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Perduellio
In the early days of Ancient Rome, ''perduellio'' () was the capital offense of high treason, although it was not well defined. The form of action on this charge changed over the course of the Roman republic. The word later became just an intensifier for the more common treason charge (''maiestas''). It was set down plainly in the Law of the Twelve Tables as follows: The Law of the Twelve Tables orders that he who has stirred up an enemy or who has handed over a citizen to the enemy is to be punished capitally. (Marcianus, D. 48, 4, 3). Under the terms of this law, those convicted of ''perduellio'' were subject to death either by being hanged from the ''arbor infelix'' (a tree deemed to be unfortunate) or by being thrown from the Tarpeian Rock. Their families were not allowed to mourn them and their houses were razed. History As the concept of national sovereignty took hold in Rome, ''perduellio'' also came to mean an offense which “injured or brought into danger the dignity ...
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Law Of Maiestas
The law of maiestas or law of majestas (), encompasses several ancient Roman laws () throughout the Republican and Imperial periods dealing with crimes against the Roman people, state, or Emperor. Description In Roman law, the offences originally falling under the head of treason were almost exclusively those committed in military service. The very name ''perduellio'', the name of the crime in the older Roman law, is evidence of this. ''Perduelles'' were, strictly, public enemies who bore arms against the state; and traitors were regarded as having no more rights than public enemies. The Twelve Tables made it punishable with death to communicate with the enemy or to betray a citizen to the enemy. Other kinds of ''perduellio'' were punished by "interdiction of fire and water" (''aquae et ignis interdictio''), in other words, banishment. The crime was tried before a special tribunal (''quaestio'') by two officials (''duumviri perduellionis''), which was perhaps the earliest permanent ...
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Gaius Rabirius (senator)
Gaius Rabirius was a Roman senator who was involved in the death of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus in 100 BC. Titus Labienus, a Tribune of the Plebs whose uncle had lost his life among the followers of Saturninus on that occasion, was urged by fellow Senator and patron Julius Caesar to accuse Rabirius of participating in the murder. Caesar's real objective was to warn the Senate against interference by force with popular movements, to uphold the sovereignty of the people and the inviolability of the person of the tribunes, at the time of the conspiracy of Lucius Sergius Catilina. The obsolete accusation of '' perduellio'' was revived, and the case was heard before Caesar and his cousin Lucius Julius Caesar as commissioners specially appointed (''duumviri perduellionis''). Rabirius was condemned, and the people, to whom the accused had exercised the right of appeal, were on the point of ratifying the decision, when Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer pulled down the military flag from the ...
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Tarpeian Rock
The Rock of Tarpeia (; Latin: ' or '; ) is a steep cliff on the south side of the Capitoline Hill that was used in Ancient Rome as a site of execution. Adjudicated murderers, traitors, perjurors, and larcenous slaves, if convicted by the '' quaestores parricidii'', were flung from the cliff to their deaths. The cliff was about 25 meters high. Roman legend According to early Roman histories, when the Sabine ruler Titus Tatius attacked Rome after the Rape of the Sabines (8th century BC), the Vestal Virgin Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, governor of the citadel on the Capitoline Hill, betrayed the Romans by opening the Porta Pandana gate for Titus Tatius in return for "what the Sabines bore on their arms" (golden bracelets and bejeweled rings). In Book 1 of Livy's ''Ab Urbe Condita'', the Sabines "having been accepted into the citadel, he Sabineskilled her, having been overwhelmed by weapons, and "", meaning, " heyheaped up shields n her. The invaders crushed he ...
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Roman Kingdom
The Roman Kingdom, also known as the Roman monarchy and the regal period of ancient Rome, was the earliest period of Ancient Rome, Roman history when the city and its territory were King of Rome, ruled by kings. According to tradition, the Roman Kingdom began with the Founding of Rome, city's founding , with settlements around the Palatine Hill along the river Tiber in central Italy, and ended with the Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, overthrow of the kings and the establishment of the Republic . Little is certain about the kingdom's history as no records and few inscriptions from the time of the kings have survived. The accounts of this period written during the Roman Republic, Republic and the Roman Empire, Empire are thought largely to be based on oral tradition. Origin The site of the founding of the Roman Kingdom (and eventual Roman Republic, Republic and Roman Empire, Empire) included a ford (crossing), ford where one could cross the river Tiber in central Roman Italy ...
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Ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), the Roman Republic (50927 BC), and the Roman Empire (27 BC476 AD) until the fall of the western empire. Ancient Rome began as an Italic peoples, Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian peninsula. The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually controlled the Italian Peninsula, assimilating the Greece, Greek culture of southern Italy (Magna Graecia) and the Etruscans, Etruscan culture, and then became the dominant power in the Mediterranean region and parts of Europe. At its hei ...
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Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an Roman imperial cult, imperial cult and an era of regional hegemony, imperial peace (the or ) in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The Principate system of government was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century. Octavian was born into an equites, equestrian branch of the plebeian Octavia gens, Octavia. Following his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar's assassination of Julius Caesar, assassination in 44 BC, Octavian was named in Caesar's will as his Adoption in ancient Rome, adopted son and heir, and inherited Caesar's name, estate, and the loyalty of his legions. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirat ...
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Plebeian Tribune
Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune () was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of the Roman Senate and magistrates. These tribunes had the power to convene and preside over the '' Concilium Plebis'' (people's assembly); to summon the senate; to propose legislation; and to intervene on behalf of plebeians in legal matters; but the most significant power was to veto the actions of the consuls and other magistrates, thus protecting the interests of the plebeians as a class. The tribunes of the plebs were typically found seated on special benches set up for them in the Roman Forum. The tribunes were sacrosanct, meaning that any assault on their person was punishable by death. In imperial times, the powers of the tribunate were granted to the emperor as a matter of course, and the office itself lost its independence and most of its fu ...
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Provocatio
The Valerian and Porcian laws were Roman laws passed between 509 BC and 184 BC. They exempted Roman citizens from degrading and shameful forms of punishment, such as whipping, scourging, or crucifixion. They also established certain rights for Roman citizens, including ''provocatio'', the right to appeal to the tribunes of the plebs. The Valerian law also made it legal to kill any citizen who was plotting to establish a tyranny. This clause was used several times, the most important of which was its usage by Julius Caesar's assassins. Valerian law The first Valerian law was enacted by Publius Valerius Publicola in 509 BC, a few years after the founding of republican Rome. It allowed a Roman citizen, condemned by a magistrate to death or scourging, the right of appeal to the people that is, to the people composed of senators, patricians, and plebeians. Thus the consuls no longer had the power of pronouncing sentence in capital cases against a Roman citizen, without the consen ...
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Consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states through antiquity and the Middle Ages, in particular in the Republics of Genoa and Pisa, then revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic. The related adjective is consular, from the Latin '' consularis''. This usage contrasts with modern terminology, where a consul is a type of diplomat. Roman consul A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic (509 to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the highest level of the '' cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspired). Consuls were elected to office and held power for one year. There were always two consuls in power at any time. Other uses in antiquity Private sphere It was not uncommon ...
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Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire following the War of Actium. During this period, Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean world. Roman society at the time was primarily a cultural mix of Latins (Italic tribe), Latin and Etruscan civilization, Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Ancient Roman religion and List of Roman deities, its pantheon. Its political organisation developed at around the same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece, with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by Roman Senate, a senate. There were annual elections, but the republican system was an elective olig ...
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