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{{Short description|Ancient Roman law}}
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The '''''lex Hortensia''''' was a law passed in [[Ancient Rome]] in 287&nbsp;BC which made all resolutions passed by the [[Plebeian Council]], known as ''plebiscita'', binding on all citizens.<ref name="lintott">{{cite book|last1=Lintott|first1=Andrew|title=The Constitution of the Roman Republic|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-926108-3|page=38|ref=harv}}</ref> It was passed by the dictator Quintus Hortensius in a compromise to bring the plebeians back from their secession to the Janiculum hill.<ref name="lintott" />
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{{Italic title}}
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The '''''lex Hortensia''''', also sometimes referred to as the '''Hortensian law''', was a law passed in [[Ancient Rome]] in 287 BC which made all resolutions passed by the [[Plebeian Council]], known as ''plebiscita'', binding on all citizens.<ref name="lintott">{{cite book|last1=Lintott|first1=Andrew|title=The Constitution of the Roman Republic|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-926108-3|page=38}}</ref> It was passed by the dictator [[Quintus Hortensius (dictator)|Quintus Hortensius]] in a compromise to bring the plebeians back from their secession to the [[Janiculum]].<ref name="lintott" />


It was the final result of the long [[Conflict of the Orders|struggle]] between [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]]s and [[plebeian]]s, where the plebeians would periodically secede from the city in protest (''[[secessio plebis]]'') when they felt they were deprived of their rights. The law contained similar stipulations of the two earlier laws, the ''lex Valeria-Horatia'' of 449&nbsp;BC and ''lex Publilia'' of 339&nbsp;BC.<ref name="develin">{{cite journal|last1=Develin|first1=R|title="Provocatio" and Plebiscites. Early Roman Legislation and the Historical Tradition|journal=Mnemosyne|date=1978|volume=31|issue=1|pages=45-60|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4430760|access-date=12 February 2010}}</ref><ref name="abbott">{{cite book|last1=Abbott|first1=Frank Frost|title=A History and Descriptions of Roman Political Institutions|date=1963|publisher=Biblo and Tannen|location=New York|page=32|edition=3|ref=harv}}</ref> Unlike the prior two laws, however, ''lex Hortensia'' eliminated the requirement that the Senate ratify, in the case of the ''lex Valeria-Horatia'', or give its prior approval to, in the case of the ''lex Publilia'', plebiscites before becoming binding on all citizens.{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=52}} Its passage secured the end of the [[Conflict of the Orders]], and secured theoretically equal political rights between [[patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]] and [[plebeian|plebeians]].{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=53}}
It was the final result of the long [[Conflict of the Orders|struggle]] between [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]]s and [[plebeian]]s, where the plebeians would periodically secede from the city in protest (''[[secessio plebis]]'') when they felt they were deprived of their rights. The law contained similar stipulations of the two earlier laws, the ''[[Valerio-Horatian Laws|lex Valeria-Horatia]]'' of 449&nbsp;BC and ''lex Publilia'' of 339&nbsp;BC.<ref name="develin">{{cite journal|last1=Develin|first1=R|title="Provocatio" and Plebiscites. Early Roman Legislation and the Historical Tradition|journal=Mnemosyne|date=1978|volume=31|issue=1|pages=45–60|doi=10.1163/156852578X00256|jstor=4430760}}</ref><ref name="abbott">{{cite book|last1=Abbott|first1=Frank Frost|title=A History and Descriptions of Roman Political Institutions|date=1963|publisher=Biblo and Tannen|location=New York|page=32|edition=3}}</ref> Unlike the prior two laws, however, ''lex Hortensia'' eliminated the requirement that the Senate ratify, in the case of the ''lex Valeria-Horatia'', or give its prior approval to, in the case of the ''lex Publilia'', plebiscites before becoming binding on all citizens.{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=52}} Its passage secured the end of the [[Conflict of the Orders]], and secured theoretically equal political rights between [[patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]] and [[plebeian]]s.{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=53}}


