Rome thus contributes to our modern idea of citizenship two important elements which help to bridge the gap between the ancient world and that world of politics in which we move to-day. The cities with Roman rights, whether in Intaly itself or in the scattered provinces, could not share even in the nominal exercise of the Roman franchise. All alike were governed from by the centralized government of the new monarchy. The citizens within the Empire enjoyed the privileged status and private rights of Roman citizens, but they could not really share in the Imperial government unless they made their way to Rome and into the Roman Senate and the official careers still associates with it.
The Roman Empire was a complex of many nations, its citizenship was long the attribute of a limited and privileged class, and when it was extended to all the subjects of the Empire it had become no more than “the shadow of a great name.”