Citizens and Their Promises
1In ancient Athens, in Rome and in the United States today, citizens hold rights that other residents do not, and they owe duties in return. Each place drew the line around its citizens in its own way.
2After a law of 451 BCE, an Athenian was a citizen only if both parents came from citizen families. At 18, a young man was added to the citizen list of his district. By the 330s BCE, young citizen men then spent two years in military training and swore an oath (Source A). Citizen men could speak and vote in the Assembly. Women of citizen families could not vote, and foreign residents and enslaved people had no say at all. An outsider became a citizen only by a rare special vote of the Assembly.
3Roman citizenship belonged to a person, not to a place, so a citizen kept his rights when he traveled or lived far from Rome. After about 88 BCE, most free people in Italy were citizens. Citizen men could vote in Rome's assemblies and owed service in the army. Laws passed in the 100s BCE protected citizens from being beaten with rods by an official without a trial. Many free people in Rome's provinces, such as the island of Sicily, were not citizens and did not have this protection.
4In the United States, the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) says that people born or naturalized in the country are citizens. An immigrant who becomes a citizen through naturalization passes a test and takes the Oath of Allegiance (Source C). Since the Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971), citizens 18 and older, women and men, may vote. Citizens are expected to obey the laws, pay taxes and serve on a jury when called. Some protections reach beyond citizens: the Fifth Amendment says that no person shall be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."