VĂLĔRĬAE

proposed by the consul P. Valerius Publicola, B.C. 508, enacted, 1. That whoever attempted to obtain po e ion of royal power should be devoted to the gods, together with his substance. 2. That whoever was condemned by the sentence of a magistrate to be put to death, to be scourged, or to be fined, should po e the right of appeal ( provocatio ) to the people. The patricians po e ed previously the right of appeal from the sentence of a magistrate to their own council the curiae, and therefore this law of Valerius probably related only to the plebeians, to whom it gave the right of appeal to the plebeian tribes, and not to the centuries. Hence the laws proposed by the Valerian family respecting the right of appeal are always spoken of as one of the chief safeguards of the liberty of the plebs. The right of appeal did not extend beyond a mile from the city, where unlimited imperium began, to which the patricians were just as much subject as the plebeians.