Lex Malacitana

Lex Malacitana , reproduction in the Museo Loringiano in Málaga . ( AE 2001, +00061 )

The Lex Malacitana is a bronze plaque containing part of the Flavian city ​​charter of Malaga , which was granted between 81 and 96 AD (probably 82 or 83 AD) under Emperor Domitian . The text preserved on it contains chapters 51 to 66 and gives an insight into the organization of the municipalities in the Hispanic province of Baetica of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD.

Comparable finds are the Lex Irnitana and the Lex Salpensana . All three agree almost literally in the parts that have survived and presumably come from a common template. The information contained in the Lex Malacitana about the elections in the rural communities of the Hispanic provinces around 100 AD is unique to date.

The plaque is exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid .

Originally, the city charter of Malaca comprised six panels, which were attached to a publicly accessible place at eye level. The received board has fastening holes in the corners (under the frame). A copy of the plaque is currently installed in the plenary hall of the Málaga City Hall.

description

• Material: bronze
• Width: 128.5 cm
• Height: 94.50 cm
• Thickness: 0.5cm-0.9cm (with frame: 2.50cm)
• Weight: approx. 90 kg

The text is arranged in five columns, each about 2.6 cm apart. The letter height is about 0.4 cm; the line spacing is about 0.8 cm.

discovery

The Lex Malacitana tablet was found together with a Lex Salpensana tablet in October 1851 in what is now Málaga, in what is now the El Ejido district, and taken to a workshop to melt the approximately 90 kg of bronze. Jorge Loring y Oyarzábal acquired the tablets to save them from destruction and made them accessible to the scientific public. It is believed that several tablets found in the area have already been melted down. The first publication of the inscription was done by his brother-in-law Dr. Manuel Rodríguez de Berlanga 1853. Nobel laureate Theodor Mommsen published a highly acclaimed edition in 1855 that is regarded as a standard work. The tablets with the Lex Malacitana and the Lex Salpensana were bought for the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid in 1897 and have been kept there ever since.

content

LVI section of the Lex Malacitana National Archaeological Museum of Madrid .

The Lex Malacitana contains with the chapters 51 to 66 individual provisions of the city law or city law. Chapters 59 to 66 agree almost verbatim with those of the Lex Irnitana .

List of the individual chapters
blackboard	category	text	translation
Section on elections
(IV)	51	R. De nominatione candidatorum.	About naming the candidates
(IV)	52	R. De comitiis habendis.	About holding electoral meetings <comites>
(IV)	53	R. In qua curia incolae suffragia ferant.	In which constituencies <Kurien> residents without municipal rights <incolae> should cast their votes
(IV)	54	R. Quorum comitis rationem habere oporteat.	About whom an election is appropriate to be held
(IV)	55	R. De suffragiis ferendis.	About voting
(IV)	56	R. Quid des his fieri oporteat, qui suffragiorum numero pares erunt.	What to do if the vote results in a tie
(IV)	57	R. De sortitione curiarum et is, qui curiarum numero pares erunt.	About the <voting> order of the constituencies <Kurien>, and if the vote results in the same number of constituencies <Kurien>
(IV)	58	R. Ne quit fiat, quo minus comitia habeantur.	Nothing will be done to hold fewer election meetings <comites>
(IV)	59	R. De iure iurando eorum qui maiorem partem numeri curiarum expleverint.	By the oath of those who reach the majority of the constituencies
(IV)	60	R. Ut de pecunia communi municipum caveatur from his qui duumviratum quaesturamve petent.	The candidates for a duumvirate or a quaestur must provide surety and surety for the communal property
(IV)	61	R. De patrono cooptando.	About subordinating <the community> to a patron
Section on the finances of the municipality
(IV)	62	R. Ne quis aedificia quae restituturus non erit destruat.	Nobody should tear down houses that they don't rebuild
(IV)	63	R. De locationibus legibusque locationum proponendis et in tabulas municipii referendis.	About publishing the <tax> lease agreements and entering them in the books of the municipality
(IV)	64	R. De obligatione praedum et praediorum cognitorumque <…>.	About the liability of the surety and surety <for the municipal property>
(IV)	65	R. Ut ius dicatur e lege dicta praedibus et praediis vendendis.	That justice is spoken according to the law on surety and surety
(IV)	66	R. De multa quae dicta erit.	About the fine imposed
(IV)	67	R. De pecunia communi municipum deque rationibus eorumdem.	About community public money and the <finance> report on it
(IV)	68	R. De constituendis patronis causae cum rationes reddentur.	About the appointment of litigators in disputes over <finance> reports
(IV)	69	R. De iudicio pecuniae communis.	About public funds litigation