==Origin==
==Causes==
In the annalistic tradition, around the year 287&nbsp;BC, a plebeian dictator by the name of Hortensius was appointed to handle a civil uprising that eventually led to the secession of the plebs to the Janiculum hill;<ref name="maddox">{{cite journal|last1=Maddox|first1=Graham|title=The Economic Causes of the Lex Hortensia|journal=Société d'Études Latines de Bruxelles|date=1983|volume=42|issue=2|pages=277–286|jstor=41532825}}</ref> only after the passage of the ''lex Hortensia'' in the [[Centuriate Assembly]], or ''comitia centuriata'', did the plebs return to the city.{{sfn|Maddox|1983|p=277}} The annals attribute the cause of the uprising to debt problems, with the proximate cause being the call to arms to fight against the Lucanians, giving the plebeians more leverage in depriving the patricians of needed manpower in the war.{{sfn|Maddox|1983|p=278}}
{{main|Quintus Hortensius (dictator)}}
[[Quintus Hortensius (dictator)|Quintus Hortensius]] was a Roman dictator during the 3rd century&nbsp;BC, when the struggle between plebeians and patricians was at an apex. For two centuries, the classes had been locked in a struggle, in which the patricians tried to control and maintain the ever-growing plebeian privilege.<ref>“Quintus Hortensius.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/272473/Quintus-Hortensius (accessed February 12, 2010).</ref> Often in response to the actions of the Senate, the plebs would take composite action and seceded from the city. In 287&nbsp;BC, the plebeians seceded to the [[Janiculum|Janiculam hill]], and in response Quintus Hortensius was appointed dictator. Shortly thereafter he passed a law to attempt to end the struggle between the plebeian and patrician classes; because the law was sponsored by Quintus Hortensius, it became known as the ''lex Hortensia'', or "the Hortensian law". Though very little is known about him personally, it has been suggested he died while still dictator.


However, there is considerable reason to doubt this story,{{sfn|Maddox|1983|p=280}} which Livy attributes to urban rabble in the forum,{{sfn|Maddox|1983|p=280}} as large masses of urban poor did not really exist in the middle Republic.{{sfn|Maddox|1983|p=283}} Furthermore, rural landowners controlled the vast majority of the votes in the [[Plebeian Council]] ({{langx|la|concilium plebis}}), as they controlled 29 of the voting blocs that never numbered more than 35, since the Council was organised in the same way as the [[Tribal Assembly]] ({{langx|la|comitia tributa}}), just with the exclusion of patricians. The more likely cause is therefore the desire of rural plebeians to control the distribution of public lands ({{langx|la|ager publicus}}) won in the [[Third Samnite War]].{{sfn|Maddox|1983|p=280}}
==Lex Hortensia==


Due to the extreme measures taken by the consuls, however, it is likely that considerable urban unrest predicated this reform.{{sfn|Maddox|1983|p=286}} With both the urban and the rural sections of the populace clamouring for reform and the military necessities of manpower granting the plebs a strong negotiating position, the law entered the realm of the inevitable.{{sfn|Maddox|1983|p=286}} Of course, necessary to pass such specific and controlling legislation was an organised movement, likely coordinated by the plebeian [[tribune]]s in the city.{{sfn|Maddox|1983|p=283}}
A law passed in 287&nbsp;BC, as suggested by appointed dictator, Quintus Hortensius, which made all resolutions passed by plebeians binding on all citizens. What made this law especially noteworthy was that each resolution was binding, regardless of prior approval of the Senate, which made the measures passed just as binding as those passed by the [[Roman assemblies]]. It was passed in direct response to the patricians’ refusal to accept some of the plebeian decisions as binding upon them.<ref name="develin"/> This also allowed for the plebeians to rise to a higher status, where the wealthy now held the same amount of power and voice as the patricians did in the Senate. This also allowed the dominance of the patrician officials to wither.


