Laws attributed to the ancient Roman kings
The ('royal laws') were early Roman laws which classical historians such as Plutarch thought had been introduced by the semilegendary kings of Rome.
Though sometimes questioned, scholars of the modern era generally have accepted that the laws or the ultimate sources for them originated very early in Roman history, even as early as the period of the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC). In the 20th century, previously unrecognized fragments quoted by ancient writers were identified as "leges regiae" and attributed or reattributed to the various kings.
The king during Rome's Regal period was a political, military, religious, and judicial chief of the community, though his actual duties might be delegated and entrusted to his many auxiliaries.
Historical overview.
According to Sextus Pomponius, Romulus organized the tribes of Rome into thirty units called "", and he then administered the affairs of the state on the basis of the opinion of the Curiate Assembly. This event is at the origin of .
Romulus is also credited with creating another institution involved in the emanation of - the council of the elders or Senate of the Roman Kingdom.
After an interregnum Numa Pompilius succeeded to Romulus: as it will happen for each of his successors an interrex held the government til the election of the new king. Numa emanated a number of important . To him was attributed the compilation of the book Commentari regi.
A great innovation of his concerned criminal law on voluntary and non voluntary crimes.
Some scholars argue on lexical grounds that in this period some showed a Sabine influence.
Successor Tullus Hostilius is traditionally called the "warrior king". He celebrated the solemn sacrifices using the work by Numa Commentari Numae. He created the officials named who were a sacerdotal .
After him Ancus Marcius had sacral norms from Numa's work transcribed and made public. He established the and imprisonment.
The last three kings were Etruscans according to tradition. Their cultural heritage influenced the leges regiae of this period.
Tarquinius Priscus emanated many laws that covered different areas: he doubled the number of the senators and of the Vestals.
Servius Tullius then used Numa's work for the election of the consuls.
Moreover, he established the census and the timocratic constitution that will be the basis for the future development of the republican institutions.
During the reign of Tarquinius Superbus there are to be mentioned repressive laws, international treaties and the adoption of the Libri Sibyllini.
The end of the kingdom is seen by some scholars as a slow, gradual process, while traditionally it was the abrupt expulsion of the king. This event brought about the abrogation of the . However certainly not of all of them as e.g. the auspicium and Servius Tullius's reform of the eighteen survived.
With the advent of the Roman Republic the need was felt for an official figure who could perform the sacred rites or make decisions through , an institution governed by the . In short a figure who could take over the functions previously discharged by the .
Thus the office of was created. It lasted until 390 AD when emperor Theodosius I abolished it. His power was strictly limited to the sphere of the . Scholars point out that when Pomponius in his Enchiridion states that the emanation of laws by the king took place on the deliberation of the he refers to this period, i.e. a time when the power of the king was lessened.
The fire caused by the Gauls of king Brennus brought about the loss of the written records of . The work of rewriting carried out by the was essential. Besides it is believed that Sextus Papirius's collection had survived, and was available for consultation at the times of Pomponius.
Pomponius maintains that all the were abolished and they indeed disappeared in the following times.
Nonetheless scholars' research proves that some laws were still in use, e.g. Servius Tullius's norm of the eighteen . Livy himself writes that after the fire not only were the laws of the XII Tables collected by the and the senate but also laws of the kings, some of which were made public while some other were kept secret by the .
Finally Justinian's compilation mentions the .
Function of the lex regia in Roman society.
Not only were the laws of the king an instrument of his power, they also answered the need of a society that was made up by different tribes to have certain law, a as is stated by Pomponius.
Moreover, at that time the king played the role of supreme judge and guarantor of the , the peace between the community and the gods. This aim was to be achieved by the juridical instrument of the , the sacral role of the king being in fact that of a supreme judge.
The performed the function of composing controversies when the could not solve them. Moreover, it bestowed the king a way of solving religious and military issues, either directly or by means of some ausiliary as the magister populi of the Tarquinian times.
While on one hand the created a new law different from the on the other hand they transformed some of them into laws.
It is believed that in the early times of the republic they were used as a mnemonic tool and a framework by the in the drafting of the XII Tables. Besides they acted as an intermediary stage between the and the XII Tables, answering the requirements of a society that was no longer satisfied with the revelations of the .
Influences present in the Lex Regia.
Influences vary according to times and are mostly apparent in text edition. At the beginning a clear Greek influence is detectable. Tradition wants that Romulus studied at Gabii, moreover the Greek element in original Roman culture is certain. Trading and later political relationships are attested during the 8th century.
