Romans, Aliens, and Others in Dynamic Interaction

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines structures, policies, and situations in which the citizen–alien distinction was regularly confounded, as well as persons whose lives the discourse of citizenship systematically effaced. Particular attention is given to minority populations within city-states that were granted limited rights to observe their own norms. The best attested such populations are local communities of Judaeans. Also examined are rituals that Romans and locals performed alongside one another, most particularly the swearing of the annual loyalty oath to the emperor, as well as court systems, where Romans and others often found themselves on the opposite sides in a dispute—and also together constituting single juries.