in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law , or under terms agreed with the appropriate repro

pollo objects and claims him for a Stoic. PageBook=>003 of the law might circumscribe the prerogative of the First C

ency, when he seized power by force, and when he based authority upon law and consent. The Dictatorship of Caesar, revived

consuls. These men ruled, as did the Senate, not in virtue of written law , but through auctoritas; and the name of principe

individuals or in groups, open in the elections and in the courts of law , or masked by secret intrigue. As in its beginnin

izens. There was not even a property-qualification. The letter of the law likewise knew no distinction between rich and poo

very influential with the plebs when tribune in 104, then carrying a law to transfer sacerdotal elections to the People: h

lla had stripped them. They soon repaid Pompeius. Through a tribune’s law the People conferred upon their champion a vast c

ain to save him. 7 Measures were passed to check flagrant abuses. One law , prescribing that provinces be granted, not at on

ssion of Spain for five years more and sought by a trick to annul the law passed by the tribunes of the year conceding to C

Spain, in an anomalous and arbitrary fashion. As a consequence of the law of 52 B.C. the other provinces from Macedonia eas

g as the contrast between the aspirant to autocracy and the forces of law and order. Caesar’s following was heterogeneous i

It meant the lasting domination of one man instead of the rule of the law , the constitution and the Senate; it announced th

nal and monarchic character. Three of the consulars, condemned in the law courts, NotesPage=>061 1 BC 1, 4, 4: ‘ipse

promotion of the most efficient of their partisans without regard for law or precedent, appointing numerous suffect consuls

even his last projects, as yet unpublished were to have the force of law . The need of this was patent and inevitable: many

(1928), 192 ff. Even if June 1st be not the day of the passing of the law (cf. M. A. Levi, Ottaviano Capopartei (1933), 76

wo other measures of a Caesarian and popular character were passed, a law permitting all ex-centurions, whether of the stan

nsibility for the actions of Octavianus. 2 His policy violated public law with what chance of success on a long calculation

PageBook=>149 IN Rome of the Republic, not constrained by any law of libel, the literature of politics was seldom d

ieved that they were a conservative people, devoted to the worship of law and order. The advocates of change therefore appe

o something called mos maiorum. This was not a code of constitutional law , but a vague and emotional concept. It was theref

en more abundantly preserved, it might be discovered that respect for law , tradition and the constitution possessed a singu

ramme for future action. Octavianus had no standing at all before the law , and Brutus was insecure. Antonius was patently i

Cisalpina, namely the plebiscite of June 1st. Explicitly or not, that law may have permitted him to take over the province

gramme, the outlawing of Antonius, violated private as well as public law . As Piso pointed out, perhaps with sharp reminder

rguments invoked by Cicero on January 1st for coolly disregarding the law were by no means adequate or unequivocal (Phil. 5

re by no means adequate or unequivocal (Phil. 5, 7 ff.). Firstly, the law violated Caesar’s Lex de provincia, which fixed t

y the Senate and hence subject to Caesar’s ordinance. Secondly, the law had been passed in defiance of the auspicia: but

he auspicia: but that plea was very weak, for the authority of sacred law had been largely discredited by its partisan and

th Antonius, for Antonius was in effect a public enemy and beyond the law . Cicero himself had always been an advocate of pe

s in return for compromising on his right to Gallia Cisalpina under a law passed by the Roman People to say nothing of cond

l continue the fight against all powers that set themselves above the law . ’6 On receipt of an extract from a letter writ

ishment the assassins of Caesar, a special court was established by a law of the consul Pedius; along with these state crim

requited Caesar’s clemency. 1 The Caesarian leaders had defied public law : they now abolished the private rights of citizen

avianus, exposed to an iron schooling and constrained through form of law and not in the heat of battle to shed the noblest

a temple was to be built to the new deity, Divus Julius; and another law made provision for the cult in the towns of Italy

mmanders of armies and as diplomats. 4 In a free state the study of law and oratory might confer the highest rewards. The

young adventurer. Once again Octavianus lacked standing before the law , for the triumviral powers had come to an end. 6

give up his powers, as he had two years before. 4 Furthermore, if the law and the constitution still mattered, Antonius had

cted? PageBook=>283 that Antonius had abruptly left a court of law in the middle of a speech by Furnius, the most el

untimely moment, the delicate question of his own standing in public law . Like his policy, his powers were a direct contin

virate, even though that despotic office had expired years before: in law the only power to which he could appeal if he wis

reaking off all amicitia. After a prosecution for high treason in the law courts the Senate passed a decree against the off

