Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

in cases where a magistrate is prosecuted for gross malpractice in military command and where there is perhaps an incidental suggestion that he may have been bribed by the enemy. Other acts that might be prosecuted as maiestas included interfering with a magistrate in the performance of his duties, waging war without proper authorization, and wasting state resources. The penalty was capital.

Changes under the Empire

The most important change under the Empire was probably the collapse of most criminal jurisdiction into the cognitio pro cedure that was also coming into use for civil cases (Chapter 11). Just as in private law, this made the state much more activ ist than it had been. But the substantive effects of the change were much greater than they had been in private law. Since cognitio procedure was formally beyond the statutes that estab lished the standing inquiries, it was not bound either by their definitions or by their penalties. While the old rules were not systematically thrown out, a substantially new system evolved. I will say more about the offenses later, but first we may note major changes in the range of penalties. First, while exile had been a way to escape execution, it now became a penalty in its own right. Depending on the specific offense, the exile might have more or less choice about where to go and might or might not have property confiscated. Second, physical punishments such as condemnation to forced labor and execution were

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