Roman Citizenship

It is a gross misunderstanding

that the Romans just liked to share their citizenship due to their inclusive nature. Often they guarded this privileged status jealously, but at other times they used it with foresight to reward loyalty to the Roman state. Throughout their history, they employed citizenship and devised lighter versions of it as effective tools for boosting their manpower reserves to run their empire.

Main publications in English:

Histoire par les noms in the Heartland of Galatia (3rd Century BC–AD 3rd Century). In: Robert Parker (ed.): Personal Names in Ancient Anatolia, Oxford 2013 (Proceedings of the British Academy 191), 79-106.

The Latin Rights of the Early and Middle Republic: a Pessimistic Assessment. In: Michel Aberson, Maria Cristina Biella, Massimo Di Fazio, Pierre Sánchez, Manuela Wullschleger (eds.): L’Italia centrale e la creazione di una koiné culturale? I percorsi della “romanizzazione” (= E pluribus unum? L’Italie, de la diversité préromaine à l’unité augustéenne, vol. II), Bern 2016, 57-72.

An extended version of this is: The Latins and Their Legal Status in the Context of the Political Integration of Pre- and Early Roman Italy. In: Klio 98.2, 2016, 526-569.

Main publications in German:

Bürgerrechtsentzug oder Fremdenausweisung? Studien zu den Rechten von Latinern und weiteren Fremden sowie zum Bürgerrechtswechsel in der Römischen Republik (5. bis frühes 1. Jh. v.Chr.). (‘Withdrawal of Citizenship or Expulsion of Foreigners? Studies in the Rights of Latins and Other Foreigners as well as in the Change of Citizenship in the Roman Republic, 5th–1st Centuries BC’). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009 (=Hermes-Einzelschrift 101).

Großzügige Praxis der Bürgerrechtsvergabe in Rom? Zwischen Mythos und Wirklichkeit. (‘Were the Romans Generous in Conveying Their Citizenship? In-between Myth and Reality’), edited by the Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009 (=Colloquia Academica. Akademievorträge junger Wissenschaftler 2009.1).

Cicero und das römische Bürgerrecht. Die Verteidigung des Dichters Archias. Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung und historisch-philologische Kommentierungen (‘Cicero and Roman Citizenship. The Defence of the Poet Archias. Introduction, Text, Translation, as well as Historical and Philological Comments’), Göttingen: Edition Ruprecht, 2010 (=Vertumnus, vol. 5).

Selection of further publications:

Zu den Rechtsgrundlagen der römischen Bürgerrechtsvergabe infolge des Bundesgenossenkrieges (‘On the Legal Basis of the Roman Enfranchisement Provoked by the Social War’). In: Revue Internationale des Droits de l’Antiquité (RIDA) 51, 2004 [2005], 101-132. Free download: http://local.droit.ulg.ac.be/sa/rida/file/2004/Coskun.pdf

Zu den Bedingungen des Bürgerrechtserwerbs per magistratum in der späten Römischen Republik (‘On the Conditions of Acquiring Citizenship per magistratum in the Late Roman Republic’). In: Historia 58.2, 2009, 225-241. Free download.

Civitas Romana and the Inclusion of Strangers in the Roman Republic: the Case of the Social War. In: Andreas Gestrich/Lutz Raphael/Herbert Uerlings (eds.): Strangers and Poor People. Changing Patterns of Inclusion and Exclusion in Europe and the Mediterranean World from Classical Antiquity to the Present Day, Frankfurt/M. 2009, 135-164. (Revised, augmented, and translated version of an article from 2004) Free download.

Galatische Legionäre in Ägypten: die Konstituierung der legio XXII Deiotariana in der frühen Kaiserzeit. Bärbel Kramer zum Geburtstag gewidmet (‘Galatian legionarii in Egypt: the Constitution of the legio XXII Deiotariana in the Early Empire’). In: Tyche 23, 2008 [Nov. 2009], 21-46. Free download: http://tyche-journal.at/tyche/index.php/tyche/article/view/622/739

Der Rechtsstatus der spätrepublikanischen Kolonie Comum und ein zweifelhafter Fall von Bürgerrechtsanmaßung im Jahr 51 v.Chr. (‘The Legal Status of the Late-Republican Colony of Como and a Dubious Case of Usurping Citizenship in 51 BC’). In: Revue Internationale des Droits de l’Antiquité (RIDA) 55, 2008 [Feb. 2010], 189-202. Free download: http://local.droit.ulg.ac.be/sa/rida/file/2008/11.Coskun.pdf

Griechische Polis und Römisches Reich: Politische und rechtliche Stellung der Fremden in der Antike (‘Greek Polis and Roman Empire: the Political and Legal Conditions of Strangers in Antiquity’). In: A.C./Lutz Raphael (eds.): Fremd und Rechtlos? Zugehörigkeitsrechte Fremder von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Ein Handbuch, Köln 2014, 85-120. Free download.

About Scholarly Debate, the Value of Authorities and a New Approach to the Concept of Latin Privileges in the Roman Republic: a Response to David Kremer. In: Athenaeum 103.2, 2015, 606-610.

Roman Citizenship in the Context of Empire Building and Cultural Encounters (First published on 9 January 2022). Free download.