HELIOPOLIS CULTURE E CIVILTÀ ANNO XI ISSN 2281 3489 NUMERO 1 2013
Re igi and Law in Late Republican Rome: from Ritus to Certa ex
di sva d Sacchi
1. Di e si f religio i Repub ica R e 1
Etymologically the earliest meaning of religio in Latin is «to have scruples about something» and not «to believe in something» 2. Cicero demonstrates this perfectly, but we also find evidence of this in Livy as well as in many other Republican sources 3. Another possible explanation of the etymological sense of religio comes from Lactantius , that was preceptor of Crispus , a son of the emperor Constantine. According to this scholar, religio was a supernatural bond of constriction: nomen religionis a vinculo pietatis esse deductum, quod hominem sibi Deus religaverit et pietate constrinxerit 4. This religious sentiment was, therefore, represented as Pietas which could link anyone to the divine or God: vinculo pietatis obstrincti et religati sumus 5. But is only a Christian adaptation of the ancient pietas that, as expression of ius naturae , consisted in to respect one’s own officium for the country, family and the ties of blood: Cic. de inv . 2, 22, 65 66: ac naturae quidem ius esse, quod nobis non opinio, sed quaedam innata vis adferat, ut religionem, pietatem, gratiam, vindicationem, observantiam, veritatem . (…); pietatem, quae erga patriam aut parentes aut alios sanguine coniunctos officium conservare moneat . Then it is probably preferable to follow Benveniste, whose theory ( religio = re + ligare ) is also supported by Festus. The glossator adopts a definition of the jurist Aelius Gallus (author of the work De significatione verborum quae ad ius civile pertinent written about 100 B.C. 6) for whom “religious” or “sacred” was defined as follows: Fest. sv. religiosus (L. 348, 22): religiosus esse Gallus Aelius ait quod homini
1 I wish to thank Girolamo Tessuto, professor of English and Legal English (Department of Law, Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli) for providing the linguistic revision of this article that is an english version (with notes and small changes) of a lecture performed at the University of Tilburg on 11 12 december 2008 for a Seminar on Law and Religion in the Roman Republic . Italian version will be published in a collection in honor of Hans Ankum for Ius Antiquum Drevnee Pravo , a journal of the Academy of Sciences of Russia. 2 Cfr. now M. Humm, I fondamenti della repubblica romana: istituzioni, diritto, religione , in G. Traina (ed.), Storia d’Europa e del mediterraneo. Il mondo antico. III. L’ecumene romana. V. La res publica e il Mediterraneo , Roma, 2008, p. 470 s. For roman religio see F. Altheim, La religion romaine antique , Paris, 1955, pp. 7 331; J. Bayet, Histoire politique et psycologique de la religion romaine , Paris, 1957, pp. 5 334; V. Cilento, Comprensione della religione antica. Suggestioni del Sacro e dell’Antico nella coscienza storica , Napoli, 1967, pp. 8 286; D. Sabbatucci, La religione di Roma antica , Milano, 1988, p. 206 ss.; J. Scheid, La religion des Romains , Paris, 1998; J. Rüpke, La religione dei Romani , Torino, 2004 = [ Die Religion der Römer , München, 2001] passim . On the relationship between “religion” and “law” cfr. A. Magdelain, Le ius archaïque , in Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome Antiquité , 1986, 98, p. 268 ss.; A. Watson, The State, Law and Religion. Pagan Rome , Athens and London, 1992, pp. XV 136; P. Catalano, La religione romana “internamente”: il punto di vista giuridico , in SMSR. , L’Aquila Roma, 1996, 62, p. 143 ss.; M. Humm, I fondamenti della repubblica romana , cit., pp. 467 519 with bibliography. Helpful approach in F. Vallocchia, Collegi sacerdotali ed assemblee popolari nella repubblica romana , Torino, 2008, p. 1 ss. 3 Cic. de nat. deor . 2.28.72: qui autem omnia quae ad cultum deorum pertinerent diligenter retractarent et tamquam relegerent, sunt dicti religiosi ex relegendo,
7 We may also read the Festus’ gloss [sv. Praeciamitatores (L. 292, 3): Praeciamitatores dicuntur, qui flaminibus Diali, Quirinali, Martiali, antecedent
2. Di e si f aw
Let us now move on to the meaning of lex 17 . The etymological meaning of lex is «a document where the legal rules are inscribed» 18 . The word probably derives from the Accadian lēhum , lē'um , which meant, «a written table containing a document». We find words with a similar morphology also in the El Amarnan, lēhum , in the Hebraic lū ah and in the Aramaic and Ethiopian, lauh 19 . Thus, the original meaning of lex refers to the ancient tables, such as those of Moses and the Twelve Tables of Rome 20 . By going back in time we can, therefore, retrace an historical pattern, originally deriving from the codices of the ancient Near East, which were all written either on clay or stone tablets 21 . The oldest extant discovery is that of the law tables of the Sumerian king Ur Nammu (dating back to twenty first century B.C.), but there have also been other discoveries such as the Babylonian codices of Ešunna (twentieth