The Latin: leges regiae ('royal laws') were early Roman laws which classical historians such as Plutarch thought had been introduced by the semilegendary kings of Rome.[1]
Though sometimes questioned,[2] [3] scholars of the modern era generally have accepted that the laws or the ultimate sources for them originated very early in Roman history, even as early as the period of the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC). In the 20th century, previously unrecognized fragments quoted by ancient writers were identified as leges regiae and attributed or reattributed to the various kings.[4] [5]
The king during Rome's Regal period was a political, military, religious, and judicial chief of the community, though his actual duties might be delegated and entrusted to his many auxiliaries.
According to Sextus Pomponius, Romulus organized the tribes of Rome into thirty units called "Latin: [[Curia]]e", and he then administered the affairs of the state on the basis of the opinion of the Curiate Assembly.[6] This event is at the origin of Latin: lex regia.[7] [8]
Romulus is also credited with creating another institution involved in the emanation of Latin: leges regiae - the council of the elders or Senate of the Roman Kingdom.
After an interregnum Numa Pompilius succeeded to Romulus: as it will happen for each of his successors an interrex held the government til the election of the new king. Numa emanated a number of important Latin: leges regiae. To him was attributed the compilation of the book Commentari regi.
A great innovation of his concerned criminal law on voluntary and non voluntary crimes.
Some scholars argue on lexical grounds that in this period some Latin: leges regiae showed a Sabine influence.
Successor Tullus Hostilius is traditionally called the "warrior king". He celebrated the solemn sacrifices using the work by Numa Commentari Numae.[9] He created the officials named Latin: [[Fetiales]] who were a sacerdotal Latin: collegium.[10]
After him Ancus Marcius had sacral norms from Numa's work transcribed and made public.[11] He established the Latin: [[jus fetiale]] and imprisonment.[12] [13]
The last three kings were Etruscans according to tradition. Their cultural heritage influenced the leges regiae of this period.[14]
Tarquinius Priscus emanated many laws that covered different areas: he doubled the number of the senators and of the Vestals.[10]
Servius Tullius then used Numa's work for the election of the consuls.[15] Moreover, he established the census and the timocratic constitution that will be the basis for the future development of the republican institutions.
During the reign of Tarquinius Superbus there are to be mentioned repressive laws, international treaties and the adoption of the Libri Sibyllini.
The end of the kingdom is seen by some scholars as a slow, gradual process, while traditionally it was the abrupt expulsion of the king. This event brought about the abrogation of the Latin: leges regiae. However certainly not of all of them as e.g. the auspicium[16] and Servius Tullius's reform of the eighteen Latin: equites survived.[17]
With the advent of the Roman Republic the need was felt for an official figure who could perform the sacred rites or make decisions through Latin: [[auspicium]], an institution governed by the Latin: lex regia. In short a figure who could take over the functions previously discharged by the Latin: rex.
Thus the office of Latin: [[rex sacrorum]] was created. It lasted until 390 AD when emperor Theodosius I abolished it. His power was strictly limited to the sphere of the Latin: sacrum. Scholars point out that when Pomponius in his Enchiridion states that the emanation of laws by the king took place on the deliberation of the Latin: curiae he refers to this period, i.e. a time when the power of the king was lessened.
The fire caused by the Gauls of king Brennus brought about the loss of the written records of Latin: leges regiae. The work of rewriting carried out by the Latin: sacerdotes was essential. Besides it is believed that Sextus Papirius's collection had survived, and was available for consultation at the times of Pomponius.
Pomponius maintains that all the Latin: leges regiae were abolished and they indeed disappeared in the following times.
Nonetheless scholars' research proves that some laws were still in use, e.g. Servius Tullius's norm of the eighteen Latin: equites. Livy himself writes that after the fire not only were the laws of the XII Tables collected by the Latin: sacerdotes and the senate but also laws of the kings, some of which were made public while some other were kept secret by the Latin: sacerdotes.
Finally Justinian's compilation mentions the Latin: leges regiae.
Not only were the laws of the king an instrument of his power, they also answered the need of a society that was made up by different tribes to have certain law, a Latin: ius certum as is stated by Pomponius.[18]
Moreover, at that time the king played the role of supreme judge and guarantor of the Latin: [[pax deorum]], the peace between the community and the gods. This aim was to be achieved by the juridical instrument of the Latin: lex regia, the sacral role of the king being in fact that of a supreme judge.
