Download beat his ass motha f-er

Law & Justice: Ancient Rome's
Period 5
The Police
- There was
BEAT HIS ASS MOTHA F- no professional police force
ER
in Rome which is often
recognized as one of the
reasons that the Roman
republic collapsed
- All of the police force was
selected and they were called
Vigils
- There were about 7,500
police constables
Roman Police, Praetorian Guard and
Cohortes Urbanae
- The Roman Police were also night watchmen who dealed with
robbers and other prowlers of the night.
- The police usually dealed with petty crimes because riots and
violent crimes were the business of Praetorian Guard and the
Cohortes urbanae (a counter balance to the Praetorian Guard).
- The Cohortes urbanae dealt with mob work and on rare
ocassion they would attend to battle if nescessary.
- The Praetorian Guard were the general protectors of Rome
and acted as a sort of police force/ national guard but they
gained so much power that they became corrupt
The Vigils as Fire Fighters
Each Vigil was equipped with fire fighting equipment such as:
- The sipho or fire engine was pulled by horses and
consisted of a large double action pump that was partially
submerged in a reservoir of water.
- During the Great Fire of 64 more then 1/3 of Rome burned to
the ground and Emperor Nero helped fight the fires.
Roman Laws And How They
Relate to Modern Laws
By Stephen Devine
and Matt Hardin
Examples of Roman Laws and
Modern Equivilents
Lex Canuleia allows
patricians and
plebeians to
intermarry.
Similar laws in the United States
would include the abolishments
of anti-miscegenation laws
(prohibitions against interracial
marriage).
Lex Gabinia allowed
Pompey special
powers in the
Mediterranean to
fight against pirates.
Similar examples in modern society
include the government's ability
to increase it's own power during
wartime or states of panic. The USA
PATRIOT Act grants the government
more power to violate the privacy of
certain people during the Iraq War.
The Twelve Tablets (451-450)
Earliest attempt by romans to create a
code of law.
Earliest surviving piece of literature
coming from the romans.
TABLE I - Procedure: for courts and trials
TABLE II - Trials, continued.
TABLE III - Debt
TABLE IV - Rights of fathers
(paterfamilias) over the family
TABLE V - Legal guardianship and
inheritance laws
TABLE VI - Acquisition and possession
TABLE VII - Land rights
TABLE VIII - Torts and delicts (Laws of
injury)
TABLE IX - Public law
TABLE X - Sacred law
TABLE XI - Supplement
TABLE XII - Supplement II
Similar to The US's protection on
property, social security, etc.
law used to protect what people
owned and what people were intitled
to.
Roman Law Today
Places like South Africa and
San Marino are still based on
the ius commune, or common
law, also the common basis of
legal practice everywhere. It is
often used by civil law jurists
to refer aspects of the civil
law system's legal principles.
Roman law has had a huge
impact on European legal and
political thought.
Roman law is not used but is still
a manditory study for law
students in civil law jurisdictions.
Roman law in the ancient world
had a unifying influence
throughout medieval and modern
Europe
How Roman Laws Were Passed
Most laws were passed by Our law-making system borrows
assemblies dominated by the heavily from
patrician families, though the
rulings of magistrates were
also important. Later emperors
bypassed these forms and
issued their own decrees.
Heritage of Roman Laws
• Emperor Justinian I issued the Corpus Juris Civilis, a work
on the theory and philosophy of law, between 529 (when the
first edition came out) and 534, when reforms made by
Justinian himself caused a revision.
• Four parts: Codex Justinianus, the Pandectae, the
Instituitiones, and the Novellae.
• After the fall of the Roman empire, these laws were lost until
around 1070 A.D.
Heritage of Roman Laws
•
•
•
•
•
The Parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis
Codex Justinianus
Contained all Emperor's degrees that held legal power.
Solidified Christianity as the state religeon of Rome.
• Pandectae
Consists of legal writings back to the 2ond and 3rd centuries
• Instituitiones
Basically a textbook of Roman law, used as a manual
for jourists
• Novellae
New laws passed after 534.
The Root Of All Roman Laws
Heritage of Roman Laws
• Most western societies
have laws based of of the
Roman codes.
• Roman law was common
in the Middle Ages. These
law systems then evolved
in to modern laws.
• Some parts of Germany
had used Roman law until
as recently as 1900.
Justinian
Roman Courts
• Often done in public at the town's forum
• The Forum Romanum was often the setting for public cases
• It was the responsibility of the victim and the family to
apprehend and prosecute the family
• Augustus allowed the use off his forum for certain trials. The
praefectus urbi heard cases there, which were
responsible for maintaining public order in Rome.
• The praetor urbanis held their cases in the forum near the
temple of Castor
•
Jury
The consul Caepio passed a law in 107 BC putting senators on
jurys ( 2/3 of jury would be senators)
• revoked in 105
• Marcus Druscus fought to regain the senators rights to sit on
jury in criminal trials in 91 BC, which was now the
responsibilty of knights or prominent Roman soldiers.
