Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/113

Rh with Pyrrhus, and gained the victory after a hard struggle. After the departure of Pyrrhus and the surrender of Tarentum, in 272, they were the masters also of southern Italy.

The Sovereignty of Rome. — As the only sovereign power of Italy, the Roman republic now occupied a position of more or less definite supremacy over every important community or state south of the Celtic and Ligurian frontiers as far as the strait of Messana. The inhabitants of these communities may be divided into three classes, each with its own gradations of rights, — citizens, Latins, and other allies.

The Roman Citizens. — Full citizenship was granted as extensively as was possible without abandoning the idea that Rome was to be a city state. The citizens dwelling outside of Rome, even those in the Roman colonies, had at first no local self-government of any importance. But when, about the close of this period (268), Latins and Sabines without political rights (sine suffragio) were granted full citizenship, they retained their former restricted local self-government, and furnished in the course of time the model for the later Roman municipal organization. The territory at this time occupied for the most part by Roman citizens extended northward about as far as Caere, eastward to the Apennines, and southward to Tarracina. But some Latin towns were found within, and several Roman towns outside, these limits.

The citizens without political rights had in other respects the same rights and duties as the full citizens. The Roman laws were equally binding on them, and justice was administered among them by the praetor or his deputies. Those on a better footing, such as the inhabitants of Capua, enjoyed to a large extent local self-government; others, in an inferior position, did not.