people of Latium
received full citizenship, similar rights were bestowed upon certain colonies in other parts
of Italy. After the Social War and the extension of Roman citizenship on the entire peninsula,
Latini colonarii were found only in the provinces. Where
minus ius
Latii was conferred upon a municipality, all its citizens who were chosen as
municipal magistrates became
ipso facto Roman citizens; where
maius ius Latii was given, the
decuriones or municipal
senators also became Roman citizens. In both cases all free inhabitants of the municipality
enjoyed
commercium with Rome, but not
conubium
—i. e. the Roman law of property could be invoked by them, but they had no part in
Roman family law. With the edict of Caracalla, conferring citizenship upon all the free
inhabitants of the Roman Empire, the
Latini colonarii disappeared.
A second and distinct class of Latins was established in the early imperial period by a
lex Iunia or
Iunia Norbana (A.D. 19?). This law enacted that
freedmen (
liberti) who had been informally manumitted from slavery, and
who were free only by virtue of praetorian protection (
tuitione
praetoris) should have, with some exceptions, the status of
Latini
colonarii. These
Latini Iuniani were not citizens, and had no political
rights; they had no
conubium, and their marriages, like those of slaves,
were purely
de facto matters, creating neither
manus
over the wife nor
patria potestas over the children; and they had only a
restricted
commercium—inter vivos, but not
mortis causa. Their contracts were perfectly valid, but they could neither take
inheritances or legacies nor dispose of their property by testament. Their estates, in fact,
were treated as
peculia or slave-estates, and went at death to the former
master or his heirs. There were, however, several methods in which this
Latina
libertas might be converted into full citizenship (cf. Ulpian,
Fragmenta, iii. 1-6). The
Latini Iuniani were unaffected by the
edict of Caracalla, but disappeared under the legislation of Justinian (Gains,
Inst. i. 23 foll.
Inst., iii. 85
foll.; Codex, 7, 6, 1.1).
