City (Fr. cité, Lat. civitas). In the sense in which it was first used in the Roman languages of modern Europe, the word city, like its Latin original, was probably equivalent to state (res publica) rather than to town or borough (urbs, municipium). This usage may be contrasted with that of the Greek term polis, which, originally denoting merely a town or collection of households, came afterwards to be frequently used as synonymous with politeia, a state or free community. Perhaps the nearest example in the present day to the city in the above sense is to be found in such of the cantons of Switzerland as consist chiefly of a town and its surroundings, for example, Geneva. It is difficult to find any precise meaning attached to the word city in medieval times. In his glossary of medieval Latin terms Ducange defines civitas as urbs episcopalis, that is, a town in which there exists an episcopal see; but this restricted use of the word, though commonly accepted, rests on no sufficient ground (see CATHEDRAL). It would seem in fact that from a very early period in English history towns have been denominated either civitas, villa, or burgum, and the inhabitants thereof cives, homines, and burghenses, indifferently. Thus in Domesday Book we find mention of the city (civitas) of Norwich, of Exeter, and of Coventry, but town of Ipswich, of Bedford, and of Shrewsbury; while Gloucester and Leiccester are styled both city and borough (burgum).
In its modern sense the term city, as used in the United Kingdom, is generally applied to all towns which are incorporated, and which either are or have been sees of bishops. See BOROUGH.
In the United States, a city is an incorporated town, invested with the highest municipal privileges and duties. In some states, 10,000 inhabitants are requisite to the formation of a city government, while in the new states a less number is required. A city has power to legislate upon local matters pertaining to it in accordance with the provisions of its charter, granted by the sovereign power of the people through the legislature of a state. In several of the Western States cities are organised under a general law, all having over 15,000 inhabitants being designated cities of the first class; under 15,000 and over 2000, cities of the second class; and all villages with less than 2000, cities of the third class.
In the case of towns which have grown greatly beyond their original dimensions it is not unusual to give the name of city to the space which they originally occupied—thus, we speak of the City of London, in contradistinction to the metropolis, la Cité of Paris, and similarly of other places.
A citizen (Fr. citoyen, Lat. civis) is defined by Aristotle to be one to whom belongs the right of taking part both in the deliberative, or legislative, and in the judicial proceedings of the community of which he is a member (Politics, iii. 1). A citizen, therefore, can exist only in a free state. Between a citizen and a subject there is this distinction, that whilst the latter merely is governed, the former also governs; and thus, though every citizen is a subject, many subjects are not citizens. At first the rights of citizenship in Athens and other Greek communities were readily attained by those who were not born to them; but at a later period, when the organisation of Greek civic life had reached a high degree of perfection, admission to the roll of citizens was procured with great difficulty. In Rome, under the early law, there were perfect and less perfect citizens; that which peculiarly distinguished the higher class was the right to vote in a tribe, and the capacity of enjoying magistracy. All the private rights of citizenship (the jus connubii and jus commercii) belonged to the citizens of the lower class. Under these two classes, again, there were two others, originally aliens—the Latini and the Peregrini.
Roman citizenship was acquired most commonly by birth, but for this it was requisite that both father and mother should be citizens. If a citizen married a Latina or a Peregrina, even believing her to be a citizen, the children begotten of the marriage followed the status of the mother. In the earlier days of the republic, citizenship could be conferred on a stranger only by means of a lex—i.e. by a vote of the people assembled either in one or other of the Comitia. When the imperial power was established, however, the public rights which formed the chief characteristic of the full Roman citizenship became little more than empty names; and the only value which thenceforth attached to it consisted in the private rights which it conferred. St Paul was 'free-born'—i.e. born a citizen. Such as it was, the constitution of Caracalla extended it to the free inhabitants of the whole Roman empire, and under Justinian the only divisions of subjects henceforth was into citizens and slaves.
In France, during the Revolution, the word citizen was adopted by the republicans as the most appropriate term to express the grand principle of liberté, égalité, et fraternité. It took the place of Monsieur. Every Frenchman became Citoyen in relation to other Frenchmen, the highest in official station being so addressed by the lowest. The usage gradually died out after the assumption of imperial power by Napoleon. In its modern use, the term citizen is applied in Britain and elsewhere either specifically to a dweller in a town, or to any one who is either born in the country or has become legally naturalised in it.
In the United States, the words 'citizens' and 'people' are synonymous terms. From the point of view of American constitutional law, a citizen being a member of the political community to which he belongs, every person born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction falls within the definition. An alien may become a citizen by being naturalised under the Acts of Congress. Again, a citizen of the United States residing in any state of the union is a citizen of that state. There being a government in each of the several states, as well as a government of the United States, a person may be at the same time a citizen of both, but his rights as a citizen under one of these governments differ from those under the other. Thus, although the government of the United States is supreme and paramount to the states, it cannot secure to the citizen rights or privileges which are not placed under its jurisdiction by the constitution. On the other hand, a person may be a citizen of the United States and not be a citizen of any particular state, having his residence in one of the territories, or not having a fixed residence in any state.
Citizens of each state are entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states, and citizens of all other states have the right to go into any state and carry on business, to hold property and be protected like the citizens of that state in their rights. It may further be observed that under the existing constitutional law, children born of Chinese parents are citizens of the United States, but Chinese aliens are incapable of becoming citizens. See NATURALISATION, ALIEN, BOROUGH; and Fustel de Coulanges, La Cité antique (1864).