Legislation, Politics, and Social Change in the Early Second Century bce

Abstract

Abstract This chapter reconsiders the increasingly important role conferred upon legislation at the end of the Republic. After a general account of this legislation, it focuses on legislation regarding private law. From a quantitative point of view, there was indeed a significant increase in the number of legislative measures; the second century marks the beginning of this increase in the number of laws, and legislative activity began to grow rather strongly, peaking with the Gracchan legislation. The second century also displays an increase in the use of plebiscites. The fact that the tribunician legislation is so well represented can only accentuate the idea that, even before the Gracchi, it occupied a special place in the first half of the second century. This quantitative presentation is then combined with a more qualitative approach, especially focusing on legislation on private law. A significant number of such measures are suddenly documented in our sources in the second century. The chapter first deals with the lex Laetoria. This law is then analyzed in parallel with the lex Atilia and the leges Furia and Voconia. The lex Atilia organized a new form of guardianship for impuberes, whereas the leges Furia and Voconia regulated bequests, donations, and inheritance. Barely ten years later, the lex Vilia Annalis established the cursus honorum for the first time by setting minimum legal ages. These measures appear to form a fairly coherent pattern, which aims at framing a whole series of practices that were previously rather free (or dependant on mos).

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