Another influence is the Sabine one that is reflected in the use of ox skin as a support for writing. Besides it is detectable in the character of the laws themselves as in the cases of the ones emanated by Servius Tullius, Numa Pompilius and even Romulus, as he reigned together with Titus Tatius.
Etruscan influences become apparent in the period of Etruscan kings and are of political, economic and juridical nature: an example is the attitude of the king towards the , whose function was weakened by Etruscan kings.
Legislative and executive aspects of the Lex Regia.
Fragments found in Pomponius and in other authors on the subject show the was a deliberation of both the curiae and the senate which were approved by the with the support of the pontiff.
Many scholars though opine Pomponius refers to the republican period and the as he had few sources for the archaic period. They do not trust the accuracy of these sources: for one thing they believe Pomponius's account was influenced by the model of voting method of the assemblies of the people of the republic (, ) in which the voting of the law proposed by a was voted by groupings named 'units'. Votes were not counted by head but by a majority within each single unit. The unit system had been established by king Servius Tullius: a unit could be made up by citizens who were not owners of any assets or the first class of cavalry.
Moreover, on the grounds of the powers the king held at the time of the regal period they think it was more probable that he decided without the of the but only by the support of the . and by deliberation of the senate. Some speculate that the had only a function of public participation. The were promulgated publicly at the presence of the ().
Other sources state that on some days the king held a comitial assembly similar to those of the republican period. This is attested by the words " present on the first Roman calendar.
On the above grounds scholars opine that the had no voting right but only that of being present to the act of the promulgation as a witness and of showing their attitude on the matter by means of acclamation or of loud dissent.
On some occasions though the king allowed the intervention of the on decisions in trials. Only one case is recorded, that of Publius Horatius. It was so until the repressive action in criminal matters became subject to the exclusive decision of the assembly of the people.
Some sources suggest that Servius Tullius set aside the and had his decisions voted by militarily arranged . First he had the first class made up of eighty and the 18 of the vote. If they all agreed the law was passed, if they did not then the following five classes in order of decreasing census were in turn asked to vote, down to the lowest one, which was made up of citizens with no means and exempted from military service. This process ended when the number of ninety-seven in favour was reached.
Since the on one hand was meant to create a and on the other stemmed from the , the means to enforce it were in most instances sanctions of religious, sacral nature, (a or a ).
However these were not the only sanctions in use: other included the confiscation of property and capital punishment, that was not administered on any sacral principle but on that of the retribution of an offense with an equal punishment.
On the basis of the fragmentary condition of our information, it can be said that they concerned public, sacral, succession, procedural, agricultural, family, criminal matters as well as contract and obligations, although seldom they concerned the private sphere that was left mostly to the and the .
A partial detailed exposition follows here below.
Romulus.
Romulus's were in part made in common with Titus Tatius.
Many concern public law. These include the union of the different tribes involved in the founding of Rome and the institution of the three legal tribes named after their three chiefs Romulus, Titus Tatius and Lucumo, the , and respectively. These were in turn divided into ten each.
According to our sources they had the function of electing the magistrates, passing laws and examining questions concerning war if the rex so requested.
Another important act was the institution of the Roman Senate. It was formed by one hundred patricians. Romulus granted it the power of decision on the laws he proposed on a majority basis.
He statuted that Roman citizens should be warriors too, able to till the land and to wage war. He created the military unit known as and his personal guard named the .
He reserved to himself decisions concerning sacred rites and sacrifices to gods, by the institution of sixty devoted to officiate them. In relation to this purpose he created the and the . These people were taken from each . He created the , a sacred brotherhood devoted to agricultural rites of propitiation, the three i.e., the three , the , the and the each devoted to the cult of a major deity.
He created the first Roman calendar year of 304 days divided into ten months: six of thirty days and four of thirty-one.
He established the ritual for the dedication of temples.
His provisions concerning private law were: succession of the wife in of the husband. If the husband dies first then the wife inherits his properties, in case there are children only by half.
He decided the jurisdiction of the as a guarantor of the . He also reserved to himself the right of judging most serious crimes while leaving other to the senate.
He decided to divide the land among the curiae, allotting it in part to agriculture and in part to the building temples or other sacred purposes.
He established that parents were obliged to nurture their children, at least the first () and were not allowed to kill them if they were under age three. An exception was the case that the child was a (seriously handicapped): in this case though the procedure required that the child were shown to five neighbours who testified its condition. If this procedure was not observed the punishment was the confiscation of half of the property or other sanctions.
He established the power of and authority of the , the on illegal children () that included the right to kill them.
In matrimonial law, he established the practice of marriage, in which the wife comes into the "hand" of the husband; that