Quale pena per le repetundae nel 59 a.C.? : spunti per la ricostruzione del trattamento sanzionatorio approntato dalla lex Iulia

It is well known that the last lex de repetundis was the Iulia one, passed duringthe first Caesar consulship in 59 BC, and its text has not reached usdirectly: scholars are, therefore, forced to reconstruct its content essentiallybased on the information obtainable from literary sources and from thejurisprudential commentary that can be read in D. 48.11, functional to theapplication of this legislation during the imperial age.

A topic still debated nowadays is the sanctioning regime, which onlysome authors are inclined to extend up to the imposition of the poemacapitalis for the punishment of the most serious charges of bribery (repetundae)aggravated by intolerable brutality (saevitia).A careful re-examination of the Plinian espistolary account of the senatorialtrial celebrated against Marius Priscus between 98 and 100 A.D. (an episodeat the time invoked by the Mommsen authority to deny the applicabilityof the more serious sanction) led us to believe that the Caesarianprovision contemplated already some criminal hypoteses punishable bydeath penalty (according to the legal terminology of the last Republicanage, “death penalty” was the condemnation to exile, resulting in aqua et igniinterdictio). [Publisher's text]