Roman Citizenship Dbq

In a representative democracy, citizens choose representatives to vote on laws and make political choices. In ancient Rome, many political leaders and historians claimed that the government was a democracy. However, Rome was never truly a democracy, due to their unfair government organization, and lack of democratic citizenship. In terms of government career holders, and as regular citizens, some groups of people were more powerful and privileged than others.

To start off, the government of ancient Rome was far from democratic. The Roman government had much power, as it could do many things, and carry out a variety of tasks. For example, they had the power to direct the military and government, pass laws, control finances, and

As a Roman citizen, your citizenship varied. Some Roman citizens were full citizens, others had limited rights. Examples of citizen rights would be the right to vote, hold government careers, and indulge in business. However, this varied depending on the citizen. The Roman Republic is further demonstrated by the fact that becoming a citizen and enjoying the privileges that go along with it were more of a privilege than a fundamental human right. In Source A, Citizenship in the Roman Republic by USHistory.org, the text clearly states: “All males over the age of 15 who were descended from the original tribes of Rome became citizens.” This text proves the Roman laws of citizenship were not only non-democratic, but also ageist, sexist, racist, xenophobic, and bigoted. The law states that if you don't meet all the criteria for citizenship, you can't possibly be a citizen. In essence, this meant that you had no rights at all or little rights at all. This citizenship law does not ensure that all citizens have any rights or authority, which is a crucial element of what democratic citizenship entails. In most ancient societies near the time of the Roman Empire, there were many travelers, explorers, laborers, traders, leaders, and workers that would travel to different parts of the world for different businesses and fulfillment. They were not granted the same rights as other people when they came into Rome, which makes the legislation of citizenship unfair to them. Not only this, but most ancient societies had large populations of women, too However, the text states: “Both men and women were citizens in the republic, but only men could vote”. This law proves misogynistic, as women are not guaranteed voting rights, unlike men. Given that women's voting rights are not guaranteed, unlike those of men, this statute is sexist, therefore,