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The Senatus Consultum from Larinum*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Barbara Levick
Barbara Levick
Affiliation:
St. Hilda's College, Oxford
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Extract

A bronze tablet found at Larinum (near modern Larino), in the territory of the Frentani, and published in 1978, carries part of an SC of A.D. 19 that embodies measures against public performance on stage or in the arena by members of the upper classes.

This tablet poses a variety of interrelated problems which are the concern of this paper: it is itself incomplete; there are gaps in the history of the measures taken against public performance by members of the upper classes (the offence dealt with on the tablet); it is uncertain whether that was the only offence it dealt with or whether, as the testimony of Suetonius might suggest, it catered for the sexual misconduct of matrons; and there is a paradox about the penalty voluntarily incurred by would-be performers, in that it does not seem to have differed from the original penalty for performing. The solutions to each of the problems are mutually dependent, but I shall deal with them in the above order.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 73 , November 1983 , pp. 97 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Barbara Levick 1983. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Oral communication with circulated text by A. La Regina; M. Malavolta, ‘A proposito del nuovo S.C. da Larino’, Studi pubblicati dall' Ist. Ital. per la Storia Antica XXVII: Sesta miscellanea greca e romana (1978), 347 ff.; AE 1978, 145; Giuffrè, V., ‘Un senatoconsulto ritrovato: il “Sc. de matronarum lenocinio coercendo”,’ Estr. d. Atti dell'Accademia di Scienze Morali e Politiche XCI (1980)Google Scholar; Biondi, B., Labeo XXVI (1980), 277 f.Google Scholar

2 Kindly put at my disposal by Mr Crawford.

3 P. Raveggi and A. Minto, Not. Scavi, Ser. VIII Vol. 1 (1947), 49 ff., especially 53 (‘l'intera altezza in m. 0,90’), with photograph; J. H. Oliver and R. E. A. Palmer, AJP LXXV (1954), 225 ff., with bibliography and photograph; text: V. Ehrenberg and A. H. M. Jones, Docs. Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius (ed. D. L. Stockton, 1976), 94a and b.

4 For the hexastyle Corinthian temple, see also Ret Gestae Divi Augusti 19, 1, and 21, 2, with Brunt and Moore ad loc, and M(alavolta) 365, n. 2, and G(iuffrè) 19, n. 45, adding to works cited there Lugli, G., ‘Il tempio di Apollo Aziaco e il gruppo augusteo del Palatino’, Atti Accad. S. Luca, N.S. 1 (1951–1952), 26 ff.Google Scholar, and Fontes VIII (1962), 57 ff.; Gage, J., Apollon romain. Bibl. des Écoles fr. d'Ath. et de Rome 182 (1955), 523 ff.Google Scholar, and ‘Apollon impérial’, ANRW 11, 17, ii (1981), 566 ff., with 619 ff. (bibliography) for the site; Gros, P., Aurea Templa. Bibl. des Écoles fr. d'Ath. et de Rome 231 (1976)Google Scholar, index; D. L. Thompson, ‘The Meetings of the Roman Senate on the Palatine’, AJA LXXXV (1981), 335 ff., placing the meetings in the bibliotheca. (For these last three references I am indebted to the kindness of Mr Purcell and Professor Wiseman.)

5 See Syme, R., JRS XXXIX (1949), 8Google Scholar; the tribe is attested for his father: Wiseman, T. P., New Men in the Roman Senate 146 B.C.–A.D. 14 (1971), 215 no. 53Google Scholar: Cic., ad Fam. VIII, 8, 6.

6 Tert., De Spect. 22, 2: ‘amant quos multant’; the paradox is implicit in Cic., Pro. Quinct. 78.

7 Livy VII, 2, 3 ff. (13 is cited), cf. Val. Max. 11, 4, 4.

8 For this and the following notes, see Balsdon, J. P. V. D., Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome (1969), 279 ff.Google Scholar He cites Sall., Cat. 25, 2 (Sempronia), Macr., Sat. III, 14, 10 (Sulla). At 14, 5, Macrobius sta tes that it was not Sempronia's dancing that was the problem, but her proficiency; 6, 8, and 10 are also informative. We do not know how accomplished the consul of A.D. 19, Norbanus, was on his trumpet (Dio LVII, 18, 3).

