Citizenship and Ethnicity in Cassius Dio's Roman History

Abstract

In 212 CE, Emperor Caracalla gave a famous edict, the Constitutio Antoniniana, granting citizenship to almost all free denizens of the Roman Empire. Although the document itself is preserved in a fragmentary papyrus, we know surprisingly little about it, as written sources are mostly silent about the edict. The only description of some length is provided by Cassius Dio, a Roman historian, a senator, and a contemporary of Caracalla. Cassius Dio’s critical attitude toward the edict is well-known (and a much-researched topic); according to him, Caracalla’s motive for the declaration was to increase the number of taxpayers in the Empire. While Dio’s claim has many problems, as shown by modern research, my intention here is not to find out the “true” aims of Caracalla with regard to the edict. Instead, I concentrate on the idea of citizenship in general in Dio’s history: How does he see its role during the hundreds of years of Roman history he describes? What is the relationship between citizenship and Roman identity for Cassius Dio in the Roman past? I evaluate Dio’s attitudes in the political context of his own time and consider them as a statement from a Roman senator taking part in a contemporary discussion on Roman identity. Moreover, as Caracalla’s edict had a particularly strong impact the eastern part of the Empire, I will pay special attention to Dio’s attitudes toward eastern peoples–“new Romans” in the contemporary context of Dio and Caracalla.