century B.C.) and Hammurapi (eighteenth century B.C.), and those of the Hittite (sixteenth century B.C.), Assyrian (fourteenth thirteenth century B.C.) and new Babylonian kings (ninth eighth century B.C.) 22 . Finally, we have references to the tables relating to biblical laws, or rather to the legal corpus of Exodus (21, 2 22, 6) and Deuteronomy (21, 1 25, 2) (although these are not confirmed by archaeological data) which cover the period from the ninth to the fifth century B.C. 23 For the meaning of the law word in latin language, as the physical object which bore regulations (law as a container of regulations), this idea is supported by the fact that also in the Roman world the earliest laws were written on wooden tables 24 . Horace says in Ars . 399: leges incidere ligno . The tables could be whitened (so called tabulae dealbatae ) or engraved on bronze, but in any case they were transcribed so that they could be put up for public viewing: Plin. n.h. 34, 21, 99: Aera extersa robiginem celerius trahunt quam neglecta, nisi oleo perunguantur. servari ea optime in liquida pice tradunt. usus aeris ad perpetuitatem monimentorum iam pridem tralatus est tabulis aereis, in quibus publicae constitutiones inciduntur . This custom was, in fact, very old 25 . Indeed, the annalistic tradition reports that Servius Tullius determined that laws relating to relationships with other cities should be inscribed on bronze and kept uehi religio est;
26 Dion. 4.26.4. 27 Dion. 4.58.4; Horat. epist . 2.1.24. 28 Cic. pro Balbo 23.53. 29 Liv. 3.32.7; Dion. 10.32.4. 30 Liv. 40.20.6; Propert. eleg . 4.10.23. 31 Polyb. hist . 3.22. 32 Wide demonstration in E.A. Meyer, Legitimacy and Law in the Roman Word , cit., p. 79 ss. and passim . Contra T.P. Wiseman, Unwritten Rome , Exeter, 2008, ch.1 and p. 235. 33 Cic. Mil . 73. 34 Cfr. G. Franciosi (ed.), Leges regiae , Napoli, 2003, pp. IX XIX, 3 224. 35 See at least P. Marottoli, Leges sacratae , Roma, 1979, pp. 5 127; R. Fiori, Homo sacer. Dinamica politico costituzionale di una sanzione giuridico religiosa , Napoli, 1996, p. 293 ss., but always helpful B. Albanese, ‘ Sacer esto ’, in BIDR ., 1988, 91, pp. 145 179. 36 See G. Franciosi, Premessa a Leges regiae , cit., p. IX ss. 37 F.M. d’Ippolito, Leges obscatae , in La parola del passato , 2004, 335, pp. 81 91. 38 Cfr. U. Agnati, Leges Duodecim Tabularum. Le tradizioni letteraria e giuridica. Tabulae I VI , Cagliari, 2002, pp. 9 26, but, for outlines of problem and bibliography, see now M. Humbert (ed.), Le Dodici Tavole. Dai Decemviri agli Umanistii , Pavia, 2005, pp. 3 582. Contra the hypothesis that the decemviral codex was engraved on tabulae cfr. R.E. Mitchell, Patricians and Plebeians: The Origin of the Roman State , Ithaca, 1990, pp. 124 5 and nt. 199. In a affirmative sense E.A. Meyer, Legitimacy and Law , cit., p. 26 and nt. 29. The question is open. 39 Liv. 3.57.10; Dion. 10.57.7; Diod. Sic. 12.26.1. 40 Liv. 6.1.9 10: hi ex interregno cum extemplo magistratum inissent, nulla de re prius quam de religionibus senatum consuluere. in primis foedera ac leges "erant autem eae duodecim tabulae et quaedam regiae leges" conquiri, quae comparerent, iusserunt; alia ex eis edita etiam in uolgus: quae autem ad sacra pertinebant a pontificibus maxime ut religione obstrictos haberent multitudinis animos suppressa . 15 HELIOPOLIS CULTURE E CIVILTÀ ANNO XI ISSN 2281 3489 NUMERO 1 2013
But we lack further sources to corroborate such a hypothesis. Livy’s evidence is particularly intriguing and, despite having received very little scholarly attention, it may be regarded as a credible source for the suggestion that a second version of the Twelve Tables was drawn between 385 and 380 B.C. 41 Aside from the deterioration of written materials, which was also mentioned by Dionysius 42 and putting aside even the great fire of Nero’s day, the sources suggest that, at the beginning of his reign (in July of 69), Vespasian attempted to restore ( restituere ) at least three thousand bronze tablets containing senatorial and plebiscite decrees and other regulatory acts which were destroyed by the fire on the Capitol during the wars of succession 43 . According to Suetonius, it was the finest and oldest collection that had ever existed of regulatory acts and treated materials dating back to the very origins of Rome (instrumentum imperii pulcherrimum ac uetustissimum, quo continebantur paene ab exordio urbis )44 . We may now draw some conclusions about the notion of law. We have seen that, from a semantic point of view, the word denoted the object bearing the regulation rather than the actual contents of the regulation and the historical sources indicate that this material sense is also applicable to the Archaic and Republican periods. This meaning is particularly significant, since it suggests that it is better not to seek the original value of the concept of “right” in the word lex 45 . On the other hand this meant that we may look for the original significance of “right” also in the dimension of religio 46 .