elections

The electoral regulations (the first ten surviving headings) begin with the candidate list procedure ^{R. 51} . In the event that fewer applicants than necessary voluntarily stand for election, it is provided that the election supervisor (possibly one of the Duumvire ) names as many candidates as necessary, and each of those named has the right to nominate one further candidate and this also one more each. ^{R. 51} This ensures that for every "vacant place" on the "electoral list" up to three candidates are available. The term of office of the duumvirs , aediles and quaestors to be elected , as well as their second appointments , is set at one year after the election. ^{R. 52}

Every male citizen ( municeps ) of the municipality is assigned to a constituency . For each election day, a lot is drawn to determine in which constituency the other eligible voters ( incolae , liberti ) should vote. ^{R. 53} (This provision ensures that the electorate without citizenship can dominate at most one of the constituencies , regardless of their number .) Only free-born men who are at least 25 years old are eligible to vote, otherwise they may also be elected to the city council. Duumvire may only run for election to Duumvirate once every five years. ^{R. 54}

On election day, the votes are collected in a container for each constituency . Three eligible voters from each other constituency act as sworn electoral officers; each applicant can send one election observer to each ballot box. ^{R. 55} There are also rules in the event of a tie. ^{R. 56} For the actual choice e.g. B. for the Duumvirate it is necessary to win the majority of the constituencies . The election winners must take a corresponding oath ^{R. 59} (with the prescribed oath formula) and name guarantors and sureties. ^{R. 60} A penalty of 10,000 sesterces is threatened for disrupting the election. ^{R. 58} The section on elections ends with a rubric about the acceptance of a patron of the municipality. ^{R. 61}

Finances

This is followed by sections on the finances of the municipality, with the first section on the prohibition of demolishing buildings without the approval of the municipal council ( ^{R. 62)} initially only remotely related to it.

The tax revenue (and other taxes and duties of the municipality) were leased to private individuals (see tax lease ). The conditions had to be posted publicly. ^{R. 63} Those who have committed themselves to the community as guarantors for business or administration are liable when the guarantee becomes due, with all their belongings but also with their freedom, since they are ultimately sold into slavery to redeem the guarantee can ^{R. 64} (see nexus ), possibly even with their lives (e.g. a building project could have been poorly carried out. The municipality then 'pays' for repairs by someone else with the right to fall back on the guarantor.)

The community before the Duumvirus speaks about the sureties and sureties . ^{R. 65} Fines can be imposed by a duumvir or the aediles ; Disputes about this are decided by the local council (the decurions ). ^{R. 66}

The last three sections of this chapter contain rules on community funds and related legal disputes. ^{R. 67 to 69}

^{R. 51 to 69} The exponents indicate the rubric.

Reading sample

( LA ) 25 ........-- R- QUID DE HIS FIERI OPORTEAT QUI 26 SUFFRAGIORUM NUMERO PARES ERUNT. 27 IS QUI EA · COMITIA · HABEBIT UTI QUISQUE CURIAE 28 CUIIUS · PLURA · QUAM ALII · SUFFRAGIA HABUE 29 RIT · ITA · PRIOREM CETERIS · EUM PRO EA CURIA 30 FACTUM CREATUMQUE ESSE RENUNTIATQ 31 DONEC · ADOR IS NUMERUSI Expletus SIT QUAM IN CURIA totidem 33 SUFFRAGIA · DUO PLURESVE HABUERINT MA 34 RITUM · QUIVE MARITORUM NUMERO ERIT 35 CAELIBI · LIBEROS NON · HABENTI QUI MARI 36 Tørum · NUMERO · NON · ERIT · HABENTEM LIBE 37 ROS NON · HABENTI · plures LIBEROS HAVE 38 TEM PAUCIORES HABENTI PRAEFERTO \ PRIO / REM 39 QUE NUNTIATO ITA UT BINI LIBERI POST NO 40 MEN INPOSITUM AUT SINGULI PUBERES AMIS 41 SI VIRIVE POTENTES AMISSAE PRO SINGULIS 42 SOSPURES HABEBUNT ET EI IUSDEM 44 CONDICIONIS ERUNT NOMINA EORUM IN 45 SORTEM COICITO ET UTI CUIIUSQUE NOMEN SOR 46 TI DUCTUM ERIT ITA EUM PRIOREM ALIS RENUNTI 47 AT.