• He admitted 300 knights to the Senate, so now the jurors
would be senators as well as knights.
•
Typical Roman Trial
• By the second century BC seperate tribunals were set up for criminal trials,
which came to include treason, electoral bribery, embezzlement of state
property, adultery, and murder by violence or poison. In these trials public
officials would sit on elevated tribunals, and the jury would sit on benches
placed in the pavement
• Criminal trials were heard before an appropriate magistrate who gave a ruling
on the case.
• Punishment was based on class. For example some punishments for an
upperclassmen were exile, loss of status, or a private execution, while
some punishments for a lowerclassmen included being beaten, publicly
executed, or used as games for entertainment
• Many trials were held in public. People came to the great speeches and
scandal
• Overall there is little information on the actual court procedure but what is
known is that Romans enjoyed a good show and if the case was something
"scandalous" people would be there to watch.
Lawyers & Clients
• Emporer Claudius was the first to enforce the law which allowed
Roman Advocates to become the first Lawyers.
• Jurisconsults- were the first real lawyers, they were
intellectuals who practiced law as a hobby.
• Eventually they become very involved in their hobby and
discussed law with all those who wished advice.
• This effectively made Rome the first place with law interested
people.
Clients and Lawyers
• Claudius realized that law could be a profession and made
the first professional lawyers.
• The law was then highly regulated and stratified.
• This was then acceclerated under the rule of emporer
hadrian.
• Under Emperor Leo the roman advocates had to produce
testimonials from their teachers in order to gain the job.
• By the sixth century there was a full legal study available to
those who wanted to get involved in law.
• Notaries appeared in the late roman empire and they
became responsible for wills and contracts.
• As new laws were added and practice continued to develope
law became one of the most important things in ancient
rome.
What lawyers actually did
Lawyers would help to represent a client during a trail.
In ancient Rome the lawyers would often be different from how
they were nowadays since the client would often do more
speaking. But the important thing about the roman lawyers was
That they were very percise with details and would often try too
win thier case by winning over the people opinions with their
points.
Jurists in Ancient Rome
• Prudentes, sing. prudens,
or jurisprudentes.
• A jurist is someone who
studies, develops, and
applies the law
professionally.
•
Appius Claudius Caecus
Jurists Continued
• Manius Manilus• Renowed Orator and Jurist.
• He is Cited by Cicero in The
Republic.
• Quintus Mucius Scaveola
• He was Tribune in 106 BC,
Aedile in 104 BC, Consul in
95 BC, Proconsul of Asia in
94 BC, and Pontifex
Maximus in 87 BC.
• He was most known for
being the first to treat the ius
civile generatim.
Jurists Continued
• Servius Sulpicius Rufus
• One of the most influential
jurists in Rome. He was a
student of Mucius.
• He later became the teacher
of Alfenus Varus.
• He held the office of Praetor
in 65 BC and Consul in 51
BC.
• Was a good friend of Cicero,
especially when they were
pitched against each other
on the case of L. Licinius
Morena.
Early Roman Punishments
• The earliset type of Roamn code found is dated back to 455
B.C.
• A commission was formed to make 10 tablets
• Included in these tablets were the eight types of
punixhments that could be used by the Roman Law:
• Fine, fetters or shackles, flogging, retaliation in kind, civil
disgrace, banishment, slavery, rape, or death
• These of course would be used after the defense was tried
for what ever crime they were prosecuted for, the bigger the
crime, the bigger the punishment
• These punishments basically stayed into Roman society
with other amendments added over the years
• In the event that a slave was caught cheating with their
master a witness could kill both.
Roman Army Punishments
• If you were part of the Roman army, whether a commander
or a foot soldier, you could be pulled out of the army or
demoted dow ranks for doing any sort of crime, sometimes it
even meant being bansihed to the area you were occupying
• If you did any crime, the punishment would be brutal due to
the fact you swore an oath to the Senate and Roman people
that you would not and the Roman Military held displince
over any other rule
• If you:
• Deserted the army or did not follow orders you would be
either stoned or beaten to derath by fellow soldiers that you
put in danger with other soldiers watching
Roman Army Punishments (con.)
• If you:
• Committed a misdemanor than you would be fined form
your pay or flogged by fellow soliders
• Treason or theft you would be thrown into a sack of snakes
and thrown into a lake or river
• Held prisoners of war in prisons or camps, and they died
due to your actions of punishments, then you would recieve
the same punishments inflicted on the prisoner(s)
Slave Punishments
• Under Roman Republic Law owners of slaves were allowed
to inflict any punishments onto their slaves, even if the slave
was killed, later in the Roman Empire era
• If the slave committed a capital offense, then that slave was
crucified
• If a slave killed his master or assaulted his house, the slave
and his family would be tortured and killed
• If a slave ran away, they were either branded or broke their
joints and bones so they couldn't run
• Another punsihment for any offense was to put them into
the colosseum or any varity of this sport
Roman Punishments