3. The a pervadi g di e si f ritus i the a cie t R a syste
One means for understanding the phenomenon of the “deconsecration” of the Roman religio which encouraged the formation of an autonomous legal science in the modern sense of the expression, may be to consider the progressive trnsformation of the ritus and of its sacred value alongside to broader considerations about the role of the law as a binding model for Roman Republican society 47 . In other words it is necessary to scrutinise more closely the role of ritus in the ancient Roman legal system 48 .
41 This is the idea of G. Franciosi, Per la storia dell’usucapione immobiliare in Roma antica. Un capitolo della storia delle XII tavole , in Studia Documenta Historiae et Iuris , 2003, 69, p. 127 ss. Contra T.P. Wiseman, The Myths of Rome , Exeter, 2004, p. 90. For the lack of archaeological evidence see e.g. M. Torelli, ‘Il sacco gallico di Roma’ , in I Galli e l’Italia , Rome, 1978, p. 227; F. Coarelli, Il foro romano . Periodo arcaico , Roma, 1983, p. 129 30. 42 Dion. 3.36.4,7: (en. tr. by E. Cary): «These have since been destroyed by time, for, brazen pillars being not yet in use at that time, the laws and the ordinances concerning religious rites were engraved on oaken boards». P. Poccetti, Il metallo come supporto di iscrizioni nell’Italia antica: aree, lingue e tipologie testuali , in F. Villar F. Beltrán (ed.), Pueblos, lenguas y escrituras en la Hispania preromana. Actas de el VII coloquio sobre lenguas y culturas paleohispánicas , Salamanca, 1999, pp. 545 561, in part. pp. 556 60, considers the use to engrave laws on bronze, an italic custom that started not before the III century B.C. 43 E.A. Meyer, Legitimacy and Law , cit., p. 27. 44 Suet. Vesp . 8.5.3: ipse restitutionem Capitolii adgressus ruderibus purgandis manus primus admouit ac suo collo quaedam extulit; aerearumque tabularum tria milia, quae simul conflagrauerant, restituenda suscepit undique inuestigatis exemplaribus: instrumentum imperii pulcherrimum ac uetustissimum, quo continebantur paene ab exordio urbis senatus consulta, plebi [s] scita de societate et foedere ac priuilegio cuicumque concessis. 45 Not clear the etymology proposed by Cicero in a famous fragment of de legibus (1.6.19) where the law comes from ‘legendo’ ( ego nostro a legendo ) in the meaning of ‘to choose’ in opposition to the greek concept of ‘distributive justice’ ( Nam ut illi aequitatis, sic nos delectus uim in lege ponimus, et proprium tamen utrumque legis est ). From here Cicero let says to Marcus that “from law it is necessary to take the principle of ius ” ( Quod si ita recte dicitur, ut mihi quidem plerumque uideri solet, a lege ducendum est iuris exordium ). But the law of Cicero is not the “positive law” as the modern concept, but “supreme law” existing before every written law ( Constituendi uero iuris ab illa summa lege capiamus exordium, quae, saeclis
When Émile Benveniste asked himself whether there was an Indo European term 49 which had existed in the common epoch to designate a collective archetype for the notion of “right”, he assumed that there were a shared origin for the different declinations of the word ritus in later languages. The word stems from an earlier concept of “order” corresponding to the oldest known verbal forms, such as the Vedic “ rtá ” and the Iranian arta 50 which, according to Dumézil, meant: “cosmic order”, or «rite which establishes truth» 51 . In fact, generally speaking, the notion of a superior “Order” appears to have presided in regulatory matters among the most ancient cultures of Mesopotamia (Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian) as the determiner of celestial movement; seasonal periodicity; astronomic cycles (thus, the calendrical rules); as well as the relationships between men and gods ( rerum divinarum ) and the inter relationships of men ( rerum humanarum )52 . The Latin word most closely related to such terms is ritus , which Mario Piantelli considers to be a precious instrument for establishing the earliest relationship between Roman religious and legal thought 53 . The term refers