==Provisions==
==Growing Plebeian privilege and the "Struggle of the Orders"==
The ''lex Hortensia'' was a step in a series of reforms that secured political freedom for the plebs. In the early Republic, before the start of reforms, laws passed by the [[Plebeian Council]] applied not to all Romans, but only to plebeians, because only plebeians could vote in the council. But after the ''[[Valerio-Horatian Laws|lex Valeria-Horatia]]'' in 449&nbsp;BC, plebiscites could become binding to all Romans, and not just plebeians, if they were ratified by the Senate.{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=52}} However, after the passage of ''[[lex Pubilia]]'', the ratification of laws was moved to before the passage of the bill in the ''concilium plebis'', which apparently reduced the chance of senatorial obstruction.{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=52}}


Furthermore, the law created restrictions on when votes could be scheduled. For example, votes could no longer be held on market days, which could have interfered in economic business. However, this served as an impediment towards the participation of rural plebeians in the ''concilium plebis'', as they were then unable to vote on convenient days when they would have been in the city.{{sfn|Maddox|1983|pp=284-285}}
After 509&nbsp;BC, when the last kings of the [[Roman republic]] were overthrown, all focus in power came to be on the Roman Senate, which ruled through elected magistrates that ruled for a lifetime.<ref>Arlene W. Saxonhouse, “Classical Greece and Rome,” in Theories Thin, Political Philosophy: Theories, Thinkers, and Concepts, ed. Seymour Martin Lipset (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2001), 308-310.</ref> The members of this Senate, and thus the elected magistrates, were members of the elite wealthy families who could afford for their members to spend money and time on campaigning and elections. In 494&nbsp;BC, when the plebeians organized en masse and seceded to the Sacred Hill, they forced the higher orders to recognize them “as a constituted order with assemblies and magistrates of its own, and right of corporate action on its own account.”<ref name="L. Strachan-Davidson, 1886">J. L. Strachan-Davidson, “The Growth of Plebeian Privilege at Rome,” The English Historical Review 1, no. 2 (Apr 1886):14, http://www.jstor.org/stable/546888 (accessed February 12, 2010).</ref> They sought to represent only the concerns of the members of this “constituted order” and no records claim they sought to exercise either sovereignty or legislative power over the community. The secession of 287 would prove to be the final one, because in response the [[Roman dictator|dictator]] [[Quintus Hortensius (dictator)|Quintus Hortensius]] sponsored a law which gave the [[Plebeian Council]] the right to enact laws (''[[plebiscites]]'') that were not subject to vetoes by the senate.{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=52}} Yet, by the time of the [[Punic Wars]] from 264 to 146&nbsp;BC between [[Carthage]] and [[Rome]], the [[plebeian assembly]] had been delegated the entirety of powers similarly granted to the ''populous''.<ref>I.e. ''the old sovereign of Rome''. J. L. Strachan-Davidson, “The Growth of Plebeian Privilege at Rome,” The English Historical Review 1, no. 2 (Apr 1886):14, http://www.jstor.org/stable/546888 (accessed February 12, 2010).</ref>
This new plebeian governing committee was allowed to form their own concilium with their own magistrates and tribunes, under their own set of traditions and procedures.<ref name="L. Strachan-Davidson, 1886"/> This concilium came to be known as the ''concilium plebis'', whose decisions were binding only to other plebeians.<ref name="Plebeians, Romans 1998">“Plebeians, Romans,” in Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Carroll Moulton (New York: Simon and Schuster MacMillan, 1998), 134-135.</ref> Providing that the decisions were approved by patricians, then and only then could they be applied to all Roman citizens.<ref>"Plebeians, Romans,” in Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Carroll Moulton (New York: Simon and Schuster MacMillan, 1998), 134-135.</ref> This council also elected the ten tribunes and [[Aediles]] in interest of the plebeians.<ref>Plebeians, Romans,” in Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Carroll Moulton (New York: Simon and Schuster MacMillan, 1998), 134-135.</ref> Around the mid-5th century&nbsp;BC, the plebeians began to demand the Roman rulers to codify Roman law so that all citizens were seen as equal.<ref name="Plebeians, Romans 1998"/> The Plebeian Council had already acquired the right to pass laws that were binding on both [[Plebeians]] and [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|Patricians]] (in 449&nbsp;BC), but up to this point, plebiscites were subject to vetoes by the Patrician senators (through the ''auctoritas patrum'', or "authority of the fathers" or "authority of the Patrician senators"). This law also ended this requirement for laws (''leges'') passed by the [[Tribal Assembly]], but not for the [[Centuriate Assembly]]. During the late Roman Republic, thanks to the ''lex Hortensia'', the concilium plebis became the main legislative body in the Roman government.
This law should not be viewed as the final triumph of democracy over aristocracy,{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=53}} since, through its close relations with the [[Plebeian Tribune]]s, the senate could still control the Plebeian Council. Thus, the ultimate significance of this law was in the fact that it robbed the Patricians of their final weapon over the Plebeians. The result was that the ultimate control over the state fell, not onto the shoulders of democracy, but onto the shoulders of the new Patricio-Plebeian senatorial aristocracy.{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=53}}


