Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

impediments to discussion of matters of public importance. Did Roman law have this idea? No, and in fact it might be argued it took the reverse approach. Insult to a high-status individual might be treated as a particularly aggravated form of the offense on the theory that that person had more to lose. It is, how ever, worth noting a possible gap between theory and practice on this point. The law as written would appear to give elites broad protection, but we know that, at least among the political class, they engaged in fierce, highly personal invective. As far as we know, no one ever filed or even threatened an iniuria suit under these circumstances. This may be because the plaintiff was required to feel subjective insult in addition to proving an objective outrage. Perhaps they did not want to give their enemies the satisfaction of publicly admitting their wounds. At any rate, it is worth considering the fact that social custom could play just as big a role as law in social control.

Disgrace

Socially “deviant” behavior without specific ties to violence was often officially stigmatized instead of being outlawed. The principal legal device here is the notion of infamia , “disgrace.” This is a formal status (or rather a family of related statuses) imposed on persons involved in various suspect activities. In some cases, this meant members of “lower” professions: actors, gladiators and their trainers, prostitutes and pimps. In others, it meant those who had been convicted of public offences (at

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