A libellis
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The imperial Libell Chancellery ( a libellis ) had been an institution in the Roman Empire since the 1st century , whose primary task was to receive not only general concerns and petitions ( libelli ) but also the legal inquiries, applications and complaints from private individuals, in order to evaluate them Decision to feed. The petitioner did not have to be in possession of Roman citizenship , so that a foreigner ( peregrinus ) was also able to submit his request.
The agency's staff consisted of the head of the office, other lawyers, clerks and messengers. The official inquiries of state officials and other public bodies were processed in a separate office ( from epistulis ) and answered with a separate letter ( epistula ).
The emperor as addressees of private petitions were on the one mostly strives to counteract the appearance of arbitrarily taken provisions and committed to another, unintended legal consequences in later similar cases avoided at all costs. In a court case, the judge was fundamentally bound by the documented legal opinions of the emperors, which later flowed into the digest . Here the rulers were dependent on the advice of legally trained assistants. The case processing following a petition and the expert legal reports supported the regents in their decisions and relieved them in their day-to-day government work. The professional work of the mostly highly qualified lawyers in the Imperial Libell Chancellery ensured that the population felt legal security. The emperors also benefited from this effect due to their authority.
From around the middle of the 4th century, the institution increasingly lost its importance and reputation. Because of the increasing and rampant corruption among the clerks, who were no longer in direct contact with the emperor after an organizational reform, the now often purchased decrees, which were still issued in the name of the rulers, were no longer trusted.
Procedure
The applicant submitted the complaint, legal inquiry or petition ( libellus ) in his own name or on behalf of an interest group personally to the emperor, who regularly held audiences for this purpose in Rome and while traveling, or to one of his authorized representatives. If the subject of the submission was complicated and not legally reliable on site, a legal assessment of the matter was carried out either by the emperor with his first dragonfly secretary or by him independently. The case to be dealt with was discussed and decided, if necessary, with the involvement of other expert lawyers. The emperor, who always had the decision-making authority regardless of the legal opinion of his legal scholars, was open to the arguments of his lawyers depending on their education and attitude and often followed their legal opinions. Ultimately, however, the advisors were always obliged, because they were absolutely obliged to the imperial will to put its orders in legal statements.
The legally binding decisions of the emperor and his lawyers resulted from these proceedings. The latter were, without exception, dependent on the regent's final approval. The imperial decision , which was signed by the emperor in a marginal note with rescripsi and provided with any additions, was made known to the addressee on his incoming letter as a so-called subscripto . The document containing the applicant's personal data, such as full name and social status, was posted in a public building at the place of the audience in order to make the decreed matter accessible to everyone. In Rome in the 2nd century it was the vestibule of the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill . In the 3rd century, the answers to the questions answered were hung and archived in the porticus thermarum Traianarum , a hall adjacent to the municipal prefect's office building, near the Trajan Baths . Likewise, the decisions made spontaneously on site at the audience were recorded by the dragonfly secretary or a clerk and published with the signature and any additional comments by the emperor.
Imperial dragonfly secretary
In the early days of the Principate , there was no recognizable organized institution that would have been entrusted with the receipt and processing of civil submissions. The case of a petition has been handed down under Augustus . This commissioned the city prefect ( praefectus urbi ), in whose local area of responsibility the request was settled, to deal with it. At Tiberius , a freedman can be identified who, as acceptor a subscriptionibus, had to accept the petitions addressed to the emperor.
A libellis
A proper dragonfly chancellery was set up under Claudius . The office was now headed by an imperial freedman as the official a libellis . The trunk line was then generally occupied by people from this position. Quite a few of these legal experts, such as Polybius or Callistus , became very wealthy and influential as a result, the latter particularly through abuse of office. An exception to the rule has come down to us under Vitellius . Here a military person from the knightly class was entrusted with the post, although he was also charged with the handling of other administrative tasks.
After an organizational reform under Hadrian , the administration management was generally appointed with people from the knighthood. Their annual salary was 200,000 sesterces . Until the emperor Septimius Severus , the office management was entrusted with the management of another department , except under the government of Marcus Aurelius , such as the management of the Imperial Court ( a cognitionibus ) under Commodus or that of the appraisal of assets ( a censibus ) under Antoninus Pius .
Septimius Severus relieved the management of the Libell Chancellery from the additional tasks and hired highly qualified lawyers to the staff of the authority. The salary of the head of the office was increased to 300,000 sesterces. Up to Diocletian , the imperial Libell Chancellery was characterized by a professional administration and management, which was for the most part manned by the most well-known lawyers in Roman legal history, such as Papinian and Ulpian . After this activity, they were often used as prefects . The rise of former dragonfly secretaries to the rank of consular is also documented.
Magister (scrinii) libellorum
From around the middle of the 3rd century, probably since Gordian III. the head of the office led the rank of magister libellorum and from the 5th century the official title of magister scrinii libellorum . The title a libellis now designated the subordinate employees of the authority.
Repeatedly, and then finally remaining with the Libell Secretary , the magister libellorum took over the additional management of the Imperial Court before the beginning of the 4th century, possibly since Constantine . This task now appears to have been primarily carried out, since it is mentioned in the first place in the Notitia dignitatum .
At the beginning of the 5th century, the writings of the Libell secretaries were received and checked by the non-official magister a memoria in order to only hand them over to the imperial quaestor ( quaestor sacri palatii ) in their final written version . Only this person and the overall head of the imperial chancellery ( magister officiorum ) have had direct access to the emperor since then.
Legal development
The absolute dominance of the emperors also had an impact on legal developments and case law. The final legal opinion and the legal will of the rulers restricted the progress of the Roman legal system , especially after the 3rd century due to the lack of independent, self-employed jurists, who since then have mainly been among the executive state servants of the imperial civil servants.
The bureaucratization in late antiquity led, in addition to a necessary rationalization in the administration as well as a desired control of offices, to an alienation between the people and the government. The emperor had lost direct contact with the simple applicant seeking legal protection with his everyday troubles and worries. This anonymous, impersonal administrative apparatus resulted in an ever increasing corruption of office. In return for appropriate payment, the officials fraudulently obtained customer-ordered notices from the emperors. The rise in corruption did not go unnoticed by the population, so that the imperial decrees were hardly trusted and they were therefore generally no longer regarded as legal.
literature
- Detlef Liebs : Court lawyers from the Roman emperors to Justinian , Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, Munich 2010, CH Beck, ISBN 978-3-7696-1654-5 , The Imperial Libell Chancellery .
- Detlef Liebs: Reichskummerkasten, The work of the imperial Libell Chancellery , published in: Dominion structures and rule practice - concepts, principles and strategies of administration in the Roman Empire , (HG.) Anne Kolb, Berlin: Akademie Verlag 2006, pp. 137–52.
- Dieter Medicus : Libellus II. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, column 619 f.
- Max Kaser : Roman legal history. 2nd, revised edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976, ISBN 3-525-18102-7 , pp. 152-153
- Wolfgang Kunkel , Martin Schermaier : Roman legal history. 13th edition. Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2001, ISBN 978-3-8252-2225-3 , pp. 75., 145, 161.
- Gerhard Schrot : A libellis. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, Col. 617 f.
- Anton von Premerstein : a libellis . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIII, 1, Stuttgart 1926, Sp. 15-26.