Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Crimes and Punishments

punishment. Instead, those convicted of these offenses (as well as in some lesser, civil matters) suffered a variety of civic dis abilities (e.g., a ban on office holding) called by the umbrella term infamia . There are a very few known exceptions, but these do not involve ordinary criminal offenses and even then were controversial among contemporaries. Ambitus . This is electoral bribery. Buying votes directly was illegal from early on, but over time other forms of electoral malpractice were also included: giving out tickets to public games (or putting them on in the first place) or seats at feasts, making deals with other candidates to share votes, gathering an excessive entourage. The most immediate penalty was being disqualified from the election (only winners seem to have been prosecuted), but there was a further bar from seeking office for another decade. This was eventually strengthened to exile (perhaps with a limited term). At some point, the candidate’s principal agents became specifically liable as well. Repetundae . This offense is sometimes described as “extor tion” from provincial subjects. (The Latin term means “recov ery” and is properly the name of the court rather than of the crime itself.) The original scope of the offense seems to have been for a provincial governor to receive more than a spec ified amount of money from one of his subjects, whether as gift, bribe, “protection” money, or even otherwise legitimate payment. Over time, other forms of official misbehavior were included, such as taking bribes of any size, excessive requi sitions from subjects (even for overtly public purposes), and (eventually) leaving one’s own province without authorization

199