to a notion of “undifferentiated” with implications in religious, ethical , legal, and social. Even the most ardent supporters of Isolierung , such as Schulz and Giovanni Pugliese, could not deny its existence 54 . Ritus meant “order”, or “rite”, which the philologist Giovanni Semerano explains as, «that which occurs in an order and with predetermined succession» 55 . The meaning is similar to that of rtá and arta , according to the relationship demonstrated by Karl Heinz Roloff in 1954, on the basis of notable materials examined and collated in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae in Munich, and quite clearly attests to the existence of an “undifferentiated” notion in Archaic Rome 56 . The existence, even in the earliest period, of an “all pervading” dimension to ritus in the institutions of Archaic Rome can be seen through a series of testimonies suggesting that ritus , as with the Greek nŏmŏs 57 , had a semantic meaning similar to that of the terms mos and lex for the Romans 58 . It is worth noting that references are always from credible sources and start from the post Hellenistic period. The cronology (i.e. the non contemporaneity of these sources with the Archaic period) is not, in my opinion, an impeding problem, because, if we think in a juridical insitutional sense, these sources (especially Cicero and Varro, as we’ll see) could be seen as fossils of a remote past. However, by way of example, the assimilation of mos and ritus is proved by the fact that the combination between mores and instituta is frequently in Cicero as well as in Sallust 59 . These sources should be analyzed by acknowledging that Varro considered the words ritus and institutus as connected. In fact, in de lingua Latina Varro writes ( l. L . 7, 88): quod est in versu ‘alcyonis ritu ’, id est eius instituto ». Cicero
49 If it is possible to use this in its conventional sense. See F. Villar, Gli indoeuropei e le origini dell’Europa. Lingua e storia , Bologna, 1997; O. Sacchi, Spunti per un’archeologia giuridica del linguaggio. Suggestioni ancestrali e terminologia giuridica nella lustratio agri in Cato de agri C., in Drevnee pravo Ius Antiquum. Accademia delle Scienze di Mosca , 2003, 12, pp. 94 105; G. Semerano, La favola dell’indoeuropeo , Milano, 2005; F. Rendich, L’origine delle lingue indoeuropee. Struttura della lingua madre del sanscrito, del greco e del latino , Roma, 2005. 50 É. Benveniste, Il vocabolario delle istituzioni indoeuropee , cit., pp. 357 8. 51 G. Dumézil, Naissance d’Archanges , Paris, 1945; Id., Ordre, fantaisie, changement dans le pensées arcaïques de l’Inde et de Rome , in REL , 1954, 32, p. 150, nt. 1; Id., La religion romaine arcaïque , avec un Appendice sur la religion des étrusques, Paris, 1966, pp. 7 680 = La religione romana arcaica. Miti, leggende, realtà della vita religiosa romana con un appendice sulla religione degli Etruschi , ed. Furio Jesi, Milano, 2001, pp. 7 610. See also E. Montanari, Georges Dumézil e la religione romana arcaica , in Categorie e forme nella storia delle religioni , Milano, 2001, pp. 67 117. 52 See also F. Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism , New York, 1956, pp. XXV 298. 53 M. Piantelli, Una ricerca sul «ritus» in epoca arcaica , cit., p. 235 ss. 54 See retro . Speaks about an “undifferentiated” also G. Agamben, Il sacramento del linguaggio. Archeologia del giuramento , Roma Bari, 2008, pp. 13 16. 55 G. Semerano, sv. ritus , in Le origini della cultura europea . II. Dizionari etimologici , cit., p. 546. 56 K.H. Roloff, Ritus , cit., p. 62. 57 For polysemy of nŏmŏs see F. Cancelli, Le leggi divine di Antigone e il diritto naturale , cit., p. 36 ss. and p. 43 ss. 58 M. Piantelli, Una ricerca sul «ritus» in epoca arcaica , cit., p. 287 ss. 59 Cic. de fin . 5.11; de re p . 2.8; 2.56; 3.41; 5.1; Tusc. disp . 1.2; 4.1; de off . 1.120; 1.148; Caec . 2; Mur . 1; dom . 56; epist . 15.4.14; de harusp. resp . 24; de lege ag r. 2.1; Verr . 1.38; 5.169; Quinct. 63; de orat . 2.131; 2.182; Sall. bell.Cat . 5.9. 