Citizenship Roman style was a deeply aristocratic concept.  The social ties that held Roman society together were those of authority, rather than of fraternity.  It was a “communitarianim” of the “right” rather than of the “left,” which is part of the explanation why the ancien regime’s elite was drawn towards it (and also why most present-day “communitarians” turn to Greece instead of Rome). ~Andreas Kinneging, Aristocracy, Antiquity and History