Closest of all to Rome were the Latins. As members of federate cities they were amongst the _socii_,[1450] and it is only as a class with special privileges that they are distinguished from the latter.[1451] _Latinitas_ had, through the efforts of colonisation, long lost its geographical and ethnic significance. It was the name for a _status_ often accepted by Roman citizens, which combined the anomalies of sovereignty and a partial Roman citizenship. The sovereign rights are those possessed by the _socii_, the civic privileges were originally those held by the _municipia_; but it is possible that on and after the foundation of Ariminum and the last twelve Latin colonies[1452] _commercium_ alone was granted, _conubium_ refused.[1453] The most distinctive privilege of the Latin had been the concession of facilities for acquiring Roman political rights. A Latin who migrated from his town and became a domiciled immigrant (_incola_) of Rome had retained his civic rights in private law, and gained a limited power of suffrage.[1454] He could even by complete expatriation (_exilium_) surrender his own _civitas_ and attain the full Roman citizenship. But the conditions subsequently imposed on this right[1455] were evaded, immigration continued unchecked, and there was a danger of the depopulation of the districts from which the exiles came. This evil suggested the later method, which gave the Latins admission to the _civitas_. The holder of a magistracy in his native town was, by the mere fact of his position, to become a full citizen of Rome. It is improbable that this right replaced the right of exile possessed by already existing Latin towns, and the date of its origin is unknown; but it possibly accompanied the remodelling of Latin rights in 268 B.C., and is henceforth the typical privilege of the Latin colony.[1456] Another mode in which the individual Latin could acquire the Roman _civitas_ was by conducting a successful prosecution under the Acilian and Servilian laws of extortion.[1457]