Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

700 LEX THORIA. LEGES VALERIAE.
five Agrarian laws were enacted, Boria, Thoria, are defaced. The value of this attempt can only
Marcia, Apuleia, and Titia. It further appears be estimated by an investigation as complete as
from comparing two passages of Cicero (de Or. ii. that of the author.
70; and Brutus, 36), in which he speaks of the TI'TIA, similar in its provisions to the Lex
Lex Thoria, with the fragments of this Lex whose Publicia. (Dig. 11. tit. 5. s. 3.)
title is lost, that the fragments are those of the TI'TIA DE TUTO'RIBUS (see JULIA LEX
Lex Thoria. Now the date of the Lex Thoria is ET TITIA, and Gains i. 195).
fixed by Rudorff at the year of the city 643 or TREBO'NIA, a plebiscitum proposed by L.
B. C. 111, which is consequently the date of the Trebonius, B. C. 448, which enacted that if the ten
Lex on the bronze tablet, thus identified with tribunes were not chosen before the Comitia were
the Lex Thoria. Proceeding on the assumption dissolved, those who were elected should not fill
that the fragmentary Lex was the Plebiscitum, up the number (co-optare), but that the Conmitia
called the Lex Thoria, Sigonius restored the be- should be continued till the ten were elected. (Liv.
ginning of it according to the usual form of Roman iii. 65, v. 10.)
Plebiscita: Sp. Thorivs... F. Tr. P1. Plebem ivre TREBO'NIA DE PROVI'NCIIS CONSUrog. Plebesque ivre scivit Tribvs.... Principivm LAIRIBUS. (Plut. Caut.lin. 43; Liv. ipit. 105;
fvit pro tribv Q. Fabivs. Q. F. primvs scivit. Dion Cass. xxxix. 33.)
The history of this inscription is curious. It TRIBUNI'TIA. [TaiBuNus.]
was not cut on the rough back of the bronze tablet TU'LLIA DE A/MBITU. [AMtBITTST.]
till after the other side, which is smooth, had been TU/LLIA DE LEGATIO'NE LI'BERA.
occupied by the Servilia Lex. The Servilia Lex [LEGATUS, p. 679, a.]
is certainly not of earlier date than the year of the VALE'RIAE LEGES. In B. c. 508, the concity 648, or B. C. 106, and consequently the Thoria sul P. Valerius proposed and carried various leges,
could not have been cut on this tablet before the the purpose of which was to relieve himself from
year 648. It seems that the tablet was large the suspicion of aiming at kingly power, and to
enough for the Lex Servilia, for which it was in- increase his popularity. The chief were a Lex
tended, but much too small for the Agrarian Law: which gave an appeal (provocatio) to the popules
"' consequently, the characters of the Agrarian side against magistratus, and one which declared to be
of the tablet are remarkably small, the lines nar- accursed, and devoted the man and his property,
row, the abbreviations numerous, and the chapters who should form a design to seize the kingly power
only separated by two or three points, whereas on (Liv. ii. 8). Owing to these popular measures,
the other side the letters are uniform, large, and the consul received the cognomen of Publicola, by
well made, the lines wide, the words written at which he is generally known. This statement of
full length, and the chapters of the Lex separated the law on Provocatio by Livy is very brief and
by superscriptions. Further, the lines (of the unsatisfactory. Cicero (de Rep. ii. 31) states
Agrarian Lex) are often so oblique that they cross more distinctly that this Lex was the first that was
the straight lines on the opposite side, which are passed at the Comitia Centuriata, and that the
cut very deep and consequently are visible on the provisions were " ne quis magistratus civem Romaside on which the Agrarian Lex is cut." (Rudorff) num adversus provocationem necaret neve verbeThe subject-matter of this Lex cannot be stated raret." The Lex, therefore, secured the right of
without entering into detail: the whole is examined appeal to all Roman cives; and it is consistent
by Rudorff with great care. The main subject of with this, that some of the Roman cives, the patrithe Lex to which the first eighteen chapters or cians, as Niebuhr states, had already the provoforty-three lines refer, is the Public land in Italy catio to their curiae. This right of provocatio only
as far as the rivers Rubico and Macra. The second applied to Rome and a mile round the city, for
part of the Lex begins with the nineteenth chap- the Imperium of the consuls beyond this boundary
ter and the forty-fourth line, and extends to the was unlimited (Liv. iii. 20, neque enim provocatiofiftieth chapter and the ninety-sixth line: this nemo esse longius ab urbe mille passuum). Conpart of the Lex relates to the Public and Private formably to this, the Judicia quae Imperio continenland in the Province of Africa. The third and tur comprised among other cases those where the
last part of the Lex, from the fiftieth chapter and Judicium was beyond the limits of the mille pasthe ninety-sixth line to the end of the inscription, sus. The substance of the two Leges is stated by
relates to the Roman Public land in the territory Dionysius (Antiq. Roem. v. 19, 70) with more preof Corinth. cision and apparently in accordance with the terms
Rudorff concludes that the Le.x applied to other of the Leges. The right of provocatio was inland also; and for two reasons. First, the Roman tended to protect persons against the summary
Agrarian Laws of the seventh century of the city, jurisdiction of the consuls, by giving them an aprelated to all the provinces of the empire, of which peal to the 8aijos, and until the srXij0os decided
we have an example in the case of the Lex Servilia on their case, no punishment could be inflicted.
of Rullus. Secondly, the fragment of the Lex (c. 70.) In c. 19 it is said that the appeal was
Thoria, which is preserved, is so broad compared also to the 68uos; and this measure made Publiwith the height that we may conclude that the cola popular with the 68WuoL',coi, whom we must
complete tablet contained three times as much as take to be the Plebs (comp. Dionys. ix. 39). Dioit does now; for nearly all the bronze tablets on nysius generally uses 8;1./os to signify Plebs; but
which Roman laws are cut, are of an oblong form, he also uses 7rA0os in the same sense (vii. 65g
with the height much greater than their width. viii. 70, 71, x. 40).
Of the two-thirds of the tablet which it is con- VALE'RIAE ET HORA'TIAE LEGES were
eluded have been lost, not a trace has yet been proposed by the consuls L. Valerius and 1M. Hodiscovered. ratius B. c. 449. (Liv. iii. 55.) One of these
The essay of Rsudorff contains a copy of the in- Leges which was passed at the Comitia Centuriata
scriptiona with the restoration of the passages that was "ut qluod tributim plebes jussisset populum