Lex Papia

The Lex Papia ("Papian Law" or "Law of Papius"), also lex Papia de civitate ("Law of Papius on Citizenship") or lex Papia de peregrinis exterminandis ("Law of Papius on foreigners to be deported") from the Years 65 BC BC, named after the author of the law, an otherwise unknown Gaius Papius , tribune of the people 65 BC. BC, not identical with the author of the lex Papia on the drawing of the vestals ( Gellius 1, 12, 11 f.) Or the lex Papia on the inheritance claims of the cartridge ( Gaius 3, 42).

The law creates the possibility of withdrawing the civitas (Roman citizenship) from a peregrinus (a stranger to the citizenry, ie a free person without citizenship) and expelling them if he has acquired them illegally or by fraudulently.

Cicero mentions and criticizes the law: ... ceteri non modo post civitatem datam, sed etiam post legem Papiam aliquo modo in eorum municipiorum tabulas inrepserunt ... - “some have not only adopted their citizenship, but also according to the lex Papia somehow crept into citizen lists ( tabulae ) of these municipalities (meaning Greek cities in southern Italy) "( Pro Archia 10) ... male etiam, qui peregrinos urbibus uti prohibent eosque exterminant, ut Pennus apud patres nostros, Papius nuper ... - “It is also bad who forbids strangers to visit cities and banishes them, like Pennus with our ancestors, Papius recently” ( De officiis 3, 11, 47).

literature

• Adolf Berger : Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law. Volume 43. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia 1953, p. 557.
• Egon Weiss : Lex Papia. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XII, 2, Stuttgart 1925, Sp. 2399.