arising from some other obligations, all cases involving a sum over 15,000 sesterces must be remitted to Rome, the local magistrate having the right to enforce on the parties bail (vadimonium) for their appearance there.[1] These fragmentary notices are an index to a principle which was doubtless fully elaborated in the Augustan legislation.
A tolerable degree of uniformity was also secured in the political structure of the towns of Italy. It was but a development of the typical Italian constitution of magistrates (magistratus potestatesve),[2] senate (senatus, curia, composed of decuriones conscriptive), and popular assembly (comitia conciliumve, composed of municipes and sometimes of incolae); and the lex Julia municipalis of Caesar (45 B.C.) ordains a uniform qualification for the local magistracies and senates, and enjoins that the local census shall be taken in conjunction with that of Rome. But, though the general lines of organisation were the same, this uniformity was chiefly the result of growth, not of creation. No effort was made at securing a common nomenclature either for the states or for their officials. Caesar's municipal law shows municipia, coloniae and praefecturae existing side by side,[3] while inscriptions show titles for officials, such as dictator or praetor, which may be as old as those of Roman magistrates.[4]
- ↑ Lex Rubria cc. 21 and 22. For the vadimonium cf. Cic. in Verr. v. 13, 34 (quoted p. 313).
- ↑ Generally quattuorviri, this board being usually divided into two magistrates with higher jurisdiction (duumviri juri dicundo) and two police officials (duumviri aediles). Sometimes we find IIIIviri dicundo, perhaps a designation for the joint board, or, where the magistrates with aedilician power alone are referred to, IIIIviri aediles or aedilicia potestate. See Wilmanns Index pp. 620-622.
- ↑ Lex Julia mun. l. 84. Cf. Cic. in Pis. 22, 51 "neque enim regio ulla fuit, nec municipium neque praefectura aut colonia, ex qua non ad me publice venerint gratulatum."
- ↑ Wilmanns Index p. 618.
