Civitas antigua y formación de las estructuras personales

Abstract

The concept of the city (civitas) does not necessarily have to mean an urban organization. It may mean a collection of localities, or a territory where some ethnic groups live (tribu). First of all, the development of personal structures happened initially in the families and was connected with a domestic cult. With time, several families used to make a separate group called fratria and a collection of them made up a tribu. This article shows how religion and a way of ruling affected the development of personal structures. Examples of this include are colonies and dioceses – personal structures of the Roman Empire.
The task which lies before this article is to enlighten the reader that many of the modern personal structures, especially those deep­‑rooted in canon law, have had a source in ancient civitas. Present structures of Catholic Church have their basis on that original classification: a family, fratria, tribu. Today there exist: a parish, a vicariate forane, a diocese, and a collection of dioceses called an ecclesiastical province.