Notable instances of intellectual repression in Rome (Julius Caesar to Caligula) NB: Legal bases: • Twelve Tables (450 BC) (TT 8.1, cited by Cicero in Rep. 4.12, p. 79 in your text, who wholeheartedly agrees with the law) prohibited defamatory writings: ‘If any person had sung or composed against another person a song (=poem) such as was causing slander or insult to another…’ Penalty (in 450 BC, evidently) was to be clubbed to death. • maiestas (treason): first introduced 103 BC, underwent a variety of changes, though the important one was the law passed by Julius Caesar (lex Iulia maiestatis, ca. 45 BC) which made banishment the chief penalty. This was the law invoked frequently in the first century of the Principate (notably by Tiberius, but by almost all of his successors as well). Julius Caesar ca. 45 BC: expert on oracles exiled by Julius Caesar Augustus 31 BC(?): Octavian (=Augustus) burns all documents relevant to triumviral period 28 BC: philosopher (Anaxilaos), expert in magic, banished ca. 27 BC: Augustus curtails publication of the acta senatus (‘senatorial record’) ca. 18 BC(?): Augustus forbids publication of anonymous attacks 12 BC: Augustus, now pontifex maximus, burns all oracular books and writings. First known instance of ‘book burning’ (usually done under charge of maiestas) AD 6 (?): Corvus, professor of rhetoric, charged with ‘harming the state’ for discussing birth control and celibacy in his classroom. Outcome of trial unknown. ca. AD 6-8: Titus Labienus, Augustan orator and an historian, has his writings confiscated and burned by senatorial decree (on grounds that his writings were treasonous). Commits suicide. Note that this episode apparently sparked an ongoing debate about ‘freedom of speech’. AD 8: writings of jurist and orator Cassius Severus burned, and he is sent into exile. AD 8: Ovid exiled for ‘an error’ and (evidently) his poetry AD 11: Augustus strengthens ban against magicians and astrologers Tiberius AD 16: Libo Drusus charged with attempting to use magic (ostensibly to harm Tiberius), and commits suicide AD 16: in wake of another decree against magicians and astrologers, two practitioners are executed AD 17: Tiberius introduces legislation punishing those who make slanderous remarks against Augustus AD 21: Clutorius Priscus charged with writing treasonous poetry, executed. AD 23: Aelius Saturninus banished for writing slanderous poetry …there follow numerous cases of men being charged with and exiled for writing treasonous material. AD 25: case of Cremutius Cordus, charged with treason for his Histories, commits suicide. Caligula AD 37: Oddly, Caligula ‘reverses’ the ban on the works of Labienus, Cordus, and Cassius Severus! .