Who Counted as a Citizen? Athens, Rome and Today

Use population estimates, census counts and a passage to compare citizenship then and now.

Read about citizenship

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

Who Belongs?

1In ancient Athens and Rome, being a citizen meant much more than living in the city. Citizens had rights that other residents did not have, and they owed the city duties in return. But who counted as a citizen differed from place to place and changed over time.

2In Athens, a law of 451 BCE said a person was a citizen only if both parents were Athenian. Citizen men aged 18 and older could speak and vote in the Assembly, and citizen men aged 30 and older could also serve on juries chosen by lot and hold most offices. Only citizens could own land in Attica, the farmland around Athens. Citizen men were expected to fight in the army or row in the navy in wartime. Women of citizen families could not vote or hold office. Foreign residents, called metics, paid a special tax and served in the army, but they could not vote or own land, even if their families had lived in Athens for generations. A freed slave usually became a metic, not a citizen.

3Roman citizenship spread much more widely. Children of a citizen father were citizens, and slaves freed by Roman citizens usually became citizens too. Citizen men could vote in Rome's assemblies, and they owed military service. At first most of Rome's Italian allies were not citizens. After a war with those allies from about 91 to 88 BCE, Rome granted citizenship to most free people in Italy. Before 212 CE, most free people in Rome's provinces outside Italy were not citizens unless they had been granted it. That year, Emperor Caracalla gave citizenship to nearly all free people in the empire.

4Every few years, Roman officials called censors counted citizen men and their property. Ancient writers reported some of the totals, shown in the table below. Historians debate the jump after 70 BCE: some think officials under Emperor Augustus began counting women and children, while others think they still counted only men.

5In the United States today, the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) says that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens. Immigrants can become citizens through naturalization, which includes a test on U.S. history and government and an oath. Citizens 18 and older may vote, run for office and serve on juries. Their duties include obeying laws, paying taxes and serving on a jury when called.

Read the data

Use the graph, the table and the passage.

Athens has no full count of its people. The graph shows one set of historians' estimates for Athens and the farmland around it, about 430 BCE, rounded to the nearest 10,000.

"Citizen families" means the wives and children of citizen men.

About what share of all the people on the graph were citizen men, the only group that could vote?

A. More than half
B. Fewer than one in five
C. Fewer than one in fifty
D. About one-third

Metics and enslaved people lived in Athens but could not become voters there.

According to the graph, about thousand people in Athens were metics or enslaved people.

The graph is labeled as estimates. What does this mean for a student using it as evidence?

A. The bars count only the people who were allowed to vote in the Assembly.
B. The bars are exact counts that Athenian officials recorded house by house.
C. The bars are best guesses, so the large differences matter more than exact numbers.
D. The bars are unreliable, because historians simply made the numbers up.

Roman citizen census totals reported by ancient writers
Census year	Citizens counted
About 115 BCE	About 394,000
About 70 BCE	About 910,000
28 BCE	4,063,000
14 CE	4,937,000

The count more than doubled between about 115 BCE and about 70 BCE. Which event from paragraph 3 best explains this?

A. Rome granted citizenship to most free people in Italy after its war with its allies.
B. Slaves freed by Roman citizens stopped becoming citizens.
C. Caracalla gave citizenship to nearly all free people in the empire.
D. Officials under Augustus may have started to count women and children.

A student says, "The table proves that the number of Roman citizens more than quadrupled between 70 BCE and 28 BCE." What is the best response?

A. That is right, since Caracalla had already made nearly everyone a citizen by then.
B. That may not be right, since the later count might include women and children.
C. That is wrong, since the table shows the count went down after 70 BCE.
D. That is right, since census officials counted the same group in every year.

Compare then and now

Use the passage.

Use the passage. Was each person a citizen of the place named, or not?

A boy born in 430 BCE to two Athenian parentsA metic potter whose family had lived in Athens for 60 yearsA man freed by his Athenian owner in 400 BCEA man freed by his Roman owner, a citizen, in 50 BCEA free farmer in an Italian town in 80 BCEA free shopkeeper in Roman Egypt in 150 CE whose family was never granted citizenshipA baby born in Ohio today to two parents who are U.S. citizensAn immigrant to the United States who passed the naturalization test and took the oath

Citizen	Not a citizen

Compare the Athenian law of 451 BCE with the Fourteenth Amendment. Which statement is best supported by the passage?

A. Both let foreign residents become citizens after a short test and an oath.
B. The U.S. looks at both parents, while Athens looked at the place of birth.
C. Athens looked at both parents, while the U.S. looks at birth or naturalization.
D. Both made citizenship depend on whether a person's parents were citizens.

Hermon, a metic, has lived in Athens for 20 years and saved enough silver to buy a farm in Attica. What would most likely happen?

A. He could buy it if he first gave a speech in the Assembly.
B. He could buy it, because metics served in the army like citizens.
C. He could buy it after paying the special metic tax for one more year.
D. He could not buy it, because only citizens could own land in Attica.

Which statement is true of citizenship in Athens, Rome and the United States today?

A. Citizens owed duties as well as holding rights.
B. Adults who lived there could vote, whatever their status.
C. Citizenship passed down by birth and was not granted by law.
D. Women citizens could vote and hold office.

10.

Claim: citizenship in the United States today is more open than citizenship was in Athens or Rome. Do you agree? Use at least one number from the graph or the table and one detail from the passage as evidence, and explain your reasoning.