this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
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Fun fact! The Emperor Claudius once stripped a Greek man of Roman citizenship for having poor Latin skills!
As the Emperor Claudius was a stutterer himself, one imagines that the 'citizen's' Latin must have been poor indeed.
It was a common issue, though mostly legal, that local elites would schmooze with Roman governors and get themselves granted citizenship on less-than-compelling grounds. While Roman governors had the power to do this, they were supposed to do so for men of genuine merit who appeared to have the proper Roman spirit; whereas there are certainly occasions when 'merit' appeared to mean 'gave a hefty bribe' or 'did some political favors'.
The record-keeping was surprisingly robust in the Empire, but you're absolutely right about it being largely at the provincial level. Especially verifications of birth, which were big for both local and imperial forms of citizenship.