Civitas
Civitas originally referred to 'citizenship, citizen community' to any free-standing community. In the imperial period the term was used in Roman administrative law similarly to the general Greek term polis.
The meaning of Latin term civitas changed over the long history of Rome. At first, there was citizenship as subjects of the Tarquinian kings. Then there was a revolution by the people, undoubtedly because of some unwarranted usurpation, where they threw out those kings and the people formed a republic in conformity with the principles of Libera res publica.
According to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, the civitas was the social body of the cives, or citizens, united by law.
This union could be by the Law of Nature or by Roman administrative law. It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities on the one hand and rights of citizenship on the other.
The civi or civis were citizens but civitas became a term of the state or State. Romans had been dependent upon leaders and rulers and they often returned to that dependence if society became wantonness or weak or endangered by either. When they felt the need for leaders, they often tried to divide their power and authority with things like a Triarchy.
A Triarchy was a government by three persons like the triumvirate. Attempts to limit or divide power through Constitutions may be wise but it is no substitute for the united virtue and well-organized Social Virtues of the people.
We could refer to the United States of America as a "Civitates Foederatae Americae"[1] if we still spoke Latin and the status of its citizenry had not changed so drastically because of the acceptance of certain policies, practices, and memberships over the years.
In the book The Covenants of the gods, we examine the idea of types of citizen in the world and of the world[2] in the chapter Citizen vs citizen in which we address the term civitas as seen here:
“Good government is no substitute for self-government.” Gandhi, Mahatma
Man’s basic need for government stems from his inability to govern himself. According to the beliefs that have come down to us from antiquity, man should be governed by his Divine Creator who wishes to write His laws upon man’s minds and upon his heart...
Citizenship is, “The status of being a citizen” and may include a, “Membership in a political society, implying a duty of allegiance on the part of the member and a duty of protection on the part of society”.30
Whether a citizen is still a natural inhabitant or has obtained membership in a political society, he has certain rights, although, those rights may differ. The natural inhabitant may be a member of a society or civitas,31 but he remains an individual with civil rights within that general body. Those “Civil rights are such as belong to every citizen of the state or country, or, in a wider sense to all its inhabitants, and are not connected with the organization or the administration of government. They include the rights of property, marriage, protection by laws, freedom of contract, trial by jury, etc.”.32 An individual, who becomes a member or person in a political society, also has civil rights, but the origin of those rights, being political, are rights “pertaining or relating to the policy or administration of government...”.33 So, “as otherwise defined, civil rights are rights appertaining to a person in virtue of his citizenship in a state or community. Rights capable of being enforced or redressed in civil action. Also a term applied to certain rights secured to citizens of the United States by the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution, and by various acts of Congress made in pursuance thereof”.34
The essential difference would seem to be that the former “are not connected with the organization or the administration of government”, while the latter are “subject”.
“It is quite clear then that there is a citizenship of the United States and a citizenship of a State, which are distinct from each other and which depend upon different characteristics or circumstances in the Individual.” 35 “The rights of a citizen under one (state or United States citizenship) may be quite different from those which he has under the other…”36
If the benefit of the latter citizenship includes the duty of subjection, then the assent must require a voluntary consent, or else such citizenship would be nothing more than involuntary servitude. There are countless ways of demonstrating the consummation of a voluntary consent.
“The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.”37
Footnotes
30Luria v. U.S., 231 U.S.9,34 S.Ct.10,13,58 l.ed.101.(Black’s3rd.p.330)
31Civitas. Any body of people living under the same laws. Black’s 3rd.
32Right. In Constitutional Law. Black’s Law Dictionary 3rd p. 1559.
33Political. Black’s Law Dictionary 3rd p. 1375.
34Right. In Constitutional Law. Black’s Law Dictionary 3rd p. 1559.
35Slaughter House Cases, 83 US 395, 407 (1873)
36Colgate v. Harvey, 296 US 404, 429. (1935)
37Plutarch.
- ↑ A civitas foederata, meaning "allied state/community", was the most elevated type of autonomous city and local community under Roman rule. Each Roman province comprised a number of communities of different status. The same could be said of early Israel and their 48 cities of refuge.
- ↑ Understanding the Christian role in society requires that we examine all types of citizens and what they may or may not do as Christians. They should not make the State their Father nor Benefactor. We also have some short videos or you may join the Network to find out more.