As a question of legal semantics, there remained a difference between a ''plebiscitum'', a plebeian law, and a ''lex'', a law ''per se''. The ''lex Hortensia'' simply changed the recognition of the ''plebiscitum'' such that it was treated as if it were a ''lex''. Later, as the distinction became immaterial, all binding laws, formerly ''leges'' or ''plebiscita'', became referred to ''leges'' as well.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Friezer |first1=E. |title=Interregnum and Patrum Auctoritas |journal=Mnemosyne |date=1959 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=326 |doi=10.1163/156852559X00248}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-law#ref469067|title=Roman law|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-04-26|language=en}}</ref>
==First Instance of Plebeian Assembly Sovereignty==


==Legacy==
Before the ''lex Valeria-Horatia'' and the ''lex Hortensia'', the majority of plebeian votes were seen as a mere petition to which the patricians would then act upon accordingly.<ref name="L. Strachan-Davidson, 1890">J. L. Strachan-Davidson, “The Decrees of the Roman Plebs,” The English Historical Review 5, No. 19 (July 1890): 462-474, http://www.jstor.org/stable/546448 (accessed February 18, 2010).</ref> Frequently the tribune would see the vote of the plebs as moral support rather than legal validity.<ref name="L. Strachan-Davidson, 1890"/> Once the Lex Valeria-Horatia and Lex Publica ut plebei scita omnes quirites tenerent were passed, the plebeians and its magistrates did hold practical power of initiative.<ref name="L. Strachan-Davidson, 1890"/> After these laws, the tribune was given the power to confirm or object what the majority of the Plebeian council had decided.<ref name="L. Strachan-Davidson, 1890"/>
The passage of the Hortensian law ended a significant chapter in the [[Conflict of the Orders]], a centuries long political conflict between the plebs and the patricians.{{sfn|Abbott|1963|p=53}} It also cemented the pre-eminence of the [[Tribal Assembly]] and the [[Plebeian Council]] in legislation, with primarily minor and procedural laws passed in the late Republic. The law cemented the authority of the Roman people, making plebeians and their tribunes important political players, which previous laws had failed to do.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Develin|first=R.|date=1978-01-01|title="Provocatio" and Plebiscites. Early Roman Legislation and the Historical Tradition|jstor=4430760|journal=Mnemosyne|volume=31|issue=1|page=58}}</ref>
It has been argued that the two most notable laws passed to grant power to the plebeian assembly, Lex Valeria and Lex Horatia, were the actual first instance of considerable and sovereign power being granted to the plebs; some scholars accept another theory.<ref>J. L. Strachan-Davidson, “The Growth of Plebeian Privilege at Rome,” The English Historical Review 1, no. 2 (April 1886):15, http://www.jstor.org/stable/546888 (accessed February 12, 2010).</ref> Most scholars believe that a mistake was made in the interpretation of the articles of the laws, namely by [[Livy]], who assumed them to be dealing with the plebeian assembly, but were actually meant for the comitia tributa, a minor assembly of the [[populus Romanus]]. Suffice it to say, modern scholars accept ''lex Hortensia'' as being the monumental movement in bringing the power between the plebs and the nobles to an equal standing.

