The ''lex Aternia Tarpeia'' was a Roman law, introduced by the

consuls A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

Aulus Aternius Varus and

Spurius Tarpeius Montanus Capitolinus Spurius Tarpeius Montanus Capitolinus was consul in 454 BC, with Aulus Aternius Varus. Consul The consuls of the previous year, Titus Romilius and Gaius Veturius Cicurinus had defeated the Aequi at Mount Algidus, but were now prosecuted for h ...

in 454 BC, and passed during their year of office. The law concerned the regulation of payments for fines and penalties.''Cambridge Ancient History'', vol. VII, part 2, p. 123.

Background

The law was promulgated against a background of tensions between the plebeian and patrician orders. The year after their successful campaign against the

Aequi 300px, Location of the Aequi (Equi) in central Italy, 5th century BC. The Aequi were an Italic tribe on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains to the east of Latium in central Italy who appear in the early history of ancient Rome. After a long stru ...

, the consuls

Titus Romilius Rocus Vaticanus Titus Romilius Rocus Vaticanus was a Roman politician in the 5th century BC, Roman consul, consul in 455 BC, and Decemviri, decemvir in 451 BC. Family He was the only member of the Patrician (ancient Rome), patrician family to become consul. The ...

and Gaius Veturius Cicurinus were prosecuted by Gaius Calvius Cicero, one of the

tribunes of the plebs 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 ...

, on the grounds that

the soldiers The Soldiers is a singing trio consisting of serving British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, ...

had been deprived of their spoils. Romilius was fined 10,000 ''

asses Ass most commonly refers to: * Buttocks (in informal American English) * Donkey or ass, ''Equus africanus asinus'' **any other member of the subgenus ''Asinus'' Ass or ASS may also refer to: Art and entertainment * ''Ass'' (album), 1973 alb ...

'', and Veturius 15,000. The ''lex Aternia Tarpeia'' was introduced in order to regulate such fines.

Provisions

The law drew upon

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

precedent, as Solon's laws allowed fines levied in livestock to be transmuted into coinage. After the prosecution of Romilius and Veterius, Roman emissaries were sent to study Greek law; according to tradition, they went to Athens, but they may instead have drawn on the laws of

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

, a region of Greek colonies in southern Italy. The best known result of this commission was the establishment of the

Decemvirs The decemviri or decemvirs (Latin for "ten men") refer to official ten-man commissions established by the Roman Republic. The most important were those of the two decemvirates, formally the decemvirate with consular power for writing laws () w ...

, who held power from 451 to 449, and established the

Twelve Tables The Laws of the Twelve Tables () was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. Formally promulgated in 449 BC, the Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws.Crawford, M.H. 'Twelve Tables' in Simon Hornbl ...

of Roman law. The ''lex Aternia Tarpeia'' seems to have been an earlier result of the commission's findings. It is not mentioned by

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

Dionysius The name Dionysius (; ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; ) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name of the Greek god, Dionysus, parallel ...

, but was described by

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...

, and is alluded to by Pliny. Before the new law, fines had generally been levied in livestock; for minor offences, fines ranged from two sheep up to thirty oxen. Dionysius mentions a maximum fine of two oxen and thirty sheep, although Gellius gives the reverse.Dionysius, x. 50.Gellius, ''Attic Nights'', xi. 1. The value of fines was naturally dependent on the quality of the livestock, which could be highly inconsistent. The ''lex Aternia Tarpeia'' is said to have addressed this defect by establishing an equivalence scale: ten ''asses'' for a sheep, and one hundred for an ox. Some scholars suggest that the law did no more than regulate the maximum fine, or ''suprema multa'', and that the change from fines of property to fines in bronze was the result of the ''lex Julia Papiria'', a law passed in 430 BC.

Notes

References

{{reflist

Bibliography

Marcus Tullius Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, ''

De Republica ''De re publica'' (''On the Republic''; see below) is a dialogue on Roman politics by Cicero, written in six books between 54 and 51 BC. The work does not survive in a complete state, and large parts are missing. The surviving sections derive f ...

''. *

Dionysius of Halicarnassus Dionysius of Halicarnassus (, ; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary style was ''atticistic'' – imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime. ...

, ''Romaike Archaiologia'' (Roman Antiquities). * Titus Livius (

), ''

History of Rome The history of Rome includes the history of the city of Rome as well as the civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman law has influenced m ...

''. * Gaius Plinius Secundus (

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

), '' Historia Naturalis'' (Natural History). *

, ''Noctes Atticae'' (Attic Nights). *

Barthold Georg Niebuhr Barthold Georg Niebuhr (27 August 1776 – 2 January 1831) was a Danish–German statesman, banker, and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. By 1810 Niebuhr wa ...

, ''The History of Rome'', Julius Charles Hare and Connop Thirlwall, trans., John Smith, Cambridge (1828). * ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'' is an English language encyclopedia first published in 1842. The second, improved and enlarged, edition appeared in 1848, and there were many revised editions up to 1890. The encyclopedia covered law ...

'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown, and Company, Boston (1859). * F.W. Walbank, A.E. Astin, M.W. Frederiksen, and R.M. Ogilvie, ''The Cambridge Ancient History'', Cambridge University Press (1990).

External links