PRŌSCRIPTĬO

The verb proscribere properly signifies to exhibit a thing for sale by means of a bill or advertisement. But in the time of Sulla it a umed a very different meaning, for he applied it to a measure of his own invention ( B.C. 82), namely, the sale of the property of those who were put to death at his command, and who were themselves called proscript i . After this example of a proscription had once been set, it was readily adopted by those in power during the civil commotions of subsequent years. In the proscription of Antonius, Caesar, and Lepidus ( B.C. 43), Cicero and some of the most distinguished Romans were put to death.