Abrogatio

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In Roman law, abrogatio is in general an annulment of a law or legal procedure.

Roman law Legal system of ancient Rome and later the Roman Empire

Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables, to the Corpus Juris Civilis ordered by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. Roman law forms the basic framework for civil law, the most widely used legal system today, and the terms are sometimes used synonymously. The historical importance of Roman law is reflected by the continued use of Latin legal terminology in many legal systems influenced by it, including common law.

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Abrogatio or annulment of a citizen's rights was a necessary preliminary before he was sent into exile. [1]

Roman citizenship

Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance.

Abrogatio legis

Abrogatio legis was the total repeal of a law. For example, the Lex Canuleia was an abrogation of the earlier law of the Twelve Tables that prohibited marriage between a patrician and a plebeian. A partial repeal of a law was either derogatio or exrogatio legis. [2] Originally, the comitia centuriata ("centuriate assembly") had to abrogate a law. [3] When Sulla became dictator, all the laws passed by his opponents (the populares ) were abrogated. [4]

The lex Canuleia, or lex de conubio patrum et plebis, was a law of the Roman Republic, passed in the year 445 BC, restoring the right of conubium between patricians and plebeians.

Twelve Tables statute

The Law of the Twelve Tables was the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws.

The patricians were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the early Republic, but its relevance waned after the Conflict of the Orders, and by the time of the late Republic and Empire, membership in the patriciate was of only nominal significance.

Abrogatio imperii

Abrogatio imperii was the annulment of a magistrate's imperium (power or right to command). It was essentially the removal of a magistrate from office, and was "extremely rare". [5] Originally, the abrogatio imperii would have required the tribal assembly to pass a plebiscite, as was the case when a magistrate's imperium was extended past his elected term (prorogatio). [6] Abrogatio was a preliminary step to prosecuting a magistrate, who was immune to prosecution during his term in office, and was usually initiated by a tribune of the plebs.

Roman magistrate elected official in Ancient Rome

The Roman magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome.


In ancient Rome, Imperium was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from auctoritas and potestas, different and generally inferior types of power in the Roman Republic and Empire. One's imperium could be over a specific military unit, or it could be over a province or territory. Individuals given such power were referred to as curule magistrates or promagistrates. These included the curule aedile, the praetor, the consul, the magister equitum, and the dictator. In a general sense, imperium was the scope of someone's power, and could include anything, such as public office, commerce, political influence, or wealth.

Tribal Assembly assembly of the Roman Republic

The Tribal Assembly was an assembly consisting of all Roman citizens convened by tribes (tribus).

Livy records three abrogationes from 217 to 204 BC, during the Second Punic War. Each case was brought by a tribune against a magistrate whose strategy in the field had met with objections at Rome, even though no military defeats or setbacks resulted. Personal rivalries seem to have among the motives. In 217, the tribune Marcus Metilius threatened to abrogate the command of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, due to the stalling tactics which earned him the nickname Cunctator ("the Delayer"). Political resistance from the senate presumably caused Metilius to back down. In 209, the tribune Publicius Bibulus proposed the abrogation of the command held by Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who had not led his troops out even though Hannibal was at the time moving freely about Italy. In 204, the elderly Fabius Maximus urged the tribunes to abrogate the command of Scipio on the ostensible grounds that he had left his assigned province of Sicily without authorization from the senate; in actuality, his intention seems to have been to take advantage of any damage to Scipio's reputation from his association with the disreputable Pleminius, with the goal of thwarting Scipio's overall strategy of invading Africa in order to lure Hannibal out of Italy. None of these adrogationes succeeded. [7]

Livy Roman historian

Titus Livius – simply rendered as Livy in English – was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people – Ab Urbe Condita Libri – covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional foundation in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own lifetime. He was on familiar terms with members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and even in friendship with Augustus, whose young grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius, he exhorted to take up the writing of history.

Second Punic War second war between the Roman Republic and Carthage, fought between 218 and 201 BCE

The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and by the Romans the War Against Hannibal, was the second of three wars between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of Greek polities and Numidian and Iberian forces on both sides. It was one of the deadliest human conflicts of ancient times. Fought across the entire Western Mediterranean region for 17 years and regarded by ancient historians as the greatest war in history, it was waged with unparalleled resources, skill, and hatred. It saw hundreds of thousands killed, some of the most lethal battles in military history, the destruction of cities, and massacres and enslavements of civilian populations and prisoners of war by both sides.

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus politician and soldier

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, surnamed Cunctator, was a Roman statesman and general of the third century BC. He was consul five times and was appointed dictator in 221 and 217 BC. He was censor in 230 BC. His agnomen, Cunctator, usually translated as "the delayer", refers to the strategy that he employed against Hannibal's forces during the Second Punic War. Facing an outstanding commander with superior numbers, he pursued a then-novel strategy of targeting the enemy's supply lines, and accepting only smaller engagements on favourable ground, rather than risking his entire army on direct confrontation with Hannibal himself. As a result, he is regarded as the originator of many tactics used in guerrilla warfare.

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References

  1. ↑ Jo-Marie Claassen, "Exile, Roman," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 146.
  2. ↑ A. Arthur Schilling, Roman Law: Mechanisms of Development (Mouton, 1978), p. 250, citing Cicero, De re publica 2.37.63
  3. ↑ George Mousourakis, The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law (Ashgate, 2003), p. 108.
  4. ↑ Mousourakis, The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law, p. 175.
  5. ↑ Karl Loewenstein, The Governance of Rome (Martinus Nijhoff, 1973), p. 73, note 41.
  6. ↑ Mousourakis, The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law, p. 81.
  7. ↑ Rachel Feig Vishnia, State Society and Popular Leaders in Mid-Republican Rome 241-167 B.C. (Routledge, 1996), pp. 82–85, citing Livy 22.25.10 on Fabius Maximus; Livy 27.21.21.4 and 22.10–11 and Plutarch, Marcellus 27 on Claudius Marcellus; and Livy 22.25.10 on Scipio.
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