9 L. Friedlaender, Sittengesch. Roms II9 (1920), 62; Balsdon, op. cit., 281, n. 196 f. (references mainly to the Principate). See also Tac., Ann. 1, 54, 3 (Maecenas and Bathyllus), cf. 1, 77, 5 (A.D. 15); A. Gell. xx, 4 (uncertain date).

10 Friedlaender, op. cit., 61; Lucil. 1273 f. Marx, apud Cic., De Orat. III, 86; Pro Sest. 9; Suet., Div. Iul. 26, 3; Sen., Ep. 87, 9.

11 Dio XLIII, 23, 5 (tr. E. Cary, Loeb ed.); see Meyer, E., Caesars Monarchie u. der Principal des Pompeius (ed. 3, 1922), 386, n. 1.Google Scholar

12 Suet., Div. Iul. 39, 1.

13 Dio XLVIII, 43, 2 f. (tr. E. Cary).

14 Dio LIV, 2, 5 (tr. E. Cary); cf. LIII 31,3 (23 B.C.).

15 Dio XLVIII, 33, 4; cf. Suet., Div. Aug. 43, 2 (‘confectores ferarum…ex nobilissima iuventute’ under Augustus). The Q. Vitellius, a senator who fought as a gladiator in 29 B.C. (Dio LI, 22, 4, with Wiseman, New Men, 276, no. 505), could have been one of those expelled in that year, but we do not know.

16 Suet., Div. Aug. 43, 3.

17 See Levick, B., Historia XVI (1967), 207 fGoogle Scholar.

18 Dio LIII, 31, 3.

19 Dio LVI, 25, 8.

20 Suet., Nero 4, with M. 355, n. 3, 369 f. and 381, putting responsibility on lanistae.

21 Dio LV, 10, 11.

22 Balsdon, op. cit. (n. 8), 278, with n. 179. Miss Rawson draws attention to Festus 238L where only actors in Atellan farces are allowed to keep masks on throughout, and to the fact that there is now no suggestion that performer in Atellan plays are of superior status.

23 Dio LV, 10, 12.

24 Dio LVI, 25, 7 f. (tr. E. Cary).

25 Dio LVII, 14, 3.

26 Dio XXXVIII, 23, 1; 3 ff.; 24, 1; 26, 1. Interdiction: Levick, B., Historia XXVIII (1979), 370 ff.Google Scholar

27 Dio LII, 7, 1, and 31, 3 (a lesser penalty than exile or death); LV, 18, 3 (between exile and a fine). One can be ἄτιμοϛ…ἐξ ὑπάτου, like Antony (L, 20, 5), and removed from one's consulship in disgrace (XLVIII, 35, 2); to go to prison involved atimia (XL, 45, 4; LVIII, 3, 4); one can die in disgrace like Cleander (LXXIII, 13, 1) and (if an emperor) suffer dishonour after one's death (LX, 4, 5 f.); not to receive an office may constitute atimia (XXXVI, 24, 5). But there is no evidence that atimia means deprivation of Roman citizenship, except as a contingent result of aquae et ignis interdictio.

28 See Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Stage (1923), 1, 236 ff.Google Scholar

29 Beare, W., The Roman Stage (ed. 3, 1964), 166 f.Google Scholar Miss Rawson has pointed out to me that slave actors, who would mostly need to be native speakers of Latin, would normally be vernae; dancers, including pantomimi, would be another matter.

30 Friedlaender, op. cit. (n. 9), 54 ff.

31 Balsdon, op. cit. (n. 8), 281, with nn. 200 ff., citing Cic., Pro Rosc. Com. 23; Pliny, NH VII, 129; Macrob., Sat. IV, 14, 13 f. (actors); 297 with n. 287, citing Livy XLIV, 31, 15; Suet., Tib. 7, 1; ILS 5164 (A.D. 177, ll. 29 ff., 62 f. (gladiators)).

