Right of provocation

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Provocation scene on Roman denarius. Republic, approx. 110/9 BC Chr.

The right of provocation ( ius provocandi ) in the Roman Republic was the right of every citizen to call on the people for support (Latin provocare , dt. To summon, to call) if he saw life and limb threatened by the violence of state magistrates . This process called provocation (Latin provocatio ad populum , dt.Vocation to the people, invocation of the people) was regarded as a sign of plebeian freedom and a political means against the criminal law of patrician officials, who by virtue of their executive authority could impose death sentences or flogging without a judicial decision ( Right of coercion ). It is comparable to the ius auxilii of the tribune of the people . However, this legal protection did not exist if the defendant had previously been convicted in a proper legal process.

The right to provocation was enshrined in the lex Valeria de provocatione , which, according to some sources, was issued by the consul Publius Valerius Poplicola in the years 510/09 BC. Or by the consuls Lucius Valerius Poplicola and Marcus Horatius Barbatus 449 BC Was introduced. However, it was probably based on an identical legislative proposal by the consul Marcus Valerius Corvus from 300 BC. BC, although it can be assumed that provocation was previously established as customary law .

A around the year 104 BC. The minted denarius of the mint master P. Porcius Laeca reminds of this law (see photo on the right). In the scene shown, a man in armor with an imperium militae puts his hand on the head of a togatus (thus a civilian Roman citizen) in order to order the lictor, shown to the right, with a stick and rods, to carry out a physical punishment. The togatus depicted on the left of the coin raises his arm defensively and pronounces the word provoco stamped on the coin .

The right of provocation applied in principle to every male Roman citizen, but was initially limited to the Roman urban area ( intra pomerium ) and only applied to civil officials, but not to the dictator or a military empire in the field ( militiae ). In addition, this right was suspended by a senatus consultum ultimum . Only at the beginning of the 2nd century BC The right to provoke was extended to the extra-urban area, to Italy and the provinces, and from then on also applied to a limited extent in the military area. The leges Porciae of the tribune Publius Porcius Laeca from the years 198 - 195 BC was probably the basis of the extensions . BC, which also prohibited the flogging of citizens. Even non-Romans could be granted the right to provocation as a special honor.

In research, however, it is controversial how a provocation process actually took place in reality and what political and legal significance the provocation actually had. Apparently she was supposed to bring about a (re) hearing of the case before the people's assembly (presumably before the concilium plebis ), in which the sentence imposed by the magistrate could be examined. But it is also conceivable that after 300 BC The provoco had a pure protest function and no legal consequences - except in an accountability procedure. However, the disregard of a provocation, with the exception of an execution, was apparently not considered an official offense, but merely an improbable or shameful act ( improbe factum ), so that the officer in question could not be directly punished for it.

On the other hand, for the time before 300 BC No reliable evidence of capital penalties imposed by the authorities on Roman citizens. In addition, officials had to expect to be held accountable for their behavior towards the people after their term of office had expired. It may be possible to conclude from this that the right to provocation only had a symbolic meaning, with which the once politically disadvantaged plebeians were signaled after the so-called class struggles that they had now achieved complete political equality with the patricians. This could be supported by the fact that the lex Valeria de provocatione was decided in the same year in which the lex Ogulnia of the tribune Quintus Ogulnius Gallus gave plebeians access to various prestigious priestly posts, which they had been denied as the last offices until then were. However, due to the poor sources, no reliable statements can be made about this.

In the imperial era, every appeal to a higher judge, including the emperor himself, was called a provocation.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Jochen Martin: The provocation in the classical and late republic . In: Hermes 98 (1970), p. 74.
  2. ^ Wolfgang Kunkel , Martin Schermaier : Roman legal history. First section: The republican magistrates , Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2001, p. 21.
  3. ↑ Cicero , de re publica 2.53.
  4. ↑ Livy 3.55.
  5. ^ Livy 9/10.
  6. ^ Wolfgang Kunkel : State order and state practice of the Roman Republic . Second part. The Magistratur (= Handbook of Classical Studies . Volume 10,3,2,2). CH Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-33827-5 , 4. Terminology and content of magistrate functions and powers , p. 168
  7. ^ Max Kaser : Roman legal history. First section: Die Staatsämter , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976, pp. 42–43
  8. ↑ Jochen Bleicken : Origin and meaning of the provocation . In: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History . 76, 1959, pp. 324-377.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Kunkel: Investigations into the development of the Roman criminal proceedings in pre-Sulla times . In: Treatises of the Bavarian Academy, NF56 1962, pp. 24–33.
  10. ^ Wolfgang Kunkel, Roland Wittmann: State order and state practice of the Roman republic. Second section: Die Magistratur , Munich 1995, p. 166 f.

literature

  • Max Kaser : Roman legal history. First section: Die Staatsämter , 2nd revised edition, Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976: pp. 42–45
  • Wolfgang Kunkel , Roland Wittmann : State order and state practice of the Roman Republic. Second section: the magistracy. ( Handbook of Classical Studies , Department 10: Legal History of Antiquity. Part 3, Volume 2). Munich 1995, pp. 149-176.
  • Wolfgang Kunkel, Martin Schermaier : Roman legal history. First section: The republican magistrates , 13th edition, Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2001:, pp. 19-24.
  • Loretana de Libero : Article “Provocatio”. In: The New Pauly . Volume 10. Stuttgart and Weimar 2001, Col. 475 f.
  • Jochen Martin : The provocation in the classical and late republic. In: Hermes . 98, 1970, pp. 72-96.

See also