 | This article is largely based on an article in the out-of-copyright Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, which was produced in 1911.(August 2022) |
The law of majestas, or lex maiestatis, encompasses several ancient Roman laws (leges maiestatis) throughout the Republican and Imperial periods dealing with crimes against the Roman people, state, or Emperor.
In Roman law, the offences originally falling under the head of treason were almost exclusively those committed in military service. The very name perduellio, the name of the crime in the older Roman law, is evidence of this. Perduelles were, strictly, public enemies who bore arms against the state; and traitors were regarded as having no more rights than public enemies. The Twelve Tables made it punishable with death to communicate with the enemy or to betray a citizen to the enemy. Other kinds of perduellio were punished by "interdiction of fire and water" (aquae et ignis interdictio), in other words, banishment. The crime was tried before a special tribunal (quaestio) by two officials (duumviri perduellionis), which was perhaps the earliest permanent criminal court existing at Rome. [1]
At a later period, the name of perduellio gave place to that of laesa maiestas, deminuta or minuta maiestas, or simply maiestas. The lex Iulia maiestatis, to which the date of 48 B.C. has been conjecturally assigned, continued to be the basis of the Roman law of treason until the latest period of the empire. The original text of the law appears to have still dealt with what were chiefly military offences, such as sending letters or messages to the enemy, giving up a standard or fortress, and desertion. [1]
With the Empire, the law of treason was greatly expanded in scope, mainly in the reign of Tiberius, and led to the rise of a class of professional informers, called delatores . The concept of the emperor as divine had much to do with this. It became a maxim that treason was next to sacrilege in gravity. [1]
The law as it existed in the time of Justinian is contained chiefly in the titles of the Digest and Codex Ad legem Iuliam maiestatis. The definition given in the Digest (taken from Ulpian) is this: ''maiestatis crimen illud est quod adversus populum Romanum vel adversus securitatem eius committitur." ("The crime of majestas is that which is committed against the Roman people or against their safety.") Of treasons other than military offences, some of the more noticeable were the raising of an army or levying war without the command of the emperor, the questioning of the emperor's choice of a successor, the murder of (or conspiracy to murder) hostages or certain magistrates of high rank, the occupation of public places, the meeting within the city of persons hostile to the state with weapons or stones, incitement to sedition or administration of unlawful oaths, release of prisoners justly confined, falsification of public documents, and failure of a provincial governor to quit his province at the expiration of his office or to deliver his army to his successor. [1]
The intention (voluntas) was punishable as much as an overt act (effectus). "Principes instar deorum esse" ("Emperors are as gods") are the words of Tacitus. This crime was called laesa maiestas divina in later law. It was not treason to repair a statue of the emperor which had decayed from age, to hit such a statue with a stone thrown by chance, to melt down such a statue if unconsecrated, to use mere verbal insults against the emperor, to fail in keeping an oath sworn by the emperor or to decide a case contrary to an imperial constitution. [1]
Treason was one of the publica judicia, i.e. one of those crimes in which any citizen was entitled to prosecute. The law deprived the accused in a charge of treason of his ordinary remedy for malicious prosecution, and also took from him the privilege (which those accused of other crimes generally possessed) of immunity from accusation by women or infamous persons, from liability to be put to the torture, and from having his slaves tortured to make them testify against him. [1]
The punishment from the time of Tiberius was death (usually by beheading) and confiscation of property, coupled with complete civil disability. A traitor could not make a will or a gift or emancipate a slave. Even the death of the accused, if guilty of treason of the gravest kind, such as levying war against the state, did not extinguish the charge, but the memory of the deceased became infamous, and his property was forfeited as though he had been convicted in his lifetime. [1]
Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known by his nickname Caligula, was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 to 41. The son of the popular Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Agrippina the Elder, Caligula was born into the first ruling family of the Roman Empire, conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Germanicus' uncle and adoptive father, Tiberius, succeeded Augustus as emperor of Rome in AD 14.
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state. A person who commits treason is known in law as a traitor.