32 Nicolet, C., L'Ordre équestre, Bibl. des Écoles fr. d'Ath. et de Rome 207 (1966, repr. 1974), I, 163 ff.Google Scholar; Henderson, M. I., JRS LIII (1963), 70Google Scholar = The Crisis of the Roman Republic (ed. R. Seager, 1969), 78. I accept the view of Wiseman, T. P., ‘The Definition of “Eques Romanus” in the late Republic and early Empire’, Historia XIX (1970), 67 ff.Google Scholar (the class included those qualified by census); and see E. Badian, Roman Imperialism (ed. 2, 1968), viii.

33 ILS 7846 (first century B.C.); 5163 (A.D. 177); Robert, L., Les Gladiateurs dans l'Orient hell. (1940, repr. 1971), 285 ff.Google Scholar

34 On the circus, see E. Rawson, ‘Chariot Racing in the Roman Republic’, PBSR XLIX (1981), 1 ff.; cursores: see Suet., Div. Aug. 43, 2; see Rawson, art. cit. 9, with n. 37 f., citing Asc. 93C and Suet., Div. Iul. 39, 2, for Sulla's and Caesar's victory games.

35 ‘The Status of Actors at Rome’, CP XXVI (1931), 11 ff., against Warnecke, B., ‘Die bürgerliche Stellung d. Schauspieler im alten Rom’, N. Jahrb. f. kl. Altert. XVII (1914), 95 ff.Google Scholar; contra, W. M. Green, CP XXVIII (1933), 301 ff., and see Balsdon, op. cit. (n. 8), 279 ff., with n. 185, citing Cic., Pro Arch. 10; Nepos, pr. 5; Livy XXIV, 24, 3; Tac., Dial. 10, 5; Cic., De Off. 1, 150.

36 Art. cit., 16. For Roscius see Cicero's defence and De Leg. 1, 4, 11; his sister married P. Quinctius: Pro Quinctio 77; Macr., Sat. III, 14, 13; the affection in which he was held: Cic., Pro Arch. 17. For Aesopus and his son's alleged marriage to a Metella, see Porph. ad Hor., Sat. 11, 3, 239, where ‘ex aure’ may have given birth to ‘uxori’.

37 Suet., Div. Iul. 39, 2; Macr., Sat. 11, 7, a f.; Sen., Contr. VII, 3, 9; see Shackleton Bailey ad Cic., ad Fam. XII, 18, 2 (his 205) and J. R. Schwartz, RÉA L (1948), 264 ff.

38 See A. H. J. Greenidge, Infamia: its Place in Roman Public and Private Law (1894); M. Kaser, ‘“Infamia” und “Ignominia” in den röm. Rechtsquellen’, ZSS LXXIII (1956), 220 ff.; V. Arangio Ruiz, 1st. di Diritto rom. (ed. 14, 1977), 59 ff.; Crook, J. A., Law and Life of Rome (1967), 83 ff.Google Scholar, with 303, n. 7; all have further bibliography. M.'s use of the term is censured by G. 8, n. 7.

39 A general concept is implicit in Dig. XLVIII, 7, 1 pr. (Marcianus, first half of the third century A.D.): ‘quasi infamis ex senatus consulto’; cf. III 2, 2, 2 (Ulpian): ‘inter infames efficit.’

40 Coll. IV, 3, 2 (FIRA 11, 553).

41 FIRA 12, 88, v. 13.

42 ibid. 147 ff. As Professor Brunt observes, it is not from the Lex and the Tabula themselves that we know that some of the disqualifications they specify imply infamia: it is to be argued from their inclusion amongst the consequences.

43 Callistratus, in Dig. XXII, 5, 3, 5.

44 Rotondi, G., Leges Publicae Populi Romani (1912), 361Google Scholar.

45 Dio LIV, 16; 1.

46 Coll. IV, 3, 2 (FIRA 11, 553). Dr Hart draws attention to the yet larger and more varied list of Macer in Dig. XLVIII, 5, 25 (24), pr., still without the word infamia; but cf. Sent. Pauli II, 26, 4 (FIRA 11, 351).