The Latin: lex regia performed the function of composing controversies when the Latin: [[mores]] could not solve them. Moreover, it bestowed the king a way of solving religious and military issues, either directly or by means of some ausiliary as the magister populi of the Tarquinian times.[19]
While on one hand the Latin: leges regiae created a new law different from the Latin: mores on the other hand they transformed some of them into laws.
It is believed that in the early times of the republic they were used as a mnemonic tool and a framework by the Latin: decemviri in the drafting of the XII Tables. Besides they acted as an intermediary stage between the Latin: mores and the XII Tables, answering the requirements of a society that was no longer satisfied with the revelations of the Latin: Pontifex Maximus.
Influences vary according to times and are mostly apparent in text edition. At the beginning a clear Greek influence is detectable. Tradition wants that Romulus studied at Gabii,[20] [21] moreover the Greek element in original Roman culture is certain. Trading and later political relationships are attested during the 8th century.[22]
Another influence is the Sabine one that is reflected in the use of ox skin as a support for writing. Besides it is detectable in the character of the laws themselves as in the cases of the ones emanated by Servius Tullius, Numa Pompilius and even Romulus, as he reigned together with Titus Tatius.
Etruscan influences become apparent in the period of Etruscan kings and are of political, economic and juridical nature: an example is the attitude of the king towards the Latin: [[gens|gentes]], whose function was weakened by Etruscan kings.[23]
Fragments found in Pomponius[24] and in other authors on the subject show the Latin: lex regia was a deliberation of both the curiae and the senate[25] which were approved by the Latin: rex with the support of the pontiff.
Many scholars though opine Pomponius refers to the republican period and the Latin: [[rex sacrorum]] as he had few sources for the archaic period.[26] They do not trust the accuracy of these sources: for one thing they believe Pomponius's account was influenced by the model of voting method of the assemblies of the people of the republic (Latin: [[Comitia tributa]], Latin: [[Comitia centuriata]]) in which the voting of the law proposed by a Latin: [[tribunus]] was voted by groupings named 'units'. Votes were not counted by head but by a majority within each single unit. The unit system had been established by king Servius Tullius: a unit could be made up by citizens who were not owners of any assets or the first class of cavalry.[27]
Moreover, on the grounds of the powers the king held at the time of the regal period they think it was more probable that he decided without the Latin: veto of the Latin: curiae but only by the support of the Latin: [[College of Pontiffs|collegium pontificum]]. and by deliberation of the senate. Some speculate that the Latin: curiae had only a function of public participation. The Latin: leges regiae were promulgated publicly at the presence of the Latin: curiae (Latin: [[comitia curiata]]).
Other sources state that on some days the king held a comitial assembly similar to those of the republican period. This is attested by the words "Latin: Quando Rex Comitiavit Fas (QCRF) present on the first Roman calendar.
On the above grounds scholars opine that the Latin: curiae had no voting right but only that of being present to the act of the promulgation as a witness and of showing their attitude on the matter by means of acclamation or of loud dissent.
On some occasions though the king allowed the intervention of the Latin: curiae on decisions in trials. Only one case is recorded, that of Publius Horatius.[28] It was so until the repressive action in criminal matters became subject to the exclusive decision of the assembly of the people.[29]
Since the Latin: lex regia on one hand was meant to create a Latin: ius certum and on the other stemmed from the Latin: mores, the means to enforce it were in most instances sanctions of religious, sacral nature,[31] (a Latin: [[piaculum]] or a Latin: [[Glossary_of_ancient_Roman_religion#sacrificium|sacrificium]]).
However these were not the only sanctions in use: other included the confiscation of property and capital punishment, that was not administered on any sacral principle but on that of the retribution of an offense with an equal punishment.
On the basis of the fragmentary condition of our information,[32] it can be said that they concerned public, sacral, succession, procedural, agricultural, family, criminal matters as well as contract and obligations, although seldom they concerned the private sphere that was left mostly to the Latin: [[pater familias]] and the Latin: [[gens]].
A partial detailed exposition follows here below.
Romulus's Latin: leges regiae were in part made in common with Titus Tatius.
Many concern public law. These include the union of the different tribes involved in the founding of Rome and the institution of the three legal tribes named after their three chiefs Romulus, Titus Tatius and Lucumo, the Latin: Ramnenses, Latin: Titienses and Latin: Luceres respectively. These were in turn divided into ten Latin: curiae each.
According to our sources they had the function of electing the magistrates, passing laws[33] and examining questions concerning war if the rex so requested.
Another important act was the institution of the Roman Senate. It was formed by one hundred patricians. Romulus granted it the power of decision on the laws he proposed on a majority basis.
