<P> In the Roman Empire, citizenship expanded from small - scale communities to the entire empire . Romans realized that granting citizenship to people from all over the empire legitimized Roman rule over conquered areas . Roman citizenship was no longer a status of political agency, as it had been reduced to a judicial safeguard and the expression of rule and law . Rome carried forth Greek ideas of citizenship such as the principles of equality under the law, civic participation in government, and notions that "no one citizen should have too much power for too long", but Rome offered relatively generous terms to its captives, including chances for lesser forms of citizenship . If Greek citizenship was an "emancipation from the world of things", the Roman sense increasingly reflected the fact that citizens could act upon material things as well as other citizens, in the sense of buying or selling property, possessions, titles, goods . One historian explained: </P> <P> The person was defined and represented through his actions upon things; in the course of time, the term property came to mean, first, the defining characteristic of a human or other being; second, the relation which a person had with a thing; and third, the thing defined as the possession of some person . </P> <P> Roman citizenship reflected a struggle between the upper - class patrician interests against the lower - order working groups known as the plebeian class . A citizen came to be understood as a person "free to act by law, free to ask and expect the law's protection, a citizen of such and such a legal community, of such and such a legal standing in that community". Citizenship meant having rights to have possessions, immunities, expectations, which were "available in many kinds and degrees, available or unavailable to many kinds of person for many kinds of reason". The law itself was a kind of bond uniting people . Roman citizenship was more impersonal, universal, multiform, having different degrees and applications . </P> <P> During the European Middle Ages, citizenship was usually associated with cities and towns, and applied mainly to middle class folk . Titles such as burgher, grand burgher (German Großbürger) and bourgeoisie denoted political affiliation and identity in relation to a particular locality, as well as membership in a mercantile or trading class; thus, individuals of respectable means and socioeconomic status were interchangeable with citizens . </P>

Who decides what kind of work a citizen may or may not do