RĔPĔTUNDAE

or PĔCŪNĬAE RĔPĔTUNDAE, was the term used to designate such sums of money as the socii of the Roman state or individuals claimed to recover from magi stratus, judices, or public i curatores, which they had improperly taken or received in the Provinciae, or in the Urbs Roma, either in the discharge of their jurisdictio, or in their capacity of judices, or in respect of any other public function. Sometimes the word Repetundae was used to expre the illegal act for which compensation was sought, as in the phrase repetundarum in simular i, damnari ; and Pecuniae meant not only money, but anything that had value. The first lex on the subject was the Calpurnia, which was proposed and carried by the tribunus pleb is L. Calpurnius Piso ( B.C. 149). By this lex a praetor was appointed for trying persons charged with this crime. It seems that the penalties of the Lex Calpurnia were merely pecuniary, and at least did not comprise exsilium. Various leges de repetundis were pa ed after the Lex Calpurnia, and the penalties were continually made heavier. The Lex Junia was pa ed probably about B.C. 126, on the proposal of M. Junius Pennus, tribunus pleb is. The Lex Servilia Glaucia was proposed and carried by C. Servilius Glaucia, praetor, in the sixth consulship of Marius, B.C. 100. This lex applied to any magi stratus who had improperly taken or received money from any private person; but a magi stratus could not be accused during the term of office. The lex enacted that the praetor peregrin us should annually appoint 450 judices for the trial of this offence: the judices were not to be senators. The penalties of the lex were pecuniary and exsilium; the law allowed a comperendinatio. [ Judex . ] Before the Lex Servilia, the pecuniary penalty was simply restitution of what had been wrongfully taken; this lex seems to have raised the penalty to double the amount of what had been wrongfully taken; and subsequently it was made quadruple. Exsilium was only the punishment in case a man did not abide his trial, but withdrew from Rome. The lex gave the civitas to any person on whose complaint a person was convicted of repetundae. The Lex Acilia, which seems to be of uncertain date, was proposed and carried by M’. Acilius Glabrio, a tribune of the plebs, and enacted that there should be neither ampliatio nor comperendinatio. The Lex Cornel i a was pa ed in the dictatorship of Sulla, and continued in force to the time of C. Julius Caesar. It extended the penalties of repetundae to other illegal acts committed in the provinces, and to judices who received bribes, to those to whose hands the money came, and to those who did not give into the aerarium their proconsular accounts ( proconsul a res rationes ). The praetor who presided over this quaestio chose the judges by lot from the senators, whence it appears that the Servilia Lex was repealed by this lex, at least so far as related to the constitution of the court. This lex also allowed ampliatio and comperendinatio. The penalties were pecuniary ( lit is aestimatio ) and the aquae et ignis interdictio . Under this lex were tried L. Do labella, Cn. Piso, C. Verres, C. Macer, M. Fonteius, and L. Flaccus, the two last of whom were defended by Cicero. In the Verrine Orations Cicero complains of the comperendinatio or double hearing of the cause, which the Lex Cornel i a allowed, and refers to the practice under the Lex Acilia, according to which the case for the prosecution, the defence, and the evidence were only heard once, and so the matter was decided. The last lex de repetundis was the Lex Julia, pa ed in the first consulship of C. Julius Caesar, B.C. 59. This lex repealed the penalty of exsilium, but in addition to the lit is aestimatio, it enacted that persons convicted under this lex should lose their rank, and be disqualified from being witne es, judices, or senators. The lex had been pa ed when Cicero made his oration against Piso, B.C. 55. A. Gabinius was convicted under this lex. Under the empire the offence was punishable with exile.