He statuted that Roman citizens should be warriors too, able to till the land and to wage war. He created the military unit known as Latin: [[legio]] and his personal guard named the Latin: [[celeres]].
He reserved to himself decisions concerning sacred rites and sacrifices to gods, by the institution of sixty Latin: sacerdotes devoted to officiate them. In relation to this purpose he created the Latin: [[auspices]] and the Latin: [[augures]]. These people were taken from each Latin: curia. He created the Latin: [[Fratres Arvales]], a sacred brotherhood devoted to agricultural rites of propitiation, the three Latin: flaminates i.e., the three Latin: [[Flamen|flamines]] maiores, the Latin: [[flamen Dialis]], the Latin: [[flamen Martialis]] and the Latin: [[flamen Quirinalis]] each devoted to the cult of a major deity.
He created the first Roman calendar year of 304 days divided into ten months: six of thirty days and four of thirty-one.
He established the ritual for the dedication of temples.
His provisions concerning private law were: succession of the wife in Latin: [[Manus marriage|manus]] of the husband. If the husband dies first then the wife inherits his properties, in case there are children only by half.
He decided the jurisdiction of the Latin: rex as a guarantor of the Latin: lex regia. He also reserved to himself the right of judging most serious crimes while leaving other to the senate.
He decided to divide the land among the curiae, allotting it in part to agriculture and in part to the building temples or other sacred purposes.
He established that parents were obliged to nurture their children, at least the first (Latin: primogenitus) and were not allowed to kill them if they were under age three. An exception was the case that the child was a Latin: [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#monstrum|monstrum]] (seriously handicapped): in this case though the procedure required that the child were shown to five neighbours who testified its condition. If this procedure was not observed the punishment was the confiscation of half of the property or other sanctions.
He established the power of Latin: patrimoniality and authority of the Latin: [[pater familias]], the Latin: [[patria potestas]] on illegal children (Latin: filius alieni iuris) that included the right to kill them.
In matrimonial law, he established the practice of Latin: manus|nocat=true marriage, in which the wife comes into the "hand" of the husband; that is, she is subject to his control as were his children. By this provision the wife was subject to her husband and was obliged to follow him and support him in every business including cults. (From the 2nd century BC, this was no longer the predominant form of marriage in Rome; the wife instead remained legally a part of her own family, and was never subject to her husband's control.) In the social field he is supposed to have created the system of patronage (Latin: patronus and Latin: cliens).
Crimes of women such as adultery and wine drinking had to be punished according to the law, but the decision was allocated to the family of the woman.[34]
Numa was enthroned through the famous Latin: [[lex curiata de imperio]].[35] [36] [37] By this act he subordined his future power to the decision of the Latin: [[comitia curiata]]. This law would be used by every king until emperor Augustus and even later.
He abolished the Latin: celeres.
He divided Rome into Latin: [[pagus|pagi]], each of them having their own magistrate and guard to police the territory.
He was the first to introduce the division of the people according to their profession thus creating corporations.
In the religious domain he instituted the Latin: menses (lunar months) and reformed the calendar by creating a twelve lunar month year plus an intercalary month (Latin: mercedonium), created various Latin: flaminates (including those other sources attribute to Romulus)[38] and Latin: sacerdotia among which the Latin: [[Fetiales]] and the Latin: [[Salii]], increased the number of the Latin: [[Vestales]] from four to six.He instituted the Latin: [[Pontifex maximus]] besides increasing the number of the Latin: sacerdotes and of the Latin: [[Collegium Pontificum]] and established various forms of dedication concerning various cults.
In private law he made provision concerning the paelex (concubine).
He made new redistributions of land, as the allotting to plebeians of demanial land.
In the field of criminal law his innovations were remarkable: he established the distinction between voluntary homicide (named Latin: [[paricida]]) and non voluntary. In cases of the first instance were nominated two Latin: [[quaestores paricidi]] to investigate the case and the accused was classified as Latin: [[paricida]] if he was convicted of killing with intention a free man, or even a parent or relative. In the first case Latin: paricida is connoted as Latin: homicida. The sanctioned Latin: parricidas punishment is unknown. In the second the Latin: [[parricidas]] punishment was the Latin: [[poena cullei]]. Its provisions consisted in closing the culprit murderer in a sack of ox skin and throwing him into the sea. Later it was changed to making the culprit Latin: [[exlege]].[31]
In case of non voluntary homicide it was only required the sacrifice of a goat to expiate the crime and purify the culprit.
