<Li> Slaves were considered property and lacked legal personhood . Over time, they acquired a few protections under Roman law . Some slaves were freed by manumission for services rendered, or through a testamentary provision when their master died . Once free, they faced few barriers, beyond normal social snobbery, to participating in Roman society . The principle that a person could become a citizen by law rather than birth was enshrined in Roman mythology; when Romulus defeated the Sabines in battle, he promised the war captives that were in Rome they could become citizens . </Li> <Li> Freedmen were former slaves who had gained their freedom . They were not automatically given citizenship and lacked some privileges such as running for executive magistracies . The children of freedmen and women were born as free citizens; for example, the father of the poet Horace was a freedman . </Li> <P> The rights available to individual citizens of Rome varied over time, according to their place of origin, and their service to the state . They also varied under Roman law according to the classification of the individual within the state . Various legal classes were defined by the various combinations of legal rights that each class enjoyed . However, the possible rights available to citizens with whom Roman law addressed were: </P> <Ul> <Li> Ius suffragiorum: The right to vote in the Roman assemblies . </Li> <Li> Ius honorum: The right to stand for civil or public office . </Li> <Li> Ius commercii: The right to make legal contracts and to hold property as a Roman citizen . </Li> <Li> Ius gentium: The legal recognition, developed in the 3rd century BC, of the growing international scope of Roman affairs, and the need for Roman law to deal with situations between Roman citizens and foreign persons . The ius gentium was therefore a Roman legal codification of the widely accepted international law of the time, and was based on the highly developed commercial law of the Greek city - states and of other maritime powers . The rights afforded by the ius gentium were considered to be held by all persons; it is thus a concept of human rights rather than rights attached to citizenship . </Li> <Li> Ius conubii: The right to have a lawful marriage with a Roman citizen according to Roman principles, to have the legal rights of the paterfamilias over the family, and for the children of any such marriage to be counted as Roman citizens . </Li> <Li> Ius migrationis: The right to preserve one's level of citizenship upon relocation to a polis of comparable status . For example, members of the cives Romani (see below) maintained their full civitas when they migrated to a Roman colony with full rights under the law: a colonia civium Romanorum . Latins also had this right, and maintained their ius Latii if they relocated to a different Latin state or Latin colony (Latina colonia). This right did not preserve one's level of citizenship should one relocate to a colony of lesser legal status; full Roman citizens relocating to a Latina colonia were reduced to the level of the ius Latii, and such a migration and reduction in status had to be a voluntary act . </Li> <Li> The right of immunity from some taxes and other legal obligations, especially local rules and regulations . </Li> <Li> The right to sue in the courts and the right to be sued . </Li> <Li> The right to have a legal trial (to appear before a proper court and to defend oneself). </Li> <Li> The right to appeal from the decisions of magistrates and to appeal the lower court decisions . </Li> <Li> Following the early 2nd - century BC Porcian Laws, a Roman citizen could not be tortured or whipped and could commute sentences of death to voluntary exile, unless he was found guilty of treason . </Li> <Li> If accused of treason, a Roman citizen had the right to be tried in Rome, and even if sentenced to death, no Roman citizen could be sentenced to die on the cross . </Li> </Ul>

According to what qualification was a roman citizen assigned to a voting group