17 HELIOPOLIS CULTURE E CIVILTÀ ANNO XI ISSN 2281 3489 NUMERO 1 2013 frequently uses the concepts of instituta and leges with mores 60 , as well as uses iura and mores in a way seemingly interchangeably 61 . But is not all. Cicero also associates the terms institutus and mos with a single concept of ius ( de re p. 3,17,1): Genera vero si velim iuris, institutorum, morum consuetudinumque describere, non modo in tot gentibus varia, sed in una urbe, vel in hac ipsa, milliens mutata demonstrem, ut hic iuris noster interpres alia nunc Manilius iura dicat esse de mulierum legatis et hereditatibus, alia solitus sit adulescens dicere nondum Voconia lege lata; quae quidem ipsa lex utilitatis virorum gratia rogata in mulieres plena est iniuriae. Cur enim pecuniam non habeat mulier ?. Furthermore we can also find the use of lex instead of ritus in an Archaic inscription where the significance of the words is explicit: CIL. 1 2.1439: vediovei patrei genteiles iulei vedi aara leege albana dicata . The consecration of arae follows a ritus as we can see in Festus (s.v. Rituales libri L. 358, 21: Rituales nominantur Etruscorum libri, in quibus perscribtum est, quo ritu condantur urbes, arae, aedes sacrentur, qua sanctitate muri, quo iure porte, quomodo tribus, curiae, centuriae distribuantur, exercitus constituant 〈ur 〉, ordinentur, ceteraque eiusmodi ad bellum ac pacem pertinentia ) and Livy speaks of a ritus Albanus [1.7.3: (Romulus) sacra diis aliis Albano ritu Graeco Herculi...facit ]. Anyway, the following connection between ritus and mos in a fragment of Accius is perhaps decisive: Acc. ex inc. libr . frgm. 3, 1 6 (FPL 1886 267): Maxima pars Graium Saturno et maxime Athenae conficiunt sacra, quae Cronia esse iterantur ab illis, eumque diem celebrant: per agros urbesque fere omnes exercent epulas laeti famulosque procurant quisque suos; nosterque itidem est mos traditus illinc iste, ut cum dominis famuli epulentur ibidem. According to the poet coming from Pisaurum , the Romans of Cato’s era, considered the epulae as a noster mos to be performed by masters and slaves during the Saturnalia ( ut cum dominis famuli epulentur ibidem ). According to Priscianus, Cato defined the Saturnalia as a celebration of a Graeco ritu 1, 8 (frgm. 18, 7): Graeco ritu fiebantur Saturnalia . This source is important because shows that the Romans in the time of Cato the Censor still perceived a rite (albeit a Greek one) to be a mos . Collectively, these testimonies can confirm that there was an “all pervading” presence of the concept of ritus in the oldest Weltanschauung of the Romans. There are also manifold references to the ritus as a «mode of performing the sacra »62 . Ovid attests the snapping of fingers as a means to ward off the shadows of the dead. And this was considered to be a ritus : Ovid. fasti 431: ille memor veteris ritus timidusque deorum surgit habent gemini vincula nulla pedes, signaque dat digitis medio cum pollice iunctis, occurrat tacito ne levis umbra sibi . We may add to this the gesture of opening the eyes of the dying 63 , the captio of the Vestal 64 and the observation of auspicia 65 .
60 Cic. fin . 4.61; de off . 3.63. 61 Cic. de re p . 1.3; Caec . 2; dom . 43; epist . 5.20.1; Flacc . 14; Font . 46; Mil . 71; Piso 30; Syll . 52. 62 The cities were founded by means of the ritus [Varro l.L . 5.142: oppida condebant in Latio Etrusco ritu multi ; Fest. sv. Rituales (L. 358, 21): Rituales nominantur Etruscorum libri, in quibus perscribtum est, quo ritu condantur urbes, arae, aedes sacrentur, qua sanctitate muri, quo iure portae, quomodo tribus, curiae, centuriae distribuantur, exercitus constituant
The same may also be said about the declaration of war in compliance with the ius Fetiale ; the consecration of the arae and templa 66 ; the distributions of the curiae , tribus and centuriae 67 ; and the celebration of acta triumphalis 68 . All this shows that the expression ritus had a very wide field of application in the institutional vocabulary of ancient Rome. In conclusion, this section may best be summed up with a comment from Pliny, which I find particularly significant: magnitudine populus Romanus perdidit ritus vincendoque victi sumus 69 .
