Cithern (Hastings' Dictionary)

See Music. CITIZENSHIP So RV for iroXirefa, Ac 2«», instead of the vague A V rendering ' freedom. ' Here Claudius Lysias says that he had obtained his c. by purchase, possibly from the wife or the freedman of the Emperor Claudius whose name he bore. Cf. Dio Cass. Ix. 17, where, however, it is said that the price of the franchise had fallen to a mere trifle. But the interest of ci\-ic pri\'ileges in NT lies in their importance in the career of St. Paul. Rom.

citizenship was one of the special qualifications of the 'chosen vessel,' and it is a chief purpose cf St. Luke (in Ac) to exhibit the apostle as a citizen who, though a Christian, receives for the most part courtesj' and justice from the Rom. officials, llis citizenship, however, was double, of Tarsus and of Rome. That the former did not carry with it the latter, we know from independent sources ; hence a comparison of Ac 21'' with 22", by which the separ- ateness of Tarsian and Rom.

citizenship is made evident, furnishes proof of the accuracy of the narrative. Tarsus was not a 'colonia' or 'muni- cipium,' but an 'urbs libera,' Plin. NH v.21 (22), that is to say, a city within a Rom. province, yet enjoy- ing self-government (Marquardt, Rom. Staatsverw. i. 349-353). St. Paul's citizenship of Tarsus was of no substantial advantage outside that city. But his Rom. citizenship availed throughout the Rom.

world, including, besides private rights, (1) exemption from all degrading pnnisliments, e.q. scourging and crucifixion ; (2) right of appeal to the emperor after sentence in all cases ; (3) right to be sent to Rome for trial before the emperor if charged with a cEuiital oflence (cf. Plin. Epp. x. 96 ; Schurer, HJP II. ii. 278). These rights, at least (1) and (3), are illustrated by Ac 16" 22^-» 25".

But there is nothing to show whether he possessed the full citizenship, including the public rights of voting and qualihcation for office. It was by birth that St. Paul had become a ' Roman.' The word citiien is not used in describing his status. 'Vuiiotos alone is enough (cf. ' cive di quella lioina onde Cristo fe Romano,' Dante, Purg. xxxii. 101-2). There were several ways in which St. Paul's father or ancestor might have obtained citizensliip. The most prob- able are by manumission (cf.

Philo, Leg. ad G. § 23), or as a reward of merit bestowed by the emperor (cf. case of Jos. Vit. 76), or by purchase, in which case the contrast implied in Ac 22^ would have had less force. The large number of Jews in Asia Minor who were Rom. citizens appears from the decrees quoted in Jos. Ant. XIV. x. Lastly, the metaphorical use of the words citizen and citizenship requires notice. This use is closely CITY CITY 445 connected with Plato's conception of tlie lieavenly city {lU/i. ix. 5!)

2 B), ami with later Stoic thonfjht. It appoars in I'h S'-", where for 'conversation we Bhould substitute 'couinionwealtli ' (RVni). See parallels given by Lightfoot, in Inc. Saints on earth are to live as worthy citizens of the heavenly commonwealth (I'h 1'-'' KVni)- The concc^ition of the Churcli, not as a kiiigilom subjugating the worhl, but as a comnu)nweaIth gradually extend- ing its citizenship to otiier lands and alien tribes (cf.

Ejih 2'- and I's 87), and thus making them fellow- citizens with the saints (Eph 2'"), ran parallel with the extension of Kom. citizensliip whicli was goin" on at the time, and was to culminate in the inclusion of all Honi. subjects by the edict of Caracalla (A.D. '21'2). The preference for ' Civi- t«3 Dei' over ' Kegnum Dei,' as the aspect of the Church and of its goal, was, however, also due to OT inlluence. The picture of the restored Jerus.

in Is 6U-62 combined easily with the Platonic ' pattern ' of a heavenly city, and it is this com- bination in varj'ing proportions which we have before us in He II, 12, and 13, in the 'Jerusalem which is above' of Gal 4^, and, perhaps, in Kev 21. It is worth noticin<r that it is only in tlie writings of St. Luke, thorough Greek as he was, that the word 'citizen' occurs, Lk 15" 19" (add RV reading in a LXX ijuotation in He 8"). I.ITERATTRB.

— For the historical question, in addition to the Authorities cited, see Deylitix, Obsn. Sacrte, iii. 40, De S. Pauli Homaiia civitate (very full); Winer, liWD, art, IJurjjerrecht ' (nmny reff.) ; Ramsay, 6"(. laMl thf TrarflUr, p. 30 (very brief) ; Wendt's ed. of Meyer's Apo»Ulgc*chichtf on Ac 163'. E. R. Beunard.