Question

Who could be a citizen in Ancient Rome? Who were expressly forbidden from citizenship? Why? (Site 1)

Answer 1

People from Latin states, otherwise known as the Latini, could be citizens in Ancient Rome.

Answer 2

Citizenship in Rome was given to a small limited, political class, which primarily was recognized on an economic basis. With these free individuals they became active in decision making through the representation in the Senate of Rome. However, practically the rest of the population was excluded from the benefit of participating in politics:

Women, children, and Slaves were not to participate as they were not considered having a proper condition for taking part in.

The Civitas, (Roman citizenship)was only granted to Roman males contributing to the Roman state in the form of taxes and was used for financing government projects.

Slaves were considered jut mere property, having no legal representation. They were denied all kinds of human rights. There were some cases when they were redeemed by their masters, still, a racial policy would not allow people having birth elsewhere to have this right.

The right to become a citizen in Rome was very close to ancient Greece. As well, in that case, women and slaves were considered unfit to take part in sober decisions and so were excluded from this social sphere.