4. Fr ritus t certa lex the disc very f ius
Having maybe rightly identified the correct performing of ritus as a concrete manifestation of religio , we may now attempt to determine when exactly the Romans started to deal with the problem of a technical distinction between compliance with a mos and compliance with a lex in the strict sense (in other words, the Kaser’s idea that ancient mores were perceived instinctively by the Romans to be a phenomenon distinct from the law). This process of secularization is likely led to the discovery of the ius (in the meaning of “right” or “justice”) in Roman world. Firstly, however, we need to say a few words about the etymology of ius . Having denied, according to Benveniste, that it originated from the Avestan yaoš , Vedic yóh (“prosperity”), ius, iuris may owes its remote origins to the term wussû , wūsu, which meant, «to distinguish between right and wrong» in the language of the middle Babylonian era 70 . Interestingly, the Akkadian form ūsu , ussu meant «a line of demarcation» from which probably the Latin, usus 71 . However it seems more probable that the original semantic group from which ius is derived were the Akkadian, išarum , išerum , meaning “right”, “correct”, and the Hebraic jāšār which may be translated as «straight line» 72 . In this way we are probably beginning to identify a plausible route for our reconstruction. The key to resolve the question may be Varro who, through Accius, offers us a ablative form of ritus , i.e. rite , with a similar semantic meaning as that of recte : Acc. in Varro l.L . 7, 88, 8: Quod enim fit rite, id ratum ac rectum est; ab eo Accius: rite perfectis sacris 〈recte 〉 volt accipi 73 . In this sense, Accius uses the expression «rite perfectis sacri», which could be translated: «having properly celebrated sacred ceremonies». In a same way Accius , in a fragment of
65 Gell. 3.2.10: Ad hoc ritus quoque et mos auspicandi eandem esse obseruationem docet: nam magistratus, quando uno die eis auspicandum est et id, super quo auspicauerunt, agendum, post mediam noctem auspicantur et post meridialem solem agunt, auspicatique esse et egisse eodem die dicuntur . 66 See G. Fusinato, Dei feziali e del diritto feziale. Contributo alla storia del diritto pubblico esterno di Roma , Memoria della classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche , Roma 1884, (serie terza) vol. XIII, pp. 3 141; C. Saulnier, Le rôle des prêtres fétiaux et l’application du ‘ius fetiale’ à Rome , in RHD . 58, 1980; F. Fontana, ‘ Fetialis fui ’, in Annali dell’Istituto italiano per gli Studi Storici, 11, 1989 90; T. Wiedemann, The Fetiales: a Reconsideration , in CQ . 31, 1986. 67 Fest. sv. Rituales (L. 358, 21): nominantur Etruscorum libri, in quibus perscribtum est, quo ritu condantur urbes, arae, aedes sacrentur, qua sanctitate muri, quo iure portae, quomodo tribus, curiae, centuriae distribuantur, exercitus constituant
Amphitruo , uses the expression alluding to the augurian law 74 : Acc. Amph . 86 91: Sed quaenam haec est mulier funesta ueste, tonsu lugubri? si satis recte aut uera ratione augurem Tamen et staturae gracilitudo propemodum et luctus facit, Ne dubitem. Quin meum senium cum dolore tuo coniungam et comparem Pertolerarem uitam cladesque exanclarem inpetibilis . It is understandable, then, that the glossator of Festus compares ritus to mos and consuetudo in a single entry of the vocabulary: Paul. Fest. sv. Ritus (L. 337, 4): Ritus mos vel consuetudo. Rite autem significat bene ac recte . It ought to be pointed out that Festus’ vocabulary may be traced to Verrius Flaccus, the preceptor for the of daughters Augustus. All this maybe suggests that the understanding of recte to mean «that which may be considered well done», also had a philosophical legal meaning (I refer to the notion of recta ratio ). However, this meaning, was not exclusively due to the philosophical genius of Cicero (see infra ), but rather could represent the natural development of a cultural reality ingrained in the Roman society of the middle/late Republic. In fact, the use of recte/rite in the sense of recta ratio is amply attested by reliable sources. Apart from the large number of attestations Plautus’ Palliata 75 , we costantly find similar references in the following sources: Accius himself ( Clutemestra 2, 30 31: « omnes gaudent facere recte, male pigrent »); Ennius (Ann. inc. sed . 494: Audire est operae pretium procedere recte ; Andromacha aechmalotis 99: Andromachae nomen qui indidit recte indidit ); Novius’ Atellana (frag. 9: Recte, secundum quod dicebo, est melius ); in the Palliata of Sextus Turpilius [1 25 (Rychlewska, p. 10)]: Demetrius : Nec recte dici mihi quae iam dudum audio ; the Togata of Titinius Prilia 74: Rectius mecastor piculetae Postumae; Veliterna 150: Habui recte
