"Roman Names and Roman Citizenship in Egypt"

When Caracalla in 212 gave Roman citizenship to the inhabitants of the

empire who were not already citizens, he took the final step in a long

process of the granting of citizenship, a process difficult to follow in

part because of uncertainty over how far the use of Roman names reflects

citizenship. The papyrological evidence from Egypt provides a unique

opportunity to look at these questions, especially offering a chance to

look at how non-imperial names came to be used. The results offer

several surprises.