Other laws concerning the status of plebeians were:


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== See also ==
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
⚫
* [[Roman law]]
⚫
* [[List of Roman laws]]
* [[Valerio-Horatian Laws|Leges Valeriae et Horatiae]] (449&nbsp;BC)
* [[Valerio-Horatian Laws|Leges Valeriae et Horatiae]] (449&nbsp;BC)
* [[Lex Canuleia]] (453&nbsp;BC)
* [[Lex Canuleia]] (445&nbsp;BC)
* [[Leges Liciniae Sextiae]] (327&nbsp;BC)
* [[Leges Liciniae Sextiae]] (367&nbsp;BC)
* [[Lex Publilia]] (250&nbsp;BC)
* [[Lex Publilia (471 BC)|Lex Publilia]] (250&nbsp;BC)
* [[Lex Ogulnia]] (300&nbsp;BC)
* [[Lex Ogulnia]] (300&nbsp;BC)
}}

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== See also ==
⚫
*[[Roman law]]
⚫
*[[List of Roman laws]]
*[[Conflict of the Orders]]


==References==
==References==
{{reflist|35em}}
{{reflist}}
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{{Italic title}}


==References==
==External links==
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120831060912/http://web.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Cours/Ak/ The Roman Law Library, incl. ''Leges'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120831060912/http://web.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Cours/Ak/ The Roman Law Library, incl. ''Leges'']


[[Category:Roman law]]
[[Category:Roman law]]
[[Category:287&nbsp;BC]]
[[Category:287 BC]]

Latest revision as of 21:21, 31 October 2024

The lex Hortensia, also sometimes referred to as the Hortensian law, was a law passed in Ancient Rome in 287 BC which made all resolutions passed by the Plebeian Council, known as plebiscita, binding on all citizens.[1] It was passed by the dictator Quintus Hortensius in a compromise to bring the plebeians back from their secession to the Janiculum.[1]

It was the final result of the long struggle between patricians and plebeians, where the plebeians would periodically secede from the city in protest (secessio plebis) when they felt they were deprived of their rights. The law contained similar stipulations of the two earlier laws, the lex Valeria-Horatia of 449 BC and lex Publilia of 339 BC.[2][3] Unlike the prior two laws, however, lex Hortensia eliminated the requirement that the Senate ratify, in the case of the lex Valeria-Horatia, or give its prior approval to, in the case of the lex Publilia, plebiscites before becoming binding on all citizens.[4] Its passage secured the end of the Conflict of the Orders, and secured theoretically equal political rights between patricians and plebeians.[5]

Causes

[edit]

In the annalistic tradition, around the year 287 BC, a plebeian dictator by the name of Hortensius was appointed to handle a civil uprising that eventually led to the secession of the plebs to the Janiculum hill;[6] only after the passage of the lex Hortensia in the Centuriate Assembly, or comitia centuriata, did the plebs return to the city.[7] The annals attribute the cause of the uprising to debt problems, with the proximate cause being the call to arms to fight against the Lucanians, giving the plebeians more leverage in depriving the patricians of needed manpower in the war.[8]

