The lex Cassia de senatu was a Roman law, introduced in 104 BC by the tribune L. Cassius Longinus.[1] The law excluded from the senate individuals who had been deprived of imperium by popular vote[2][3] or had been convicted of a crime in a popular assembly (Judicium Populi).[4][5]

Background

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The law was a move to restrain the discretionary power of the Senate.[6] It was seen as reinforcing the voice of the Roman people.[7] The provision on magistrates stripped of their imperium was a deliberate attack against Quintus Servilius Caepio, proconsul in 105 BC, whose imperium was removed after the disaster of Arausio.[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898),L, Levee, Lex". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  2. ^ Berger, Adolf (1953). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 9781584771425.
  3. ^ Hunter, William Alexander (1803). A Systematic and Historical Exposition of Roman Law in the Order of a Code. Sweet & Maxwell. p. 63. lex cassia 104.
  4. ^ Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (2012). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. ISBN 9780199545568.
  5. ^ "Ascon. in Cic. Cornel. p78, ed. Orelli, reference via LaucusCurtius".
  6. ^ Steel, Catherine; Blom, Henriette van der (2013). Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780199641895.
  7. ^ Millar, Fergus (2002). The Crowd in Rome in the Late Republic. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472088785.
  8. ^ Broughton T. Robert S. (1952–1986). The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, American Philological Association, vol. I, p. 559.