Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/522

 516 MUTSriCIPAL REGIME DISAPPEARS. BOOK, V. times to construct a merchant vessel of a certain ton- nage, or to carry grain to Rome, was sufficient to ob- tain it. An easy and prompt means of acquiring it was to sell one's self as a slave to a Romnn citizen, for the act of freeing him according to legal forms con- ferred the right of citizenship.' One who had the title of Roman citizen no longer formed a part of his native city, either civilly or politically. He could continue to live there, but he was considered an alien; he was no longer subject to the laws of the city, he no longer obeyed its magistrates, no longer supported its pe- cuniary burdens.'^ This was a consequence of the old principle, which did not permit a man to belong to two cities at the same time.^ It naturally happened that, after several generations, there were in every Greek city quite a large number of men, and these ordinarily the wealthiest, who recognized neither its government nor its laws. Thus slowly, and as if by a natural death, perished the municipal system. There came a time when the city was a mere framework that contained nothing, where the local laws applied to hardly a per- son, where the municipal judges no longer had anything to adjudicate upon. Finally, when eight or ten generations had sighed for the Roman franchise, and all those who were of any account had obtained it, there appeared an imperial ' Suetonius, Nero, 24. Pctronius, 57. Ulpian, III. Gaius, I. IG, 17. ^ He became an alien even in respect to his own famil}', if it hail not, like him. the right of citizenship. He did not inlierit its property. Pliny, Panegyric, 37. ^ Cicero, Pro Balho, 28; Pro Archia, 6; Pro Cacina, 36. Cornelius Nepos, Atticus, 3. Greece long before had abandoned this prin iple, but Rome held faithfully to it.