Passports, please!

[Baron Opal]

How did ancient cultures prove citizenship? There is a passage in the Bible where Paul of Tarsus claims Roman citizenship for protection. How was that verified? Was there a passport or records somewhere? Or could you fake it if you were confident and knew Latin particularly well?

I know there are / were some African tribes that carried credit card sized masks in little pouches as identification. My dad had a few of those. I can't think of anything in history, in the West, where people had citizenship papers before the French Revolution. Even then, I have to wonder where the masses would get them from.

 

[frankthedm]

Appearance was the big one. Speaking accent was another one. Round that out with how lying was considered much worse than in modern times. Of course if the governing body did not believe you or the folks backing your story up, you got dragged off and that was it for you.

 

[Minicol]

Papers as such did not exist before the French revolution, but there were church registries in every village. If your identity was in doubt, you could be detained until a messenger could be sent to your birthplace to verify it. Well, if they thought that you were worth the bother, that is.

During this revolution, angry revolutionaries burned these registries, which led later to all cases of usurped identity. Depending on the case "of course I am noble and I own this land" or "of course not I am just a rich peasant, don't cut my head".

Nobles and highly educated did not really need papers, as money and rank talked for them. See how many French nobles exiled themselves during the French revolution.

On the other hand, every kind of special power, military order, or commission granted by the government was certified by a special letter, signed by whatever autority issued it, and backed with a seal.

 

[Stormborn]

How did ancient cultures prove citizenship? There is a passage in the Bible where Paul of Tarsus claims Roman citizenship for protection. How was that verified? Was there a passport or records somewhere? Or could you fake it if you were confident and knew Latin particularly well?

I don't believe it was verified. You have to remember that obtaining Roman citizenship was not that hard (and had NOTHING to do with speaking Latin BTW - Greek was what everyone spoke), granted to children of Roman citizens, children of a freedslave whose former master was a citizen, those who served as auxillery troops, and certain conquered peoples. It could be a reward for service to the Empire/Republic and it could be bought. Basically, given the rights of Roman citizens it was safer to assume that someone's claim was legitimate than have them later produce some kind of witness or testimony against you. Basically in the Empire everything was who you know, and if you had a known and respected citizen vouch for you that was likely all that was needed, provided you didn't have known and respected enemies.

 

[Andor]

Depends on where and when you were. In china at some times you would have to produce papers showing you had permission to be traveling. You would only get those papers once you had permission of course. At home you don't need id because everyone knows who you are.

That was probably a secondary function of all the traveling and visiting the upper classes did, simply meeting people and learning faces of the peerage.

Any representative would have papers signed by the authority granting the post. And you could always send a messenger to verfiy the papers. God help you if they turned out to be fake.

On a side note, when I did a stint guarding a secure facility the ideal from of identification was personal recognition. ID was a back up in case you didn't know the person.

 

[Andor]

It's actually fairly tough to fake where you're from. Accents vary not only by location but by class and they can be hard to overcome. See My Fair Lady, or look up the term 'shibboleth'. While in the modern world we tend to disregard such things ethnicity is often visually obvious. Clothing styles, customs, common knowlege, all of these things vary with where you were raised. A number of spies in WWII were caught simply because americans and europeans have different table manners.

And in a fantasy world there are even more give aways. Race is the most obvious as in a Drow kingdom only Dark elves are likely to be acorded citizenship, even more civillized places might not accord full rights to half-orcs. Membership in some cults might be required for/or preclude citizenship and be magically or visually determinable. In a mageocracy anyone who can't cast prestidigitation may be sol.

Or 'papers' may instead mean entry into a magical registry which any guard can access with a simple cantrip. Enchanted crystals bearing an image of the user. Even straight up divination may be used. ("Do you know who I am?" 'No, let me cast these runes.')

 

[taliesin15]

Another aspect is some cultures, ancient and otherwise, were simply freer about such things, to the point where there were no tolls to pay passing through gates, sometimes not even a standard military presence. IMC, I have several cultures or simply small settlements where there's essentially no government at all and most walk around well armed.

This does raise the question of dialects, and I wonder how many DMs delineate specific regional dialects of the Common (and other) tongue. And even beyond that, there being in some places the Court version of the language in question.

I understand that in many cultures in Europe and elsewhere one identified oneself by being able to count off one's heritage, be able to list one's forefathers (or mothers in the case of matriarchal societies).

 

[Wik]

I don't believe it was verified. You have to remember that obtaining Roman citizenship was not that hard (and had NOTHING to do with speaking Latin BTW - Greek was what everyone spoke),

NOt totally correct. Greek was a very common language in the eastern empire, but Latin was the day to day language, and was the spoken language in much of the central empire (ie. Italy). If you wanted to deal with the roman officials ruling over your tribes, you had to learn latin - which could lead to many "barbaric"/latin creole dialects (such as, say, English*).

Sorry, I'm a linguistics nerd at times.

***

Onto the question at hand...

While identity was easy to fake, and people moved around from place to place all the time ("I'm a pilgrim! No, really, I am"), there were ways around this. Letters of Introduction were pretty common among the upper class (and the merchant class) - and they would be the precursor to modern day papers. Also, remember that in the ancient era, you could usually tell a traveller's station in life, simply by bearing and manner - if he looked like a soldier, he probably was. If he showed up in Egypt with a lot of money and said he was a rich nobleman from Jerusalem... he probably was (and if he wasn't, well, who cares?).

But if you were one of the unwashed masses? Well, no one really cared. You were a foreigner, treated like crap, and were more likely to wind up a slave or poor. But no one really cared if you were John A. Jackson or Jack Z. Johnson... why bother tracking a commoner?


(*Yeah, technically, English isn't a Creole language, but I believe it started as one)

 

[Morrus]

I would imagine that the average person simply had no need of such papers - international travel, while it certainly existed in the Middle Ages or the times of the Roman Empire, weren't something that your average blacksmith or fishmonger did.

Sure, richer people did, or diplomatt, or military people. But most people would spend their entire life within 20 miles of their birthplace.

 

[justanobody]

Brands, tattoos, letters of marquee, the type of coin you carry, could sometimes be used to identify what allegiances you hold by having them.

What you looked like or wore are or were...nos till are, sometimes good indicators of where you are from.

There could be passports, or travel permits that must be presented when entering and leaving areas.

The important thing to remember was anyone of a country at war, or not a member of a country that is faithful to the one they meet may end up in slavery, and there travel arrangements are then made for them.