74 Wide account in P. Catalano, Contributi allo studio del diritto augurale 1, Torino, 1960; J. Linderski, The Augural Law , in ANRW. , Berlin New York, 1986, II, pp. 2146 2311. 75 Plaut. Amph . prol. 79; 110; 289; 783; 775; 784; 973; 995; Asinaria 120; 155; 402; 471; 493, 510; 823; Aulularia 239; 338; 539; Bacchides 47; 119; 188; 314; 330; 349; 544; 732, 735; Captivi 72; 381; 386; 632; 710, 960; 1017; 1028; Casina 105; 260; Cistellaria 545; Curculio 44; 171; 223; 299; 553; Edipicus 5; 264; 707; Maenechmi 87; 346; 382; 428; 741; 802; 964; 1023, 1036; 1092; Mercator 367 f.; 387; 412; 413; 448; 802; 874; 1003; Miles gloriosus 47; 799; 1103; Mostellaria 240; 273, 842, 926; 1109; Persa 78, 185; 350; 450; 503, 538, 603, Poenulus 516; 1339; Pseudolus 134; 289; 496; 990; 1050; 1085; 1156; Rudens 166; 747; 779; 800; 829; Sticho 146; Trinummus 50; 183; 197; 384; 1178; Truculentus 516; Vidularia 22; frg. 14. 76 Terent. Andria prol. 1; 30; 141; 363; 367; 456; 766; 804, 953; 955, Hecyra 355; 399; 531, 559; 862, Heautontimoroumenos 152; 159; 196; 228; 518; 538; 580; 588; 653, 996; Phormio 189; 389; 689; 789; 812; 999; Eunuchus 78; 342; 612; 773; 981; 1084; Adelphoe 75; 289; 372; 417; 426; 521; 609; 653; 832; 883; 951; 997. 77 Lucil. saturae 360; 407; 1016; 1049. 78 Cato de agr . 4.1; 5.2; 5.5; 7.2; 19.1; 19.2; 22.2; 32.1; 33.1; 33.3; 33.4; 44.1; 48.2, 116.1; 133.1; 144.1 s; 145.1; 146.2; Origines 5; Cato in Gell. 16.1.4. 79 On Gell’s passage see now, with bibiography, R. Ortu, ‘Aiunt aediles …’. Dichiarazioni del venditore e vizi della cosa venduta nell’editto de mancipiis emundis vendundis , Torino, 2008, p. 66, nt. 195 and passim . 80 R. Ortu, ‘Aiunt aediles …’ , cit., p. 72, nt. 213. 20 HELIOPOLIS CULTURE E CIVILTÀ ANNO XI ISSN 2281 3489 NUMERO 1 2013 augurian law 81 . In my opinion, this evidence clearly supports the etymological reconstruction of Giovanni Semeraro, who suggests that the Latin term ritus meant “order”, and that “rite” had a semantic sense of «that which occurs in an order and with a predetermined succession» 82 . The slippery notion of ritus in relation to the meaning of recte , indicated by Varro’s comment on the afore mentioned fragment of Accius (7,88,8: quod enim fit rite, id ratum ac rectum est; ab eo Accius: “recte perfectis sacris” volt accipi ), probably allows us to say that it was only with the arrival of Greek philosophy that the Romans were able to formulate a concept of law as “true law” equivalent to the recta ratio . We will now briefly to examine how this could be happen.
5. The ti f certa lex
All goes around the notion of certa lex . We refer to Cicero who used the Stoic notion of natural law in order to analyze “true law” ( vera lex ), rather than “just law” ( iusta lex )83 . The quote from the Amphitruo of Accius resound (87: recte aut uera ratione augurem ). From the “legal truth” and from the “real truth” (phùsĕi ) of the Sophists and Epicureans, Cicero was able to put forward the “just truth”, which he intended as «natural propensity»84 . From this precept, already widely diffused in the age of Cato the Censor, the rhetorician was able to give a definition of law new and innovative 85 . In fact, in the de oratore (on which he started to work in 55 B.C.), Cicero questioned whether the law ( ius ) derived from nature or from opinion (Cic. de orat . 3.114): naturane sit ius inter homines an in opinionibus ? He answered in de legibus (started in 52 B.C.) that the law (like the ius ) was of natural origin: de leg . 1.10.28: nihil est profecto praestabilius, quam plane intellegi, nos ad iustitiam esse natos, neque opinione sed natura constitutum esse ius . The meanings of “legal certainty” or “legal truth” in Cicero’s theory therefore converged in the significance of recta ratio (Cic. de re p . 3.22: est quidem vera lex recta ratio ). We can find an example of truth as a vehicle for justice in Cic. de off . 3.17.69: feruntur enim ex optimis naturae et veritatis exemplis . Other examples can confirm this interpretation 86 . Thus, the Stoic doctrine brought to Rome by Panaetius through the Scipionic circle (who was the school of training of many famous jurists, such as L. Lucilius Balbus , student of Q. Mucius Scevola the pontiff and teacher of Servius Sulpicius Rufus; Q. Mucius the augur ; Furius Filus ; Elius Tubero ; and Aulus Virginius from whom we have only one quote in the Digest of Justinian) was developed and, so to speak, “Romanized” by Cicero 87 . The “Legal truth” (the only one with an inherent meaning of «that which should or should