Some sources attribute to Numa the creation of the Vestals. However, according to tradition they existed in Latin towns since before the foundation of Rome (Alba Longa had vestals, among them Romulus's mother Silvia) and it must be remembered that Titus Tatius had already dedicated the Latin: aedes Vestae. Theft of sacred objects or in sacred places was dealt with as Latin: paricidium, perjury was punished with death.
A father could legally sell his son unless he had already allowed him to get married. Wives were forbidden to drink wine as well as having relationships of any kind, unless the husband decided to present them to a childless man to father children. Afterwards he could decide to take her back.
Marriage was allowed even with girls under twelfth. However women were permitted to make testament while their father was still living.[39]
A Latin: lex regia traditionally ascribed to Numa is that concerning the Latin: [[spolia opima]], or more precisely one of the two definitions of this institution:[40] there is the occasion for them whenever a Roman defeats a Latin: dux hostium (chief of enemies) even if the victor is not necessarily the Roman Latin: dux. Three kinds of spoils are mentioned: the first consists of an offer of the arms of the defeated to Jupiter Feretrius and the sacrifice of an ox, the second of their offer to Mars and the sacrifice of Latin: solitaurilia (probably Latin: suovetaurilia) and the third their offer to Latin: Janui Quirino and the sacrifice of a lamb. They apply to the case that the Roman was the chief, an army officer or a common soldier respectively.
According to the sources king Tullus established the office of the Latin: [[lictor]], introduced the use of the painted toga named Latin: [[toga praetexta]], created the office of the Latin: [[fetiales]][41] [42] and their ritual function in the declaration of war. Only through this rite could a war be a just war (Latin: [[bellum iustum]]), i.e. a war in accord with the requirements of religion.
He also established the festivals Agonales and Saturnalia devoted to god Saturnus, as well as making the addition of another group (Collini) related to god Quirinus to the Latin: sacerdotium of the Salii.
He allowed some landless Romans to settle the Caelian Hill.
During his reign the case of Marcus Horatius is remarkable in the field of criminal law. When this Marcus Horatius was accused of Latin: [[perduellio]], the Latin: duumviri perduellionis emitted a verdict of culpability on the question of the Latin: provocatio ad populum, a peculiarly devised procedural condition. Horatius's father though objected to the verdict. King Hostilius was unable to reach a decision, thus remitted the judgement to the people, i.e. the curiae. Marcus was acquitted.
King Hostilius also made laws that punished treason towards the king and desertion with death.To him is ascribed the creation of the penalty known as Latin: [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#arbor felix|arbor infelix]].[43]
In the field of morals and the family he made a law that condemned incest: the culprit would become sacred to Diana in a public ceremony of derision and contempt. He also decided that the state would subsidise families who had a trigeminous delivery.[44]
"Moreover having summoned the pontiffs and received from them the dispositions concerning the Latin: res sacrae that Pompilius had established, had them carved on small tables and exposed in the Latin: Forum for all those who would like to look at them"Dionysius of Halicarnassus Ant. Rom. 3, 36, 4
Marcius too emanated his own Latin: lex curiata de imperio.
In the field of public law established the foundations for the Latin: rerum repetitio, laws concerning sea trade and the taxation of the salt yielding ponds (Latin: salinae).
He decided to have king Numa's dispositions concerning the Latin: [[Collegium (ancient Rome)|collegium pointificum]] carved on small tables.
He created the first prison as a measure intended for the suppression of crime.
After defeating the Latins he allowed them to settle down in Rome.[45]
Tarquinius increased the number of senators from two to three hundred or according to other sources by the double. He divided them into Latin: gentes maiores and Latin: gentes minores.
He established the Roman games, doubled the number of the Latin: curiae and introduced differences of dressing for the different classes.
He added two Vestals to the original four and introduced the calendar of twelve months.[46]
Some sources attribute to him the sanctions against the Vestals.[47] [48]
Servius divided once again the territory of Rome into Latin: pagi: four of them were urban (regio Palatina, Suburana, Collina, and Esquilina) and twentysix suburban or rural.
He statuted that the inhabitants were obliged to live in their Latin: pagus and could not move to a different location. This provision was intended for fiscal purposes, as people had to pay taxes in the Latin: pagus they belonged to.
Servius first established the census. To take part in the census citizens were required to pay a fee. The census required citizens to provide an estimate of the value of their properties to enable the government to gather information by which impose taxes proportionally. Citizens were thus divided into five echelons or classes.
He created the markets, established the new festival of the Paganalia and dedicated temples such as those to goddess Fors Fortuna.
In the field of the judiciary he decided that he would only rule on public law cases and left to the Latin: pater familias and the Latin: gentes rulings on private law cases.
