The normal mode of the acquisition of citizenship was naturally birth, either from two citizens or from a citizen and a foreigner. The question of the necessity of the marriage of the parents for the full citizenship of the children we shall soon consider; the primary question that presents itself to a nation is that of the allegiance of the child who is the product of a citizen and a foreigner. In such a case the older principle of Roman law (an instance probably of a universal principle of Italian law) was that, where _conubium_ existed between the parents, the children followed the status of the father; where _conubium_ did not exist, nature dictated that they should follow the condition of the mother.[509] But an arbitrary exception to this principle was made at an unknown date in Roman law by a _lex Minicia_ which enacted that, in case of unions without _conubium_ between a Roman and a foreigner, the children should follow the status of the less privileged parent; the child of a _civis Romana_ by a _peregrinus_ was, therefore, himself a _peregrinus_. The exceptional modes by which citizens were created were (i.) state-conferment of the _civitas_ on _peregrini_ or of full _civitas_ on _cives non optimo jure_, and (ii.) the manumission of slaves. (i.) State-conferment of the _civitas_ was only an exceptional measure in so far as it required a special legislative act.[510] The extraordinary liberality of Rome in this respect, never equalled in the life of the ancient city-state—a liberality which spread the name of Roman citizen first over Italy and then over the greater part of the civilised globe—was not an outcome of any suddenly adopted policy, but persisted from the birth of the city[511] to the world-embracing edict of Caracalla (212 A.D.). A few figures are sufficient to represent the extent of the increase effected by this means. The male citizens who appeared on the census rolls were, at the close of the first Punic war (240 B.C.), 260,000; in 124 they had risen to 394,726; in 85, after the incorporation of the greater part of Italy, to 963,000.[512] Under Augustus (28 and 8 B.C. and 14 A.D.) the figures were 4,063,000, 4,233,000, and 4,937,000; and the census of Claudius (47 A.D.) gave a return of 5,984,072 _civium capita_.[513]