81 R. Santoro, Potere e azione nell’antico diritto romano , in Annali del Seminario giuridico dell’Università di Palermo , Palermo, 1967, p. 202, defins ius as a ritual authority and G. Provera, Diritto e azione nell’esperienza giuridica romana , in Studi in onore di Aldo Biscardi , Milano, 1983, IV, p. 329 speaks about an intrinsec authority. 82 G. Semerano, sv. ritus , in Le origini della cultura europea . II. Dizionari etimologici , cit., p. 546. 83 For Cicero’s doctrine of natural law see with bibliography O. Sacchi, La certezza del diritto come valore e la “legal metafisica” di G.B. Vico , in G. Limone (ed), L’era di Antigone 3. Il certo alla prova del vero, il vero alla prova del certo. Certezza e diritto in discussione , Milano, 2008, p. 146 ss. About stoic doctrine of natural law see ivi, p. 142 ss. On Roman doctrine of natural law cfr. A. Schiavone, Ius. L’invenzione del diritto in Occidente , cit., p. 255 and passim . See however D. Mantovani A. Schiavone (edd.), Testi e problemi del giusnaturalismo romano , Pavia, 2007, p. 3 ss. and passim ; F. Cancelli (ed.), Marco Tullio Cicerone, Le leggi , cit., p. 15 ss.; E. Narducci, Cicerone. La parola e la politica , Roma Bari, 2009. 84 Epic. ratae sent . 31. 85 M. Ducos, Les Romains et la loi. Recherches sur les rapports de la philosophie grecque et de la tradition romaine à la fin de la Republique , Paris 1984; Id., Roma e il diritto , trad. it. R. Ferrara, Bologna, 1998, 113 ss. 86 Cic. de orat . 1.173: de aequitate ac iure certetur ; Cic. de orat 1.175: in quibus certatur de iure civile ; Cic. de orat . 1.177: iudicium certare ; Cic. Verr . 1.52: ne quis te de vera et certa possit sententia demovere ; Cic. epist . 9.10.1: a certo senso et vero iudicas ; Sen. ben . 4.33.2: Huic respondebimus numquam expectare nos certissimam rerum conprehensionem, quoniam in arduo est veri exploratio ; Quint. inst. or . 5.10.2: tertium quo certam quandam argumenti conclusionem uel ex consequentibus uel ex repugnantibus: quamquam de hoc parum conuenit ; Quint. inst. or . 7.3.35: Est interim certa finitio, de qua inter utramque partem conuenit, ut Cicero dicit: “maiestas est in imperi atque in nominis populi Romani dignitate ”. 87 Wide account on the relationship between Stoic tradition and Roman jurisprudence in O. Sacchi, Le nozioni di Stato e di proprietà in Panezio e l’influenza della dottrina stoica sulla giurisprudenza romana dell’epoca scipionico cesariana , in RIDA. , 2005, 52, pp. 21 HELIOPOLIS CULTURE E CIVILTÀ ANNO XI ISSN 2281 3489 NUMERO 1 2013 not be done») could only derive from the recta ratio of the divine: Cic. de leg . 2.4.10: lex uera atque princeps, apta ad iubendum et ad uetandum, ratio est recta summi Iouis . So, the lesson imparted by Carneades on the evanescence of the concept of justice in his memorable performance of more than a century earlier, in 155 b.C. (when, as ambassador to Rome with Diogenes and Critolaus, defended the cause of the Athenians 88 ), was finally digested by the members of the educated Roman classes, who could no longer tolerate the disasters, terror and the proscriptions of the civil war. So, probably prevailed in the legal culture of the late Roman republic the Stoic dogmatism for which justice and truth were absolute values. Therefore, through the filter of at least two generations of serious intellectuals of the Scipionic circle, eminent individuals in the Roman legal world most probably welcomed into their legal thought the Stoic docrines, which provided relevant theoretical sources for Cicero that so produced his new, truly revolutionary, philosophy of law. The most significant development was that the concept of justice became an absolute value, no longer subject to interpretation. I am referring here to the concept of law formulated by Zeno 89 and by Chrysippus 90 . For these philosophers the law was informed by ŏrthŏs lŏgŏs , i.e. “right reasoning”, and was identified with nature or with Zeus himself. It was therefore an absolute value rather than the relative one conceived by Epicureans (for whom justice was a contract) and Sceptics (for whom was impossible to known the truth and the justice). In my opinion, the reception of this train of thought in Rome was really a deciding factor in the emancipation of the legal from the sacred. This phenomenon lead to its development legal science as an autonomous science. The science of jurists. Lex was therefore no longer the material object bearing the rules of observation by members of the community in an “undifferentiated” sphere of religio , but in fact became the “right reasoning” for distinguish right from wrong 91 .
325 357. See also B. Farrington, Scienza e politica nel mondo antico , Milano 1960, p. 174 ss., trad. it. A. Rotondò [= Science and Politics in the Ancient Word , London, 1946]. 88 Gell. 6.14; Diog. Laert. 4.62; Cic. de or . 2.37.155; Tusc . 4.3.5. 89 SVF. I p. 43 162=Diog. Laert. 7.88,4 6. 90 SVF. III p. 76=Diog. Laert. 7.128,9. 91 In this sense see Chrisyppus in SVF. III p. 87 360=Philo Judaeus quod omnis probus liber sit 46,1. 22