HUMAN RIGHTS IN ANCIENT ROME HUMAN RIGHTS IN ANCIENT ROME Richard A.Bauman London and New York First published 2000 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. © 2000 Richard A.Bauman The right of Richard A.Bauman to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bauman, Richard A. Human rights in ancient Rome/Richard A.Bauman p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Civil rights—Rome. 2. Human rights—Rome. I. Title. JC85.C55B38 1999 99–24401 323’.0937–dc21 ISBN 0-203-01244-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-70823-7 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-17320-5 (Print Edition) For Sheila, Adrian and Sandra CONTENTS Preface x List of abbreviations xii 1 Introduction 1 ‘Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto’ 1 The meaning of ‘human rights’ 2 Questions of terminology 5 The enforcement of human rights 6 Structure and scope 7 Evaluation 8 2 Human rights: the Greek experience 10 Preamble: the meaning of philanthropia 10 Philanthropia: the Athenian model 11 Philanthropia: the defining moments 15 The Hellenistic period 16 Evaluation 19 3 Humanitas Romana 20 Preamble: the meanings of humanitas 20 The concept of humanitas Romana 21 Humanitas Romana: a first appraisal 23 The role of Panaetius 24 The debut of the word ‘humanitas’ 25 Humanus: Terence and universalism 26 Evaluation 27 vii CONTENTS 4 Human rights prior to Humanitas Romana 28 Preamble 28 Early Rome: ius humanum 28 The Scipionic age: humanitas and maiestas 30 The Scipionic age: philanthropia 32 The Scipionic age: domestic humanitas 33 Primacy in humanitas: rival contenders 34 Evaluation 35 5 Human rights in the Late Republic: Cicero 36 Preamble 36 Cicero and universalism 37 Humanitas and punishment: the death sentence 41 Humanitas and punishment: exile 44 Humanitas and the law 46 Evaluation 50 6 Human rights in the Late Republic: curbs on ill-treatment 51 Preamble 51 Maiestas, morality and humanitas 52 Curbs on rapacity: early attempts 53 Statutory relief for non-Romans: the lex Calpurnia 57 The problem of mass enslavement 62 Additional statutory relief: repetundae and maiestas 63 Evaluation 65 7 The new image of Humanitas: part one 67 Preamble 67 Humanitas and clementia: Augustus and Tiberius 68 Humanitas and clementia: Seneca 69 Humanitas and clementia: Flavians, Antonines, Severans 72 Clementia Caesaris: Julius Caesar 75 Clementia Caesaris: Augustus and Tiberius 77 Clementia Caesaris: Seneca and Nero 79 Clementia Caesaris: Domitian to Alexander 82 Evaluation 86 viii CONTENTS 8 The new image of Humanitas: part two 87 Curbs on rapacity: jurisdiction 87 Curbs on rapacity: some cases 89 Universalism: the merits 96 Universalism: the demerits 100 Freedom of speech 101 Social welfare: the alimenta 109 Evaluation 110 9 Man’s inhumanity to man 112 Preamble 112 Genocide 112 Slavery 115 Racial prejudice 120 Death at the games 122 10 Conclusion 126 Notes 130 Select bibliography 168 Index to sources 179 General index 187 ix PREFACE In a certain sense this work is a sequel to the writer’s previous investigations of humanitas (1980, 1996). While exploring that theme in a strictly criminal law context it occurred to me that Roman human rights as a whole might usefully expand the area under discussion. But it was found that there was very little in the literature apart from narrowly focussed etymological—semantic studies. A broader picture is needed, both for its own sake and because of its ability to shed light on the vital topic of human rights in today’s world. The work is cast in chronological form, covering the Roman Republic and Principate. For the Republic the main thrust is from the late third century BC to the era of Cicero and Caesar. The Principate is covered from its inception to AD 235 with the main emphasis on the period from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius. The Republican and imperial phases are treated separately, corresponding to what are in some respects significant differences between the liberal, easygoing climate of the former and the more carefully tailored, professional ambience of the latter. One of the by-products of the investigation has been the updating of some of the writer’s findings on maiestas. The book has been written with two classes of reader in mind— those primarily interested in the Roman scene, and those interested in human rights in general. In order to move the story along as briskly as possible, technical discussions are largely confined to the notes. My sincere thanks are due to Mr Richard Stoneman, Senior Editor at