The ''Lex Ursonensis'' is the foundation charter of the Caesarean ''colonia Iulia Genetiva'' at Urso near

Osuna Osuna () is a town and municipality in the province of Seville, southern Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. , it has a population of c. 17,800. It is the location of the Andalusian Social Economy School. Osuna is built on a hill, o ...

(province of

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

) in southern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. A copy of its text was inscribed on bronze under the

Flavians The Flavian dynasty, lasting from 69 to 96 CE, was the second dynastic line of emperors to rule the Roman Empire following the Julio-Claudians, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian. The Flavians rose to power ...

, portions of which were discovered in 1870/71. The original law spanned nine tablets with three or five columns of text each and comprised over 140 sections (''rubricae''). Of these four tablets survive, including sections 61-82, 91-106 and 123-134. Remains are kept in the

National Archaeological Museum of Spain The National Archaeological Museum (; MAN) is a archaeology museum in Madrid, Spain. It is located on Calle de Serrano beside the Plaza de Colón, sharing its building with the National Library of Spain. It is one of the National Museums of ...

, in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. The charter was approved by the

Roman assembly The Roman assemblies were meetings of the Roman people duly convened by a magistrate. There were two general kinds of assemblies: a ''contio'' where a crowd was convened to hear speeches or statements from speakers without any further arrangeme ...

as a law proposed probably by

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...

after the

assassination of Julius Caesar Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was assassinated on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC by a group of senators during a Roman Senate, Senate session at the Curia of Pompey, located within the Theatre of Pompey in Ancient Rome, Rome. The ...

Historical context

After the battles between Caesar and

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

during the Republican period, Caesar decided to establish in Osuna a colony of citizens named ''Genetiva Iulia'' in honor of the goddess ''

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

Genetrix'', the protector of the

gens Iulia The gens Julia was one of the most prominent patrician families of ancient Rome. From the early decades of the Republic, members of this gens served in the highest offices of the Roman state, beginning with Gaius Julius Iulus, consul in 489 ...

, to which Caesar himself belonged.

Laws of colonies and municipalities

In Hispania, there were two fundamental laws: *The Law of Urso, of colonial character. *The ''Lex Flavia Municipalis'', a type of municipal law, an example of which could be the '' Lex Flavia Malacitana''. The laws that regulated colonies and municipalities were known as "leges datae," meaning they were given directly by a magistrate authorized by the assemblies based on a comitial law. Even though other laws from outside Hispania have been preserved, it can be asserted that the texts found in the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

are a fundamental source for understanding the vast phenomenon of provincial

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

Romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

Stages of drafting the Lex Ursonensis

* 1. Drafting of the project by Caesar. * 2. The issuance (datio) of the law by Marcus Antonius. * 3. The physical engraving on the bronze tablets of Osuna. The bronze tablets are a later reissue of the original text by Marcus Antonius, dating from the last third of the 1st century AD, with the peculiarity that the entire text is interpolated. While it's challenging to specify the origin and timing of the interpolations, it is believed that Marcus Antonius might have already modified Caesar's project; however, it's also possible that other interpolations were made later. Of the Law of Urso, a little over 50 chapters are currently preserved out of the 142 that it is believed to have contained.

Provisions

The law addresses a wide range of local governance issues:Amores 2008, p. 39. *Magistrates *Officials *Colony revenues: Public rentals (Vectigalia), fines for non-payments, etc. *Priestly

colleges A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary education, tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding academic degree, degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further educatio ...

of pontiffs and

augurs An augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. His main role was the practice of augury, the interpretation of the will of the gods by studying events he observed within a predetermined sacred space (''templum''). The ''tem ...

* Procedural order *

Public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, ...

: **Sanitation systems ** Roads and paths **Maintenance of public waters **Land distribution *Internal policing *Military defense *Road regulations *Funeral rites

Bibliography

* Caballos Rufino, Antonio (2006). ''El nuevo bronce de Osuna y la politica colonizadora romana.'' Sevilla, . * * *

Notes

External links

''Lex Ursonensis'' (Latin)
{{Authority control Roman law 1st century BC in Hispania Latin inscriptions Collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Madrid