the dictatorial powers of the Triumvirate, pure usurpation, or act of law at Rome. To translate the term ‘princeps’ Greeks

mperium proconsulare: as proconsul, he was merely the equal in public law of any other proconsul. In fact, his province was

need the new system be described as a military despotism. Before the law , Augustus was not the commander-in-chief of the w

they were diplomats, soldiers, engineers and financiers. The study of law , the art of casuistry and the practice of public

champion of the ‘higher legality’ should find no quarrel with a rigid law of high treason. It is time to turn from words

nts—he claimed to be unique. Romans instructed in a long tradition of law and government did not need to take lessons from

ment. The formulation was easily found—it reposed not in books of the law or abstract speculation, but in the situation its

for himself. 1 Auctoritas denotes the influence that belonged, not by law but by custom of the Roman constitution, to the w

controlled all the armies of the Roman People, in fact though not in law , and provided from his own pocket the bounty for

the military provinces of Illyricum, Macedonia and Africa, in public law merely a matter for the lot, was no less happy an

the sacrosanctity of a tribune for life, in 30 B.C. certain powers in law . No trace hitherto of their employment. 3 It wa

h the ruler shunned the holding of a magistracy, his powers in public law might be described as magisterial, an impression

id Virgil hail the end of fratricidal strife and the restored rule of law . The perverse ingenuity and positive ignorance of

en Agrippa’s power had been accorded status and definition before the law . Agrippa was not, Agrippa never could be, the bro

order was something more than a coalition of profiteers, invoking the law and the constitution to protect their fortunes. S

s soldiers. He defended in person the veteran Scutarius in a court of law ; 3 and he advanced the soldier T. Marius of Urvin

ctice of the revolutionary period seems to have crystallized into the law of the constitution. Sulla the Dictator had proba

nt on steadily encroaching upon the departments of Senate and People, law and magistrates. Electoral disorders were barely

public nobility of birth, military service, distinction in oratory or law , these were the three claims to the consulate. An

claims to the consulate. 2 None of them could prevail alone. Neither law nor oratory would carry a man far, save when a co

f recompense in the reign of Augustus. Eloquence and the study of the law (‘illustres domi artes’) ennobled their adepts.

ice. Augustus at once proceeded to create new patrician families by a law of 30 B.C.8 Among the partisans thus honoured wer

1 Dio 52, 42, 6 (except Sicily, and later, Narbonensis). 2 Caesar’s law about the colony of Urso forbids senators and the

ys: senatus consulta then became common, gradually acquiring force of law . Yet once again, behind the nominal authority and

f the Senate naming Augustus the Father of his Country. 3 Religion, law and literature all came under guidance, from abov

ted as far as was possible. Tiberius became co-regent, in virtue of a law conferring on him powers equal with the Princeps

ey were emboldened to doubt it. 2 More than that, the solid fabric of law and order, built by the untutored sagacity of Rom

nd sentiment. The Roman matron could claim that she needed no written law to guide her, no judge to correct: mi natura de

ppears to have made a beginning. It was abortive: if promulgated, his law was at once withdrawn in the face of protest and

hilosophy studied to excess did not fit a Roman and a senator. 2 Only law and oratory were held to be respectable. But they

as irregular. 3 As in all else, the First Citizen could act without law or title by virtue of his paramount auctoritas. S

tives who had received the Roman citizenship equally Roman before the law . Gades might export dancing-girls or a milliona

eople. Moreover, the Roman citizen of the towns with his tradition of law and government could respect the magistrate and t

led, none the less senators had an opportunity in the Curia or in the law courts to utter sentiments of no little frankness

the scholarly Labeo continued to enjoy the better reputation. 1 The law courts could still provide scope for oratory, amb

spiracy of Murena. 4 Political oratory starved and dwindled in both law courts and Senate; from the assemblies of the Peo

as vulnerable and widely hated. Augustus ordered an inquiry under the law of maiestas. Fabius prosecuted. The offender was

through the conduct of a successful prosecution. Under the Empire the law courts became less political, justice less a matt

cipate, under pretext of public service and distinction in oratory or law , but more and more for the sole reason of birth.

, not to rehabilitate anarchy, the parent of despotism. The rule of law had perished long ago, with might substituted for

human nature. There was no escape. Despite the nominal sovranty of law , one man ruled. 2 This is his comment on Tiberi

; ideals, 14, 504; averse from politics, 13, 94, 359, 363; control of law courts, 13; entry to Senate, 10, 13, 81, 358 ff.;