ACTS 16:36

 Q: They apparently take Paul’s word that he is a Roman citizen. Was there no other proof

 necessary?

 

Diplomata and libelli were provided for new citizens. For the mass of the citizenry, for whom censorial

 registration at five-yearly intervals was an inefficient instrument, adequate provision was finally made

 by the creation of an official system of compulsory birth registration under the social legislation of 

Augustus (A.D. 4). 

 

The Roman citizen was required to register the birth of his children within thirty days before a

 Roman official, and he received a wooden diptych recording the declaration, which acted as a

 certificate of citizenship for the child for the rest of his life. Like the military diplomata, this contained 

the names of seven witnesses and provided a presumptive proof of citizen status. Similarly, the

 enfranchisement of freedmen, which depended upon a formal act, was recorded in a documentary

 tabella manumissionis.

 

 Citizens of diverse origins thus came to have some form of written evidence of their status.

Possessing a Roman name was usually taken as a good sign that the person was a citizen. Most people

did not travel far from home and the local magistrate had the citizenship records kept there. There was a

 great penalty for falsely claiming citizenship so not many people did it other than runaway slaves who

 had little to lose.