Constitutio Antoniniana

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The Constitutio Antoniniana (Latin for "Constitution [or Edict] of Antoninus"), also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution, was an edict issued in AD 212^[1] by the Roman emperor Caracalla. It declared that all free men in the Roman Empire were to be given full Roman citizenship (and by extension all free women in the Empire were to be given the same rights as Roman women, such as the jus trium liberorum).

In the century before Caracalla, Roman citizenship had already lost much of its exclusiveness and become more available between the inhabitants throughout the different provinces of the Roman Empire and between nobles such as kings of client countries. Before the Edict, however, a significant number of provincials still were non-Roman citizens and held instead the Latin rights. Therefore, being a Roman citizen remained a well sought-after status until 212.^[2] Veterans of the Auxilia were also granted Roman citizenship on discharge.

As a result, vast numbers of new citizens assumed the nomen Aurelius, in honour of their patron (whose full name was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus), including several emperors: seven of the eleven emperors between Gallienus and Diocletian (Claudius Gothicus, Quintillus, Probus, Carus, Carinus, Numerian and Maximian) bore the name Marcus Aurelius.^[3][4]