Constitutio Antoniniana: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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The [[Roman law|Roman jurist]] [[Ulpian]] ({{circa}} 170{{snd}}223) states in the [[Digest (Roman law)|''Digest'']]: "All persons throughout the Roman world were made Roman citizens by an edict of the Emperor Antoninus Caracalla" (D. 1.5.17).

The context of the decree is still subject to discussion. According to historian and politician [[Cassius Dio]] ({{circa}} AD 155{{snd}}{{circa}} AD 235), the main reason [[Caracalla]] passed the law was to increase the number of people available to tax. In the words of Cassius Dio: "This was the reason why he made all the people in his empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honoring them, but his real purpose was to increase his revenues by this means, inasmuchin as much as aliens did not have to pay most of these taxes."<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/78*.html Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'', book 78, chapter 9.]</ref> However, few of those that gained citizenship were wealthy, and while it is true that Rome was in a difficult financial situation, it is thought that this could not have been the sole purpose of the edict. Cassius Dio generally saw Caracalla as a bad, contemptible emperor.

Another goal may have been to increase the number of men able to serve in the legions, as only full citizens could serve as [[legionaries]] in the [[Roman army]]. In scholarly interpretations that agree with a model of moral degeneration as the reason for the fall of the Roman Empire, most famously the model followed by British historian [[Edward Gibbon]], the edict came at a cost to the auxiliaries, which primarily consisted of non-citizen men.