After conquering and annexing the territories of the collis Viminalis and Esquilinus he distributed them to landless Romans.
He ruled too that freed slaves could take part in public life and be censed as if they were ordinary free men. Those who were unwilling to go back to their home land should be registered in one of the four tribes he had created.
He had the Latin: curiae approve fifty dispositions concerning crimes and contracts.[49] Finally it is ascribed to Servius the erection of the temple to Diana Nemorensis on the Aventine.[50]
King Tarquinius Superbus abolished the taxation system based on the census and imposed an equal fiscal burden on every citizen.
He made various peace treaties.[51]
In the religious field he adopted the Libri Sibyllini, books by which one could consult the will of gods and had their dispositions observed. He also dedicated new temples and established new cults.
In the field of criminal law he used the arbor infelix, a provision of Tullus Hostilius's. He resorted to paricidal punishments (i.e. the Latin: poena cullei) e.g. in the cases of Marcus Aquilius and Atilius.
He abolished all of Servius Tullius's laws on obligations and contracts.[52]
Some fragments contain laws the attribution of which is uncertain.
One remarkable example is that of a Latin: lex regia that forbids the inhumation of a pregnant woman before delivery since it is believed that so doing would mean killing a life.[53]
At the beginning (i.e. at the time of Romulus) the Latin: leges regiae were unwritten.
They were transmitted orally even if it is not certain that a writing system did not exist. However Romulus's laws were written down only at the time of Numa[54] were written on the bark of lime tree used as paper, according to the testimony of our sources.[56]
Subsequently, they were written on ox skin.[57] This use is attested in the Tarquinian times.[58]
According to another tradition[59] they were written on a wooden table that had been spread upon with plaster (tabula dealbata). In this case the text would be painted instead of being carved.
Whatever the case it is sure they were written on perishable material. This might be the reason why we have been handed down very little of this kind of legislative production.
It must be remembered that the fire caused by the Galli Senones in 390 or 387 BC was another reason of their disappearance.[60]
To make amends for the loss it was necessary to resort to the memory of the Latin: sacerdotes who knew them by heart, or the work of historians and jurists. It is unlikely that such rielaborations were exact text quotations from the Latin: leges regiae as some sources maintain, simply they were reformulations containing some archaic expressions embedded.
There are different sources for the Latin: lex regia. One source is Sextus Pomponius's Enchiridion of Sextus Pomponius, even if it is just a fragment, preserved to us in Justinian's Digesta. This source is surely rich in interpolations, thus not fully reliable.
Another source is Papirius's Ius Papirianum.[61]
Here below is the relevant quotation:[62]
"Thus he (Romulus) proposed to the people some Latin: leges curiatae. Other were proposed by the following kings. All these laws are recorded together in Sextus Papirius's book, who lived at the time of Demaratus of Corinthus's proud son, among the most illustrious men. This book as we have said is called Ius Civile Papirianum".
(Sextus Pomponius Enchiridion par. 2, line 10)
This work should have contained lists of Latin: leges regiae but they have not been handed down to us.The nature and attribution of this work though is disputed. Some scholars think it might be a reworking of the lex Papiria and thus would have not contained the lists, or that the author was not Sextus Papirius but Gaius Papirius, the first Latin: pontifex maximus of the Roman Republic (there should be a lapse of 40–50 years between these two characters, both members of the same patrician Latin: gens), or it might be a reelaboration of the Commentarii Numae.
Livy makes a clear reference to the existence of the Latin: leges regiae relating the work of reconstruction of the laws done by magistrates and the senate at the turbulent times of Marcus Furius Camillus. He also states that some books were not available in public archives but were preserved secretly in those of the pontiffs or even of private people.[63]
Berger's dictionary under the entry 'Latin: Papirius' (with no Latin: [[praenomen]]) states that "he was a Latin: pontifex maximus author of a collection called Ius Papirianum of rules of sacral law generally ascribed to the Latin: Leges Regiae. Existence of such a collection is based on the mention of a commentary thereon written by Granius Flaccus at the time of Caesar or Augustus, entitled De iure Papiriano".[64]
Many other sources however contain relevant material.[65]
There are very few epigraphic sources contemporary to the kings of Rome.
This article is a translation of the article on the same subject on the Italian Wikipedia.The translator while adhering to the principle of making as few alterations as possible has taken the liberty of improving language, correcting obvious mistakes and adding bibliographic information.
In Numa's times Romulus's laws and Numa's himself (the Commentarius Numae and all of the pontificial work of the time that was ascribed to Numa, i.e. the Latin: Libri pontificum),[54]