All the Latini of Italy obtained Roman citizenship as a result of three laws which were introduced during the
The exact content of the ius Latii, under Roman law, varied from city to city. It could include some or all of the following rights:[citation needed]
Some also had, under certain conditions, the Ius suffragii ("right to vote"); this was exercised as part of a single tribe and only if they migrated to Rome (differently from Roman citizens, who could exercise their right to vote, if they were in Rome, as part of their various tribes).[2] Outside of Italy, the term Latinitas continued to be used for other cases. Cicero used this term in relation to Julius Caesar's grant of Latin rights to the Sicilians in 44 BC.[3] This status was later given to whole towns and regions: Vespasian granted it to the whole of Hispania[4] and the emperor Hadrian gave it to many towns.[5] The ius Latii or Latinitas persisted to the reign of Justinian I in the sixth century AD. [6]
With Roman expansion beyond Italy, Latin colonies were also founded outside Italy, e. g.
Following the great spate of colonial settlements under
The acquisition of ius Latii was wholly dependent on imperial gift. This beneficence could span the whole range from grants to individuals to awards made to whole towns, and could even be applied to an entire population, as when Emperor Vespasian gave the ius Latii to all of Hispania in AD 74. Although this decree could encompass whole cities, it is important to note that it did not necessarily entail the establishment of a municipium (self-governing town). Often, as in Hispania, formal municipia might have been constituted several years after the initial grant.