The Roman Citizen

Every male citizen had rights (iura) and responsibilities (munera), but the women had much less responsibility.  A male citizen had voting rights and could also run for office depending on his ability.  Along with being able to run for office and vote, a citizen also had the protections of Roman traditions, could form contracts, and be married legally.  A male citizen had respnsibilty though, along with these rights.  His primary munera or respnsibility was to serve in the military.  But this was not the only responsibility, the others included taxes and larger obligations to the community including building roads and other structures.

As I said before, women did not have as many rights as men did, but there were independent women who paid their own taxes and handled their own affairs.  Cicero's wife, Terentia, was much more successful at handling their estates than Cicero was.  Cicero told her to stop acting more important than him and they divorced when she would not.

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