An Inquiry on the Two Laws of the Plebeian Institutions in the early Roman Republic

초록

The purpose of this article is to investigate the power and its developmental process of the tribuni plebis and the concilum plebis in the early Roman Republic. It is generally believed that 1) the tribuni plebis were elected in the concilium plebis 2) the plebeian assembly was organized on tribal formation 3) the plebeian tribunes introduced their bills only in their assembly, since the first secessio in 494 BCE. But there is no secure evidence to support these presumptions. The two laws, the lex Publilia and the lex Valeria Horatia would not only present a doubt about three unconvinced assumptions but also give a hint to the solution of such a problem. Through investigating into these two laws, four hypotheses could be formulated. 1) The tribuni plebis were elected in the comitia curiata and not in the plebeian assembly from the beginning. It is also not that they proposed their legislation only before their own assembly called the concilium plebis. 2) The concilum plebis was based on a curiate organization rather than on a tribal organization or was no more than open meetings not being divided into groups. 3) It is not until the Publilian Law of 471 BC that the plebeian institutions became officially recognized. In other worlds, the plebeian tribunes were elected in their own assembly and their number was increased to five. The plebeian assembly was based on a tribal organization. 4) As well as may have given a legal recognition to the plebeian institutions by securing the tribune’s sacrosanctity, the lex Valeria Horatia of 449 BCE may have induced the tribuni plebis to legislate in their own assembly by regulating that what the tribally assembled plebeians might order should be binding on the people. It is difficult to deny that my reconstruction about the power and function of the plebeian tribunes and assembly in the Early Republic may contain fictitious elements. But this trial worth while being made in that it reexamined the historical developmental process of the plebeian institutions.

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