was a monetary reward for successful prosecution; this led
to a class of professional prosecutors known as sykophantes.
Measures were taken to reduce the number of frivolous or op-
portunistic prosecutions: A prosecutor who failed to secure 20
percent of the votes of the jurors was liable to a heft y fi ne and
was prohibited from bringing similar actions in the future.
Participation in jury service was also encouraged with
fi nancial incentives starting in the mid-fi ft h century b.c.e. As
a result, law courts were extremely democratic; the poorest
citizens could participate as jurors, and courtroom proce-
dure in many ways resembled that of the popular Assembly, a
meeting of the citizens to discuss aff airs of state. Juries were
extremely large—typically several hundred people, and in
some cases as high as 6,000. As in the Assembly, decisions
were reached aft er listening to speeches. Th ere were no pro-
fessional lawyers, and both prosecutor and defendant pleaded
their own cases. Professional speechwriters, such as Demos-
thenes (384–322 b.c.e.), sometimes wrote speeches for their
clients to deliver.
Th ere were few rules of evidence; hearsay, popular opin-
ion (what Pericles referred to as “unwritten law”), and ap-
peals to the emotions of the jurors were commonly brought to
court. Th e authority of the spoken word was still strong in the
legal system. Witnesses were given precedence over written
testimony at least until the mid-fourth century, and although
they could be questioned by the side that called them, they
could not be cross-examined. As in the Assembly, a simple
majority was necessary to decide conviction or acquittal, and
voting was carried out by dropping pebbles or tokens into
urns. If the vote was for conviction and the off ense carried no
fi xed penalty, a separate penalty phase of the trial would be
carried out, with each side proposing a punishment; the jury
then would choose one or the other but could not compro-
mise between them.
ROME
BY JAMES A. CORRICK
Th e earliest Roman legal writings were the Twelve Tables.
Completed in 450 b.c.e. and modeled on the Athenian legal
code, the Twelve Tables, though not a comprehensive list-
ing of Roman law, covered such matters as debt, inheritance,
property questions, liability, perjury, and bribery. Th e tables
mostly addressed what the Romans called ius privatum, or
private law, as opposed to ius publicum, or public law. Public
law, which included criminal law, was the body of ordinances
that regulated the relationship between citizens and the Ro-
man state. Conversely, private law dealt with legal relations
between citizens, such as contracts and suits.
For much of the Roman Republic (509–27 b.c.e.) private
law covered some acts that later were deemed criminal. For
example, robbery began as a private aff air in which the vic-
tim sought redress through a lawsuit against the thief. By the
late republic, however, theft was a crime with a state-imposed
penalty. Public law initially was restricted to very serious
threats against the state. Th erefore, treason was a matter for
public law. By the end of the republic and continuing into the
empire, ius publicum grew to include such crimes as extor-
tion, embezzlement, murder, and forgery.
Roman law was also divided into ius scriptum and ius
non scriptum. Although these terms literally mean “written
law” and “unwritten law,” respectively, both were in fact writ-
ten down. Ius scriptum referred to statute laws, those passed
by legislative or other offi cial action, while ius non scriptum
referred to laws that by tradition and custom were accepted
as binding, very similar to later English and American com-
mon law.
Roman private law was controlled by male Romans.
Rome never had a staff of prosecutors, and it was therefore
up to each individual citizen to prosecute his own case. Th e
fi rst of the Twelve Tables gave each citizen the right to sum-
mon any who wronged him before a magistrate, before whom
the plaintiff and the defendant would argue their sides of the
case. Th e table also gave the plaintiff the right to use force
to bring the defendant before the magistrate if he would not
come voluntarily.
Th e body of magistrates originally included only offi cers
known as consuls. Th e offi ce carried a certain status known
as imperium, which gave the bearer, among other rights, the
right to interpret and execute the law, including imposing the
death penalty. In 366 b.c.e. a new offi ce, praetor, took over
many of the consuls’ judicial duties, particularly those involv-
ing private law. Like the consuls, the praetor’s offi ce carried
imperium. Dictators also had imperium, as did the emperors
of imperial times; they, too, were considered magistrates.
As Rome brought fi rst Italy and then much of the rest of
the Mediterranean region under its control, it found a need
for a praetor urbanis, who dealt solely with legal matters in-
volving Roman citizens, and a praetor peregrinus, whose re-
sponsibility was suits between citizens and foreigners. Th e
law of the former was called the ius civile (“citizen law”),
while that of the latter was ius gentium (“law of nations”).
Eventually six more praetors were added to help the praetor
urbanis. Praetors continued to act as magistrates through the
fi rst centuries of the empire. By late imperial times, however,
the judicial duties of praetors were taken over by offi cials ap-
pointed by the emperor.
When assuming his duties, a praetor would issue an edict
explaining the legal principles under which he would operate.
Th ese edicts oft en expanded upon or clarifi ed existing law,
and they accordingly became known as praetorian law. Along
with laws passed by the plebian assemblies under the repub-
lic or issued by emperors under the empire, praetorian edicts
became part of the Roman legal code. Ius privatum proceed-
ings were handled solely by a praetor for as long as the offi ce
existed. Under the republic a praetor did not act as a judge.
Rather, his role was to review each case brought before him,
determine its legal merits, issue a formula that explained the
legal points under which the case would be tried, and then
appoint a judge to hear the case. For an important case a fi ve-laws and legal codes: Rome 629