The Roman assemblies from their origin to the end of the RepublicBotsford, George Willis
History
The Roman assemblies from their origin to the end of the Republic
Botsford, George Willis
Constitutional law -- Rome; Rome -- Politics and government
In their effort to gain control of the more important judicial business
the people made slower progress. In all probability it was not till after
the Publilian legislation that the centuriate and tribal assemblies
began regularly to exercise the function of appellate courts—a right
established long before by legislation[1891] and confirmed for the
centuries by the Valerian law of appeal in 300.[1892] The creation
of special judicial commissions—quaestiones extraordinariae—belonged
originally to the senate; and the establishment of such a court de caede
through a plebiscite in 414, if historical, was merely the execution
of a senatus consultum.[1893] The task of trying and condemning the
matrons for poisoning in 331 must have fallen to such a quaestio
extraordinaria not expressly mentioned. Whether it was instituted by the
senate or the tribes cannot be known.[1894] The special quaestio, too,
concerning conspiracy, at first under dictatorial and afterward under
consular presidency, seems to have been instituted solely by a senatus
consultum.[1895] The Flavian rogation of 323 for punishing the Tusculans
for having given aid and encouragement to the enemies of Rome[1896] may
have aimed to create a special court for the purpose, or it may have been
an attempt to dispense justice by means of legislation.[1897] However
that may be, it was rejected by all the tribes but one. The Satricans,
who revolted to the Samnites after the Caudine disaster and were
conquered in 319, were punished by the senate acting as a special court
on the authority of the Antistian plebiscite.[1898]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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