47 Pro Clu. 119 f.: ‘turpi iudicio damnati in perpetuum omni honore ac dignitate privantur, sic hominibus ignominia notatis neque ad honorem aditus neque in curiam reditus est.’

48 Juv. III 152 ff.; cf. Hor., Ep. 1, 1, 57 ff. For the Lex Roscia, see above, on 1. 8 f.

49 Asinius Pollio apud Cic., ad Fam. X, 32, 2.

50 See Macr., Sat. II, 7, 3.

51 Greenidge, op. cit. (n. 38), 124 f., citing Pegasus in Dig. III, 2, 2, 5; see also Ulpian in Dig. III, 1, 1. Balsdon, op. cit. (n. 8), 290, suggests that the gladiators of A.D. 15 (Dio LVII, 14, 3) were using dummy weapons.

52 Cic., Pro Rosc. Com. 23.

53 Asinius Pollio apud Cic., ad Fam. x, 32, 2; comparable later events: Suet., Cal. 27, 2; Tac., Hist. II, 62.

54 Tac., Ann. XIV, 14; cf. the ‘Auctoratus ad sepeliendum patrem’ of Quint. Decl. 302 and the gladiator of 9; Balsdon, op. cit. (n. 8), 290 with n. 246, citing Livy XXVIII, 21, 2; Hor., Ep. 1, 18, 36; Sen., Ep. XCIX, 13; Juv. VIII, 199 ff.; XI 5 ff. and 20.

55 Suet., Tib. 35, 2, with the notes of Rietra, J. R., C. Suetoni Tranquilli Vita Tiberi—C. 24—C. 42 (1928)Google Scholar.

56 Corbett, P. E., The Roman Law of Marriage (1930), 133 ff.Google Scholar

57 Tac., Ann. II, 85, 1 ff., with Furneaux and Koestermann ad loc. The behaviour of Julia the Elder is worth recalling: Sen., De Ben. VI, 32, 1.

58 Dig. XLVIII, 5, 11 (10), 2; see G. 8, n. 6, who refers to his paper ‘Papiniano: fra tradizione ed innovazione’, ANRW 11, 15 (1976), 632 ff., at 655 ff.; for doubts on the authenticity of parts of the passage cited, see the 1980 paper (art. cit., n. 1), 33. n. 99.

59 cf. Tac., Ann. XII, 60: ‘Sempronii rogationi bus…Serviliae leges.’

60 See G. 16, n. 30; he declines to take the writers' words in a technical sense; nonetheless, he thinks that the SC may have concentrated on lenocininm, which did not imply adultery before the ‘declaration’ and committed the woman to less; the two are equivalent juridically.

61 Plural SCC in the Larinum text, 1. 6; see pp. 106–7: the term may refer to a ‘“politica” legislativa senatoria, manifestatasi in più di un provvedimento’.

62 Tac., Ann. 1, 54, 3 (A.D. 14); 77 (15); Dio LVII, 14, 10 (15); cf. II, 5 f.; Suet., Tib. 47.

63 Tac., Ann. 1, 16, 4.

64 Tac., Ann. 11, 27 ff.; 39 f.; Dio LVII, 16 3 f.; cf. Suet., Tib. 25.

65 Dio LVII, 18, 5, discussed by Newbold, R. F., ‘Social Tension at Rome in the early years of Tiberius' reign’, Athenaeum N.S. LII (1974), 110 ff.Google Scholar, at 115 ff.

66 Rotondi, Leges Publicae, 361 and 443.

67 Cic., Pro Roscio 16; Macer in Dig. XLVIII, 1, 7 (‘velut furti, vi bonorum raptorum, iniuriarum’). It is surely in such actions that the answer is to be found: Asc., In Corn. 78C, says outright that ‘quem populus damnasset in senatu ne esset’ (lex Cassia of 104 B.C.); cf. Lex Acilia l. 11, FIRA I2, 87.

68 The narrow and specific effect of condemnation is shown by the ad Her. 1, 11: ‘Lex vetat eum, qui de pecuniis repetundis damnatus sit, in contione orationem habere: altera lex iubet, augurem in demortui locum qui petat, in contione nominare. Augur quidam damnatus de pecuniis repetundis in demortui locum nominavit; petitur ab eo multa.’