However, there is considerable reason to doubt this story,[9] which Livy attributes to urban rabble in the forum,[9] as large masses of urban poor did not really exist in the middle Republic.[10] Furthermore, rural landowners controlled the vast majority of the votes in the Plebeian Council (Latin: concilium plebis), as they controlled 29 of the voting blocs that never numbered more than 35, since the Council was organised in the same way as the Tribal Assembly (Latin: comitia tributa), just with the exclusion of patricians. The more likely cause is therefore the desire of rural plebeians to control the distribution of public lands (Latin: ager publicus) won in the Third Samnite War.[9]

Due to the extreme measures taken by the consuls, however, it is likely that considerable urban unrest predicated this reform.[11] With both the urban and the rural sections of the populace clamouring for reform and the military necessities of manpower granting the plebs a strong negotiating position, the law entered the realm of the inevitable.[11] Of course, necessary to pass such specific and controlling legislation was an organised movement, likely coordinated by the plebeian tribunes in the city.[10]

Provisions

[edit]

The lex Hortensia was a step in a series of reforms that secured political freedom for the plebs. In the early Republic, before the start of reforms, laws passed by the Plebeian Council applied not to all Romans, but only to plebeians, because only plebeians could vote in the council. But after the lex Valeria-Horatia in 449 BC, plebiscites could become binding to all Romans, and not just plebeians, if they were ratified by the Senate.[4] However, after the passage of lex Pubilia, the ratification of laws was moved to before the passage of the bill in the concilium plebis, which apparently reduced the chance of senatorial obstruction.[4]

Furthermore, the law created restrictions on when votes could be scheduled. For example, votes could no longer be held on market days, which could have interfered in economic business. However, this served as an impediment towards the participation of rural plebeians in the concilium plebis, as they were then unable to vote on convenient days when they would have been in the city.[12]

As a question of legal semantics, there remained a difference between a plebiscitum, a plebeian law, and a lex, a law per se. The lex Hortensia simply changed the recognition of the plebiscitum such that it was treated as if it were a lex. Later, as the distinction became immaterial, all binding laws, formerly leges or plebiscita, became referred to leges as well.[13][14]

Legacy

[edit]

The passage of the Hortensian law ended a significant chapter in the Conflict of the Orders, a centuries long political conflict between the plebs and the patricians.[5] It also cemented the pre-eminence of the Tribal Assembly and the Plebeian Council in legislation, with primarily minor and procedural laws passed in the late Republic. The law cemented the authority of the Roman people, making plebeians and their tribunes important political players, which previous laws had failed to do.[15]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Lintott, Andrew (2003). The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-19-926108-3.
  2. ^ Develin, R (1978). ""Provocatio" and Plebiscites. Early Roman Legislation and the Historical Tradition". Mnemosyne. 31 (1): 45–60. doi:10.1163/156852578X00256. JSTOR 4430760.
  3. ^ Abbott, Frank Frost (1963). A History and Descriptions of Roman Political Institutions (3 ed.). New York: Biblo and Tannen. p. 32.
  4. ^ a b c Abbott 1963, p. 52.
  5. ^ a b Abbott 1963, p. 53.
  6. ^ Maddox, Graham (1983). "The Economic Causes of the Lex Hortensia". Société d'Études Latines de Bruxelles. 42 (2): 277–286. JSTOR 41532825.
  7. ^ Maddox 1983, p. 277.
  8. ^ Maddox 1983, p. 278.
  9. ^ a b c Maddox 1983, p. 280.
  10. ^ a b Maddox 1983, p. 283.
  11. ^ a b Maddox 1983, p. 286.
  12. ^ Maddox 1983, pp. 284–285.
  13. ^ Friezer, E. (1959). "Interregnum and Patrum Auctoritas". Mnemosyne. 12 (1): 326. doi:10.1163/156852559X00248.
  14. ^ "Roman law". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  15. ^ Develin, R. (1978-01-01). ""Provocatio" and Plebiscites. Early Roman Legislation and the Historical Tradition". Mnemosyne. 31 (1): 58. JSTOR 4430760.
[edit]
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