Resumen de Spaces of Citizenship: The Census in Roman Republican Topography and Ideology
The purpose of this paper is to explore the spaces and practices of the Roman census and its place in the symbolic imaginary of Roman Republicanism through two major changes: the transformation of Roman citizenship and the shift of emphasis from the Villa Publica to the Atrium Libertatis during the Late Republic and the Early Principate. It argues that behind these changes were not only the growth of the population and the practical difficulties in organizing the ceremonial census, but equally the changing notion of the citizenship from a constitutive part of the state as a member of the army and polity to a set of legal rights and privileges. Both of these changes had fundamental implications on its ideological, symbolic and spatial role. The end of the performative census allowed for the disappearance of its location, the Villa Publica, illustrating how the symbolic and functional uses of space were intertwined.
