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Peregrini were free people without Roman citizenship. They did not constitute a single social order: status depended on a community’s position, its agreement with Rome and individual grants. Latin rights and the status of surrendered communities should be distinguished from ordinary peregrine status.
Relations with Romans involved local law and rules that Roman jurists classified as ius gentium. Commercial rights and conubium, the capacity to contract a marriage recognised by Roman citizen law, could be granted separately. Lack of conubium did not prohibit every form of family life; it affected the union’s consequences under Roman law.
Many soldiers in the auxilia were recruited from peregrine populations. After the prescribed service, often approximately 25 years, soldiers could receive citizenship and marriage rights. The beneficiaries and treatment of children changed over time, so military diplomas should not be treated as having identical conditions.
In 212 CE Caracalla’s edict extended Roman citizenship to almost all free inhabitants of the empire. Its qualifications, particularly the position of dediticii, remain debated. Expanded citizenship did not eliminate social inequality or differences in punishment.
Roman Empire, Women in Ancient Rome, Men's clothing in Ancient Rome
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