Roman Public LifeGreenidge, A. H. J. (Abel Hendy Jones)
History
Roman Public Life
Greenidge, A. H. J. (Abel Hendy Jones)
Constitutional history -- Rome; Rome -- Politics and government
_Coercitio_ implies summary jurisdiction; and the infliction of fines
beyond a certain limit, scourging, or death subjected a magistrate to
the _provocatio_, and therefore made him a partner in a trial before
a popular assembly. Hence the judicial power of the tribune, also a
necessary consequence of his power of veto. Undoubtedly when the office
was created this consequence was not foreseen. When it was found to be
a necessary accompaniment of the tribunician power, tradition tells us
that it was questioned by the Patricians. The historically worthless but
typical trial of C. Marcius Coriolanus in 491 B.C. elicited a protest
that the _jus_ of the tribunes extended only to Plebeians.[366] The
protest was idle, for the _jus auxilii_ could not exist without the
_jus poenae_ against its violators. The violation of plebeian rights
which was thus met by tribunician coercion and jurisdiction, was always
an infringement of the safety or dignity of the tribune himself. Even
the infliction of wrong on an individual through the violation of the
tribune’s decree was a wrong done to the Plebs through him; it was not
held to affect the rest of the community; hence the not unnatural belief
of our annalists that, when the tribune pronounced a sentence against
which there was an appeal, he brought the matter before the assembly of
the Plebs.
This right of reference implies the power known as the _jus agendi cum
plebe_. It was a power that could not have been contemplated on the
establishment of the tribunate, but it proved a necessary consequence of
the _auxilium_. Its acquirement meant a new infringement of the rights of
patrician magistrates; for the summoning of the Plebs meant the calling
away of a large portion of the Populus from the consuls. Two summonses of
two assemblies containing the same individuals by different magistrates
meant an inevitable conflict of authority, and the tribunician right
of transacting business with the Plebs could not be secured but by a
definite guarantee against consular interference. This guarantee was
given, tradition says, by a resolution of the Plebs itself, passed in
492 B.C., two years after the institution of the tribunate, under the
presidency of the tribune Sp. Icilius.[367] The date is probably too
early, and the resolution must have been subsequently ratified by a _lex_
of the centuries. It enacted that when the tribune addressed the Plebs no
one should speak against or interrupt him; that the tribune should fine
the offender and demand securities. If securities were not forthcoming,
the offender should be punished with death and his property confiscated
to the gods. If the fine were disputed the judgment should rest with
the people. Whether by “people” here was meant Populus or Plebs, it was
doubtless on this law that the plebeian assembly based its jurisdiction
in the case of injury or insult being offered to its magistrate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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