( DE ) 25 - Heading-What to do if <two applicants> 26 received the same number of votes. 27 If an applicant has more votes than the others in a constituency 28 , the person holding the election should proclaim 29 publicly that he was selected before the others for his constituency 30; 31 and then so on up to the number that must be reached 32. In a constituency of 33, in the event of a tie, he should proclaim 34 the married or widowed * before 35 the celibate applicant, the childless applicant and 36 before the bachelor; as well as preferring those who have children 37 to the childless applicant and those who have more children 38 to those who have fewer and being the first 39 to publicly proclaim 39 - with two children who died after baptism ** 40 as well as each single son 41 who has deceased adult or who has died as an adult or each daughter who has deceased as an adult can be counted for a single 42 healthy child. If two or more 43 have the same number of votes and the same 44 "rank" determined in this way, he shall draw one of the 45 names. And he should be the first to publicly call out the name that was so 46 drawn before the others . * literally actually: the one who is counted among the married, ** literally: children who <died> after <you> were given a name,

(Original text Lex Malacitana, Chapter 56, FREE translation)

Holdings in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid

• complete table inv. no. 18631

Web links

• Image of the blackboard
• Facsimile of the blackboard
• Transcription of the blackboard

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Theodor Mommsen: The city rights of the Latin communities Salpensa and Malaca . In: Treatises of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences, Philological-Historical Class . tape III. . Teubner, Leipzig 1857, OCLC 3585520 , p. 359-507 ( digitized version ).
2. ↑ Joseph Georg Wolf (ed.): The Lex Irnitana: a Roman city law from Spain . Darmstadt 2011, ISBN 978-3-534-24597-0 .
3. ↑ Julián González: Lex Villonensis . In: Universidad de Sevilla (ed.): HABIS . No. 23 , 1992, ISSN  0210-7694 , pp. 97–119 ( online [PDF]).
4. ^ Julián González, Michael H. Crawford: The lex Irnitana: a new copy of the Flavian municipal law . In: The Journal of Roman Studies . tape 76 , 1986, <Ch. 95>, p. 199 ( online ).
5. ↑ Rodríguez Oliva Quoted from Pérez: La Lex Flavia Malacitana, cuya copia se exhibe en la Aduana, fue salvada de la fundición por la familia Loring . In: Diario Sur . December 26, 2006, ISSN  2173-0261 ( online ).
6. ↑ Rodríguez de Berlanga y Rosado, Manuel: Estudios sobre los dos bronces congresses en Malaga, á fines de Octubre de 1851 . Málaga 1853, OCLC 643825405 ( digitized ).
7. ↑ Mélida, JR: Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos . tape 1897 . Imp. Del Colegio Nacional de Sordomundos y de Ciegos, Madrid 1897, OCLC 18935737 , p. 522 ( archive.org ).
8. ^ ^{A b} Thomas Spitzl: Lex Municipii Malacitani . CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-406-30152-5 , p. 15-78 and 79-121 .
9. ^ NN: Hispania Epigraphica / Lex Flavia Malacitana / Record No. 1600 / Ley / jurídica. Retrieved March 31, 2016 (es / la). 
10. ↑ Manuel Rodriguez de Berlanga: Monumentos Historicos del Municipio flavio Malacitano . Málaga 1864, OCLC 162596816 , p. 76 ( digitized version ).