69 Dig. XLVIII, 5, 25 (24), pr. (Macer). For the procedure see Buckland, W. W., A Textbook of Roman Law (ed. 3, by Stein, P., 1063), 719 ff.Google Scholar; note the possibility envisaged in the Tabula Heracleensis, l. 118, FIRA 12, 149. For the development of this restricted infamia, see Kaser, art. cit. (n. 38), 270 f.

70 Gaius, Inst. IV, 57.

71 104 f., FIRA I2, 148.

72 Rotondi, Leges Publicae, 463.

73 ‘Recenti maestitia’, Ann. II, 84, 1; Fast. Ost., Inscr. Ital. XIII, i, 184 f.

74 Rickman, G., The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome (1980), 130Google Scholar, cf. 70 (the shortage in the winter of 19–20), following Wilcken, U., Hermes LXIII (1928), 51Google Scholar and 62 f. A shortage in spring 19 would chime in well with the Egyptian shortage of January, both being due to a bad harvest in 18. There was a shortage at the death of Gaius, 24 January, A.D. 41 (Sen., De Brev. Vit. 18, 5), and during the reign of Otho, 15 January–16 April, 69 (Tac., Hist. 1, 86). Tacitus reports another at the end of 32 (Ann. VI, 13, 1).

75 Art. cit. (n. 1), 350, 382.

76 Art. cit. (n. 1), 10, n. 7.

77 Tac., Ann. VI, 9, 2.

78 Syme, R., JRS XXXIX (1949), 16 f.Google Scholar; LX (1970), 27 ff.

79 Tac., Ann. XIV, 14 and 20.

80 ibid, III, 24, 2; cf. II, 50.

81 This section owes much to Newbold, art. cit. (n. 65); I am indebted to Mr Purcell for drawing my attention to it in connexion with the SC from Larinum.

82 See Brunt, P. A., ‘The Lex Valeria Cornelia’, JRS LI (1961), 71 ff.Google Scholar, especially 76, with n. 37.

83 Dio LIV, 17, 3; 26, 3 ff.

84 Nicolet, C., ‘Le Cens sénatorial sous la République et sous Auguste’, JRS LXVI (1976), 20 ff.Google Scholar, especially 38.

85 Suet., Div. Aug. 38, 2.

86 For these enactments, see Rotondi, Leges Publicae, 443 ff. and 457; P. E. Corbett, Law of Marriage, 31 ff., 119 ff.; A. Watson, The Law of Persons in the later Roman Republic (1967), 32 ff.

87 Dig. XXIII, 2, 44 pr. (Paul).

88 Suet., Div. Aug. 44, 1; cf. Lex Ursonensis, ILS 6087 (=FIRA I2, 177 no. 21), ch. 127.

89 Dio LV, 22, 4.

90 Suet., Div. Aug. 37, 1; 38, 3, with Wiseman, T. P., Historia XIX (1970), 70Google Scholar.

91 Above, nn. 3 and 82.

92 See Newbold, art. cit. (n. 65), 130 ff., over stressing repression and tension; Hopkins, M. K., ‘Elite Mobility in the Roman Empire’, Past and Present XXXII (1965), 12 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar = Studies in Ancient Society (ed. M. I. Finley, 1974), 103 ff.

93 Tac., Ann. 1, 15, 1; Vell. Pat. II, 124.

94 See above, n. 3.

95 See Rotondi, Leges Publicae, 463.

96 ibid. 464 f., with Wiseman, art. cit. (n. 32), 76.

97 Dio LIX, 10, 1 f., with M. 362.

98 Dio LX, 7, 1.

99 Tac., Hist. 11, 62: ‘Cautum severe ne equites Romani ludo et harena polluerentur. Priores id principes pecunia et saepius vi perpulerant, ac pleraque municipia et coloniae aemulabantur corruptissimum quemque adulescentium pretio inlicere’ (which may help to explain the setting up of the bronze at Larinum).