Civitas

In the history of Rome, the Latin term civitas (plural civitates), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the cives, or citizens, united by law (concilium coetusque hominum jure sociati). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities (munera) on the one hand and rights of citizenship on the other. The agreement (concilium) has a life of its own, creating a res publica or "public entity" (synonymous with civitas), into which individuals are born or accepted, and from which they die or are ejected. The civitas is not just the collective body of all the citizens, it is the contract binding them all together, because of which each is a civis.

Civitas is an abstract formed from civis. Nicolet traces the first word and concept for the citizen at Rome to the first known instance resulting from the synoecism of Romans and Sabines presented in the legends of the Roman Kingdom. According to Livy the two peoples participated in a ceremony of union after which they were named Quirites after the Sabine town of Cures. The two groups became the first curiae, subordinate assemblies, from co-viria ("fellow assemblymen," where vir is "man," as only men participated in government). The Quirites were the co-viri. The two peoples had acquired one status. The Latin for the Sabine Quirites was cives, which in one analysis came from the Indo-European *kei-, "lie down" in the sense of incumbent, member of the same house. City, civic, civil all come from this root. Two peoples were now under the same roof, so to speak.

CIVITAS (European Union)

CIVITAS is an initiative of the European Union to implement sustainable, clean and (energy) efficient urban transport measures. The initiative is co-ordinated by cities.

Etymology

CIVITAS is an acronym of CIty-VITAlity-Sustainability.

History

References

See also

External links

Civitas (think tank)

Civitas: The Institute for the Study of Civil Society was founded by David George Green and Robert Whelan early in 2000 as an independent think tank. It is a British registered charity (No. 1085494), financed by private donations. It receives no government funding and has no affiliations with any political party. It received a large donation for a three-year programme of research from The Reece Foundation in 2011.

Activities

The stated underlying purpose of Civitas is to deepen public understanding of the legal, institutional and moral framework that makes a free and democratic society possible.

They state that what they do is: