Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1993 Roman Criminal Law and Legal Narrative in the Neronian Books of the Annals of Tacitus John Warren Thomas Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons Recommended Citation Thomas, John Warren, "Roman Criminal Law and Legal Narrative in the Neronian Books of the Annals of Tacitus" (1993). Dissertations. 3288. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3288 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1993 John Warren Thomas LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ROMAN CRIMINAL LAW AND LEGAL NARRATIVE IN THE NERONIAN BOOKS OF THE ANNALS OF TACITUS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICAL STUDIES BY JOHN WARREN THOMAS III CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MAY 1993 © Copyright by John W. Thomas III, 1993 All Rights Reserved To Kirsten Fortuna spondet multa multis, Praestat nemini. Vive in dies et horas, Nam proprium est nihil. CIL 1.1219 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For the completion of this study I gratefully acknowledge the direction of Drs. James G. Keenan, John F. Makowski, and Fr. John P. Murphy S. J., whose criticism and advice have been invaluable. Loyola University most kindly provided a full-year fellowship for the completion of this project. I gratefully acknowledge the suggestions and encouragement of Professors Alexander P. MacGregor, Jr., and Michael C. Alexander of the University of Illinois at Chicago. To Professor Carol Bates Penka of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Professor Martin Helzle of Case Western Reserve University, special thanks for your assistance with my research. Much gratitude is owed to Patricia Robertson and Diane Shaw who I think run the Graduate School, and to Mari O'Brien, who surely runs our department. Many thanks to Ed and Linda Menes for rescuing me from the 5th ward years before and bringing me to Loyola. I would also like to thank Mark Mcintyre, who first suggested a dissertation in Tacitus. Thanks to all my Latin students from Loyola, especially Joanie Trimbach and Ted Somers, who took my first course specifically on the N eronian Annals, and were a sympathetic and thorough jury. Thanks to my fellow graduate students at Loyola, for their help and inspiration, especially William Wycislo for his unfailing friendship. Thanks to the many kind friends at Children's Hospital, especially Shari Simpson, and a special wish for Jennifer Lazarus and her family. Thanks of course to my parents, who have been supportive and above all, patient. Very special thanks to my wonderful wife, Elizabeth, and our children Heather and Warren, for your steadfast love and encouragement. Without you I would not have completed this project in 100 years. Finally, I must thank Mr. James Maddaloni, the finest Latin teacher and mentor a beginning student can ever have had, for introducing me to Latin in the eighth grade, and to Tacitus as a high-school senior. I hope that the work herein is worthy of the help and encouragement of all of the above mentioned friends. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . n LIST OF TABLES . v INTRODUCTION . 1 CHAPTER PART I. HISTORICAL AND PARTLY-HISTORICAL TRIALS 1. MASTERS, SLAVES, FREEDMEN, AND MURDER . 11 The Case of Octavius Sagitta (13.44) . 12 The Case of The 400 Slaves of Pedanius Secundus (14.42-45) . 23 The Case De Fraudibus Libertorum (13.26-27) . 40 2. MISCELLANEOUS CASES . 52 The Case of "The Balbus Seven" (14.40-41) . 52 The Case of Pomponia Graecina (13.32) 64 The Case of Publius Suillius (13.42-43) 73 The Case of Claudius Timarchus (15.20-22) 83 3. EXTORTION: REPETUNDAE ................................. 93 "The Six Cases," (13.30-33): A.D. 56-57 ................... 95 4. TREASON: MAIESTAS ....................................... 117 Case of Fabricius Veiento (14.50) . 121 The Case of Antistius Sosianus (14.48-49) . 126 111 The Case of Burrus and Pallas (13.23) . 137 The Case of Agrippina (13.19-13.22) ...................... 143 The Case of Octavia (14.60-64) .......................... 154 The Case of the Pisonian Conspirators (15.48-74) . 170 PART II. FICTIVE TRIALS: THE TRIAL OF NERO 5. FAMILY MURDER: LEX POMPEIA DE PARRICIDIIS . 221 The Case of Fratricide (13.14.2-13.18.1) .................... 222 The Case of Matricide (14.1-13) . 234 CONCLUSION . 248 APPENDIX I: TACITEAN LEGAL VOCABULARY . 251 APPENDIX II: OTHER TACITEAN TRIALS . 256 APPENDIX III: TRIAL ELEMENTS IN LATE REPUBLICAN TRIALS . 259 WORKS CITED . 260 IV LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. The Elements of a Tacitean Trial 6 2. Chronological Sequence of the "Case of the Balbus Seven." . 61 3. Defendants and Charges in the "Six Cases" . 99 4. Defendants and Informants in the "Six Cases" . 103 5. Rhetorical Charges in Poppaea's Relatio against Octavia . 162 6. Major Defendants in the Pisonian Conspiracy . 178 7. Minor Defendants in the Pisonian Conspiracy . 179 8. Major Defendants and Sentences (Pisonian Conspiracy)... 206 9. Minor Defendants and Sentences (Pisonian Conspiracy) . 206 10. Charges and Results in the Pisonian Conspiracy . 211 11. Rewards for Informants and Supporters (Pisonian Conspiracy) . 213 12. Charges Against Agrippina in Nero's Relatio . 243 v INTRODUCTION Tacitus is arguably the most important historian Rome ever produced; certainly he is the best historian extant nearest in time to the tumultuous events during and just after the reign of the emperor Nero. He views these events with a keen legal eye, an eye which has influenced the selection and presentation of his material. For any historian, possibly the two most important choices are the selection of material (for not all events can be included) and the presentation or organization of that material. The organization of an historian can be examined as to the grand scale, for Tacitus, his annalistic framework, 1 or as to the small scale, the organization of particular episodes. Each type of analysis sheds light on the selection and organization which color the historian's work. This study will be an examination of the small scale; it aims to show that for a great number of episodes in the N eronian Books (Annals 13-16), Tacitus has used his legal eye and chosen a legal framework. This 1 A recent and significant contribution to this analysis is Judith Ginsburg, Tradition and Theme in the Annals of Tacitus (Salem: Ayer Co. Publishers, 1984). 2 choice also extends to the selection of material, for he has chosen to make criminal trials a dominant feature of his domestic narrative. A preliminary point of examination should be the reason for his choice of this framework. The most significant advantage that a legal type of analysis provides for an historian is the appearance of a balanced presentation: he can argue both sides of a question, narrating for both prosecution and defense. This is conceivably just the sort of balance Tacitus has in mind with his well-known phrase from Annals 1.3, sine ira et studio, "without anger or favor." With the trial format Tacitus can stand back from the arguments of the case and be a dispassionate judge. It is possible that Tacitus' choice was based upon his life experience from his first years at school up to becoming consul of Rome, and before becoming a writer of history. With few details of his life secure (even the historian's years of birth and death and hispraenomen are uncertain), one of the few attested facts from his life is an important prosecution he undertook in A.D. 100 against a former provincial governor of Asia. Pliny the Younger assisted him and records their assignment to prosecute for the provincials (Ep. 2.11.2):2 2 This was a trial for repetundae, as an alleged abuse of power by a magistrate, tried in the Senate, with the princeps presiding as judge. For the discussion of repetundae in Tacitus, see p.95. 3 Marius Priscus accusantibus Afris quibus Marius Priscus, upon the accusation of the pro consule praefuit, omissa defensione Africans whom he had charge of as proconsul, iudices petit. Ego et Cornelius Tacitus, pleaded guilty, and petitioned for a select adesse provincialibus iussi. committee of judges. Cornelius Tacitus and I were ordered to serve for the provincials. A striking feature of this letter that Pliny wrote to his friend Arrianus is the almost offhand manner in which the case is mentioned. It is as though Pliny only remarks upon it because it is recent news, and because his friend is interested in the machinations of the Senate. 3 That this is the only case known involving Tacitus as an advocate should be less of a surprise than that it is known of it at all; that it is but one case of many which he undertook is a reasonable assumption.4 In one of his few personal remarks in writing the Annals, Tacitus at one point (11.11.1) gives a datable reference to his own service as praetor, in A.D. 88. Although most of the jurisdiction in criminal cases under the early empire was in the hands of the emperor and the Senate, a praetor might exercise jurisdiction in certain criminal cases. 5 3 See 2.11.1 4 Tacitus had a retinue of apprentices about him, as shown in another letter of Pliny (4.13.10), where Pliny requests that Tacitus recommend to him some of his apprentices as teachers.