The Criminal Jurisdiction of Governors

Abstract

I will begin this investigation by summarising Mommsen's views on the powers of governors, as I understand them. According to Mommsen, the task of the Republican governor was to administer civil justice and to maintain the obedience of subjects and slaves. He was as little a criminal judge as the Roman praetor, whose title he originally bore. His capacity to employ coercitio against non-citizens (and citizens also, until the appeal laws and the Sempronian law were issued) was derived from his military imperium and was quite distinct from criminal jurisdiction. Criminal justice was dispensed for aliens by the local communities and for Roman citizens in the provinces by the courts in Rome. With the Empire came two innovations (Mommsen thought). First, local autonomy was restricted. Subject cities lost to the governor their prerogative of imposing serious penalties; even Roman municipia surrendered much of their criminal jurisdiction. Secondly, military imperium, already checked by Republican laws (above), was further limited by the Augustan law on public violence. This development, implying in itself that the governor had become a fully-fledged criminal judge, ensured that capital jurisdiction over citizens was concentrated, as before, in Rome.

Cite this

Peter Garnsey (1968). The Criminal Jurisdiction of Governors. The Journal of Roman Studies. https://doi.org/10.2307/299694

@article{peter1968the,
  title  = {The Criminal Jurisdiction of Governors},
  author = {Garnsey, Peter},
  year   = {1968},
  journal = {The Journal of Roman Studies},
  doi    = {10.2307/299694}
}

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