perduellio
perduellio
- Barry Nicholas
- , and Andrew Lintott
Extract
Perduellio (from perduellis = hostis) was the crime of activity hostile to the state. It covered a much wider field of offences than consorting with the enemy against the state (proditio), but it was probably not clearly defined. In the early republic it came under the jurisdiction of duumviri perduellionis, who seem to have had the discretion to condemn without further reference but became subject to *provocatio. By the 3rd cent. bce prosecutions were mounted by tribunes in an assembly (see iudicium populi). In the late republic such prosecutions became obsolete when crimes of this kind were actionable in the quaestio de maiestate (see maiestas; quaestiones). Perduellio is still used in Digest 48. 4. 11 (Ulpian) to designate a specially heinous type of maiestas.
Subjects
- Roman Law