Routledge, who again provided a generous measure of counsel and support; and to Professor Edwin Judge of Macquarie University, Sydney, who read part of the work in draft and made some valuable x PREFACE suggestions. I am also indebted to the librariansand staff of the Law Library of the University of New South Wales, Fisher Library, University of Sydney, and Macquarie University Library, for their unfailing courtesy and co-operation. R.A.B. Sydney February 1999 xi ABBREVIATIONS Except where otherwise indicated, abbreviations of the names of periodicals, classical authors and their works are as listed in L’Année Philologique and/ or the Oxford Latin Dictionary and/or Lid-dell & Scott, A Greek—English Lexicon. ANRW H.Temporini & W.Haase (eds.), Aufstieg und Nieder-gang der römischen Welt, Berlin/New York, 1972– BZCS R.Busa & A.Zampoli, Concordantiae Senecanae, Hildesheim 1975 CAH Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd edn, vols. 7 (1989), 8 (1989), 9 (1994), 10 (1996) CJ Codex Justiniani Coll. Mosaicarum et Romanarum Legum Collatio CTh Codex Theodosianus D. Digesta Justiniani EJ V.Ehrenberg & A.H.M.Jones (eds.), Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, 2nd edn, Oxford 1955 EST H.Estienne, Thesaurus graecae linguae, Paris 1831–65 FIRA S.Riccobono et al. (eds.), Fontes Iuris Anteiustiniani, 3 vols., 2nd edn, Florence 1942–3 Gai. Gai Institutionum Commentarii Quattuor GCN E.M.Smallwood, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Gaius, Claudius and Nero, Cambridge 1967 J.Inst. Institutiones Justiniani Kl.P. K.Ziegler & W.Sontheimer (eds.), Der Kleine Pauly, 5 vols., Stuttgart 1964–75 LRSB N.Lewis & M.Reinhold (eds.), Roman Civilization, 2 vols., 3rd edn, New York 1990 LSJ H.G.Liddell & R.Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th edn, H.Stuart Jones, Oxford 1940 Merguet H.Merguet, Handlexikon zu Cicero, Hildesheim 1962 MRR T.R.S.Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, 3 vols., New York 1951–2, 1986 xii ABBREVIATIONS MW M.McCrum & A.G.Woodhead, Select Documents of the Principates of the Flavian Emperors, Cambridge 1961 NTH E.M.Smallwood, Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian, Cambridge 1966 OCD Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edn, Oxford 1996 OLD Oxford Latin Dictionary PS Pauli Sententiae RE A.Pauly et al. (eds.), Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Stuttgart 1894–1978 SIG Dittenberger-Wissowa (eds.), Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 3rd edn, Leipzig 1915 TLG Marianne McDonald et al., Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, CD ROM 1972– TLL Thesaurus Linguae Latinae VIR Vocabularium Iurisprudentiae Romanae xiii 1 INTRODUCTION ‘Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto’ ‘I am a man: I deem nothing pertaining to man foreign to me.’ The words of the comic playwright P.Terentius Afer reverberated across the Roman world of the mid-second century BC and beyond. Terence, an African and a former slave, was well placed to preach the message of universalism, of the essential unity of the human race, that had come down in philosophical form from the Greeks, but needed the pragmatic muscles of Rome in order to become a practical reality. The influence of Terence’s felicitous phrase on Roman thinking about human rights can hardly be overestimated. Two hundred years later the philosopher Seneca ended his seminal exposition of the unity of mankind with a clarion-call: There is one short rule that should regulate human relationships. All that you see, both divine and human, is one. We are the parts of one great body. Nature created us from the same source and to the same end. She imbued us with mutual affection and sociability, she taught us to be fair and just, to suffer injury rather than to inflict it. She bids us extend our hands to all in need of help. Let that well-known line be in our hearts and on our lips: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.1 With access to an intellectual coterie in which culture, influence and realism all played a part, Terence’s message epitomised the Roman conception of human rights. It was not a starry-eyed concept. Prompted by the need to define their relations with non-Romans, the new masters 1 INTRODUCTION of the Mediterranean world sought to combine the tenets of Greek philanthropia with traditional Roman values. The resultant product, humanitas, was given theoretical form by thinkers like Cicero and Seneca, and practical expression by laws and trials. The idea of humanitas was not confined to the external scene.