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16 Roman Legal Trad. 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/rltrad16 and id is 1 raw text is: Review Daniele Mattiangeli* Civis romanus sum. By Giuseppe Valditara. Turin: Giappichelli. 2018. 232 pp. ISBN 978-8-892-11719-8. In 2018, the romanist and politician Giuseppe Valditara published a new and interesting book on Roman citizenship, an issue that has recently gained special relevance. Most other Roman law mono- graphs deal with citizenship only in a juridical-dogmatic way; this book takes also a social, philosophical, and political point of view. It is therefore of interest not only to Romanists, but also to scholars of law and history in general, as well as political historians. The work begins with a standard introductory chapter on the origins of the city of Rome as a mixed city, that is, a new political, social, and juridical entity, formed by the encounter of different ethnic groups. Here Valditara summarizes the legends, historical evidence, and literary texts on the origins of Rome to show its original identity as a multi-ethnic city, including Latins, Sabines, Italics, and the legendary Trojan and Greek exiles. He summarizes the identity with (Quintus) Cicero: civitas ex nationum conventu constituta (a state created by the coming together of nations).' He then describes, in Chapter 2, what would seem to be the original Roman identity, defining Roman society as open and influenced by various foreign contributions, both Greek and Latin or Italian.2 Examples for the author are language, religion, and the rising economic culture.3 Chapter 3 is strictly the first legal and political one, and outlines the path from the first genetic Latin tribes with a system of government based on descent. Valditara applies the term ge- netic (from genus), following the example of Greek literature, to Lecturer, Department of Private law, University of Salzburg. 1 Valditara, 4, citing Cic., Comment. pet. 14. See also I. Kajanto, Minderheiten und ihre Sprachen in der Hauptstadt Rom, in G. Neumann and J.Untermann, edd., Die Sprachen im romischen Reich der Kaiserzeit (Cologne 1980), 84. 2 Valditara, 9. a Valditara, 11-25. Roman Legal Tradition, 16 (2020), 1-6. ISSN 1943-6483. Published by the Ames Foundation at the Harvard Law School and the Alan Rodger Endowment at the University of Glasgow. This work may be reproduced and distributed for all non-commercial purposes. Copyright © 2020 by Daniele Mattiangeli. All rights reserved apart from those granted above. ROMANLEGALTRADITION.ORG