Some members of a political community (_cives_) may have more political rights than others; and this was the case at Rome under the republic, in which we find a distinction made between two great classes of Roman citizens, one that had, and another that had not, a share in the sovereign power (_optimo jure_, _non optimo jure cives_). That which peculiarly distinguished the higher class, or the _optimo jure cives_, was the right to vote in a tribe (_jus suffragiorum_), and the capacity of enjoying magistracy (_jus honorum_). The inferior class, or the _non optimo jure cives_, did not possess the above rights, which the Romans called _jus publicum_, but they only had the _jus privatum_, which comprehended the _jus connubii_ and _jus commercii_, and those who had not these had no citizenship.--Under the empire we find the free persons who were within the political limits of the Roman state divided into three great classes. The same division probably existed in an early period of the Roman state, and certainly existed in the time of Cicero. These classes were, _Cives_, _Latini_, and _Peregrini_. _Civis_ is he who possesses the complete rights of a Roman citizen. _Peregrinus_ was incapable of exercising the rights of _commercium_ and _connubium_, which were the characteristic rights of a Roman citizen; but he had a capacity for making all kinds of contracts which were allowable by the jus gentium. The _Latinus_ was in an intermediate state; he had not the _connubium_, and consequently he had not the _patria potestas_ nor rights of agnatio; but he had the _commercium_ or the right of acquiring quiritarian ownership, and he had also a capacity for all acts incident to quiritarian ownership, as the power of making a will in Roman form, and of becoming heres under a will. The rights of a Roman citizen were acquired in several ways, but most commonly by a person being born of parents who were Roman citizens. A slave might obtain the civitas by manumission (_vindicta_), by the census, and by a testamentum, if there was no legal impediment; but it depended on circumstances whether he became a _civis Romanus_, a _Latinus_, or in the number of the _peregrini dediticii_. [MANUMISSIO.] The civitas could be conferred on a foreigner by a lex, as in the case of Archias, who was a civis of Heraclea, a civitas which had a foedus with Rome, and who claimed the civitas Romana under the provisions of a lex of Silvanus and Carbo, B.C. 89. By the provisions of this lex, the person who chose to take the benefit of it was required, within sixty days after the passing of the lex, to signify to the praetor his wish and consent to accept the civitas (_profiteri_). This lex was intended to give the civitas, under certain limitations, to foreigners who were citizens of foederate states (_foederatis civitatibus adscripti_). [FOEDERATAE CIVITATES.] Thus the great mass of the Italians obtained the civitas, and the privileges of the former civitates foederatae were extended to the