Lex Caecilia Didia
The lex Caecilia Didia was a law put into effect by the consuls Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos and Titus Didius in the year 98 BC.[1] This law had two provisions. The first was a minimum period between proposing a Roman law and voting on it, and the second was a ban of miscellaneous provisions in a single Roman law. This law was reinforced by the lex Junia Licinia in 62 BC, an umbrella law introduced by Lucius Licinius Murena and Decimus Junius Silanus.[2]
Provisions
The
The second provision of the lex Caecilia Didia forbade leges saturae, "stuffed" laws, which were statutes dealing with heterogeneous subject matters. This meant that in a single Roman bill, there could not be a collection of unrelated measures — what might in modern terms be called omnibus bills.[5] Cicero gave an interpretation of the law in his Oratio de domo sua ("Speech concerning His House") after his return from exile: "What other force, what other meaning, I should like to know, has the Caecilian and Didian law, except this; that the people are not to be forced in consequence of many different things being joined in one complicated bill."[7]
It did not take long for the lex Caecilia Didia to be put into action. Most significantly, in 91 BC the consul
Political background
The lex Caecilia Didia was a direct response to the events of 100 BC and an attempt to reduce hasty legislation passed in the
Bibliography
- Broughton, T. Robert S.The Magistrates of the Roman Republic. Ed. Phillip H. Delacy. Vol II. New York: The American Philological Association, 1952. pp. 4.
- ^ Cicero, Philippics 5.8, Pro Sextio 64, In Vatinium 14, Ad Atticum 2.9.1 and 4.16.5; Bobbio Scholiast 140 (Stangl).
- ^ Hildebrandt, P. Scholia In Ciceronis Orationes Bobiensia. Stuttgart, Germany: B. G. Teubner, 1971. pp. 106.
- ^ Caecilia est autem et Didia, quae iubebant in promulgandis legibus trinundium tempus observari.
- ^ a b Berger, Adolf. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol II, No. 43, 1953. pp. 548, 546.
- ^ Lintott, A. W. Trinvndinvm. The Classical Quarterly Vol 15, No 2, Nov. 1965. pp. 281-285.
- ^ Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Oratio de Domo Sua. 53.
- ^ Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Oratio de Domo Sua. 41
- ^ e.g. Appian, Bellum Civile, 1.35–7; Velleius Paterculus, History of Rome, 2.13–15; Livy, 71
- ^ Abbot, Frank Frost. A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. Boston: Ginn, 1901. pp. 100.
See also
- Roman Law
- List of Roman laws