Cicero's Law: Rethinking Roman Law of the Late Republic
Cicero's Law: Rethinking Roman Law of the Late Republic
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Abstract
Why did Roman prosecutors typically accuse the defendant of multiple crimina, when in most standing criminal courts the punishment imposed on a guilty defendant was the same (typically “capital,” that is, a kind of exile), no matter how many charges were proven? The answer lies not in a failure to distinguish between legal charges leveled at the defendant and defamation of his character, but rather in a rhetorical strategy that made sense in light of what was legally necessary to obtain a conviction. The greater the number of charges, the more likely the jurors would be persuaded that the defendant had in some way violated the statute according to which the trial was being conducted. It is true that prosecutors typically argued that the defendant’s prior conduct made it plausible that he had committed the crimes with which he was charged, but in a way that, as much as possible, made his guilt on these particular charges seem likely, and defense patroni attempted to undermine the charges and the character defamation. This answer to the apparent contradiction between multiple charges and unitary punishment favors a moderate formalism over legal realism as the way to interpret Roman criminal trials.
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Front Matter
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1
Introduction
Paul J. du Plessis
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Part I On Law
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Part II On Lawyers
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5
Cicero and the Small World of Roman Jurists
Yasmina Benferhat
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6
‘Jurists in the Shadows’: The Everyday Business of the Jurists of Cicero’s Time
Christine Lehne-Gstreinthaler
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7
Cicero’s Reception in the Juristic Tradition of the Early Empire
Matthijs Wibier
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8
Servius, Cicero and the Res Publica of Justinian
Jill Harries
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5
Cicero and the Small World of Roman Jurists
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Part III On Legal Practice
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9
Cicero and the Italians: Expansion of Empire, Creation of Law
Saskia T. Roselaar
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10
Jurors, Jurists and Advocates: Law in the Rhetorica ad Herennium and De Inventione
Jennifer Hilder
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11
Multiple Charges, Unitary Punishment and Rhetorical Strategy in the Quaestiones of the Late Roman Republic
Michael C. Alexander
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12
Early-career Prosecutors: Forensic Activity and Senatorial Careers in the Late Republic
Catherine Steel
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Postscript
Paul J. du Plessis
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9
Cicero and the Italians: Expansion of Empire, Creation of Law
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End Matter
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