Lucius Aelius Sejanus, commonly known as Sejanus, was a Roman soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. An equestrian by birth, Sejanus rose to power as prefect of the Roman imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, of which he was commander from AD 14 until his execution for treason in AD 31.
Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, was a Roman statesman during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. He served as consul in 7 BC, after which he was appointed governor of Hispania and consul of Africa. He belonged to one of Rome's most distinguished senatorial families, whose members included Calpurnia, third wife of Julius Caesar.
Delator is Latin for a denouncer, one who indicates to a court another as having committed a punishable deed.
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus was a Roman populist and tribune. He is most notable for introducing a series of legislative reforms, alongside his associate Gaius Servilius Glaucia and with the consent of Gaius Marius, during the last years of the second century BC. Senatorial opposition to these laws eventually led to an internal crisis, the declaration of the senatus consultum ultimum, and the deaths of Saturninus, Glaucia, and their followers in 100 BC.
Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, established authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel. A seditionist is one who engages in or promotes the interest of sedition.
Proscription is, in current usage, a 'decree of condemnation to death or banishment' and can be used in a political context to refer to state-approved murder or banishment. The term originated in Ancient Rome, where it included public identification and official condemnation of declared enemies of the state and it often involved confiscation of property.
Under the law of the United Kingdom, high treason is the crime of disloyalty to the Crown. Offences constituting high treason include plotting the murder of the sovereign; committing adultery with the sovereign's consort, with the sovereign's eldest unmarried daughter, or with the wife of the heir to the throne; levying war against the sovereign and adhering to the sovereign's enemies, giving them aid or comfort; and attempting to undermine the lawfully established line of succession. Several other crimes have historically been categorised as high treason, including counterfeiting money and being a Catholic priest.
Drusus Julius Caesar, was the son of Emperor Tiberius, and heir to the Roman Empire following the death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in AD 19.
Mamercus Aemilius Scaurus was a Roman rhetorician, poet and senator. Tacitus writes that Scaurus was "a man of distinguished rank and ability as an advocate, but of infamous life." He was suffect consul from July to the end of the year AD 21, with Gnaeus Tremellius as his colleague.
Majesty is used as a manner of address by many monarchs, usually kings or queens. Where used, the style outranks the style of (Imperial/Royal) Highness, but is inferior to the style of Imperial Majesty. It has cognates in many other languages, especially of Europe.
Marcus Scribonius Libo Drusus was a Roman accused of treason against the emperor Tiberius.
Australian sedition law was an area of the criminal law of Australia relating to the crime of sedition.
In the early days of Ancient Rome, perduellio was the term for the capital offense of high treason. It was set down plainly in the Law of the Twelve Tables as follows:
The Law of the Twelve Tables orders that he who has stirred up an enemy or who has handed over a citizen to the enemy is to be punished capitally..
Herennius Senecio was among the Stoic Opposition to the emperor Domitian, under whose rule he was executed. He was from Baetica in Roman Spain. He was the author of a laudatory biography of the Stoic martyr Helvidius Priscus.
The concept of treason can be dated back to the early Roman republic, but was defined by nebulous criteria. Frederic William Maitland, author of The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, has said that "treason is a crime [with] a vague circumference and more than one center." Early French and Anglo-Saxon laws for the prosecution of persons deemed traitorous were inspired by, and in some cases, directly pulled from, late Roman and Germanic conceptions of the crime. It would be the common laws of this time period which would most directly influence those customary of King Arthur's court — assuming its existence is founded in more than the legends and fables of medieval romances.
The gens Grania was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Although none of them ever obtained the consulship, the family was of "senatorial rank", and was well known from the latter half of the second century BC. In Imperial times, a number of them became distinguished in military and provincial service.
The lex Appuleia de maiestate was a Roman law introduced by Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, passed during one of his two tribunates, either 103 BC or 100 BC. The exact provisions are unknown, but it attempted to protect the sovereignty of the Roman people as represented by the tribunate. It apparently punished incompetent military commanders.
Gaius Anicius Cerialis was a Roman senator who was active during the Principate. He was suffect consul in the second half of the year 65 as the colleague of Gaius Pomponius Pius.
