Alex Cushing (University of Toronto)
The wax tablets of Herculaneum, produced by a diversity of ancient hands and uniquely preserved, have given us an unprecedented insight into the daily lives of the residents of the town. One of the more remarkable collections is the archive of L. Venidius Ennychus, found on the upper floor of the Casa del Salone Nero. A series of tablets from this group document what must have been a momentous and life-changing event for him: his successful efforts to have his status as a Junian Latin raised to that of full Roman citizen after his daughter had reached the age of one. Ennychus’ original Latin status was more restrictive than the moderated citizen status of other freed persons. Junian status had been conferred on him, as the lex Aelia Sentia dictated, because he was an enslaved person who had been manumitted before the age of 30. The jurist Gaius tells us, though, that the same law allowed for Junians to upgrade their status if they presented the praetor with proof that they had a legitimate child over the age of one (Gaius, Inst., I, 29-31).The Ennychus archive provides us with the only surviving documentation of this process in action (Camodeca 2017, 74). Rather than showing a simple, self-directed transition, however, the preserved tabulae demonstrate that Ennychus’ status advancement was subject to far more careful social control (Camodeca 2017, 83) and community regulation, especially by the local decurions, than Gaius’ neutral explanation would suggest. This paper will examine and explain the multiple practical barriers that are revealed by theseuniquedocuments. They show that, similar to procedural and administrative obstacles the Trump administration interposed in its Green Card procedures to slow and deter applications, local and imperial Roman administrators created a legal process that deliberately restricted acquisition of Roman citizenship to all but those who possessed certain financial, legal, and social means and connections, even if they met the conditions of lex Aelia Sentia. Far from requiring just a simple appearance in front of a praetor(in itself, no simple thing),the tablets show that Ennychus had to obtain a decurional decree allowing his citizenship, which was then presented to the praetor at Rome by a delegation of town councilors. Each step of the process demanded significant social influence, legal literacy, and financial resources. The tablets indicate that the authorities established a process to ensure that only the most socially mobile Junians self-selected for citizenship, even within this narrow and relatively rare category of parental eligibility. The Ennychus archive shows that, despite the ostensibly generous clause of the lex Aelia Sentia, the Romans were far more deliberative in granting citizenship to these formerly enslaved in practice.