Murder Was Not a Crime
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Judy E. Gaughan
About this book
Embarking on a unique study of Roman criminal law, Judy Gaughan has developed a novel understanding of the nature of social and political power dynamics in republican government. Revealing the significant relationship between political power and attitudes toward homicide in the Roman republic, Murder Was Not a Crime describes a legal system through which families (rather than the government) were given the power to mete out punishment for murder.
With implications that could modify the most fundamental beliefs about the Roman republic, Gaughan's research maintains that Roman criminal law did not contain a specific enactment against murder, although it had done so prior to the overthrow of the monarchy. While kings felt an imperative to hold monopoly over the power to kill, Gaughan argues, the republic phase ushered in a form of decentralized government that did not see itself as vulnerable to challenge by an act of murder. And the power possessed by individual families ensured that the government would not attain the responsibility for punishing homicidal violence.
Drawing on surviving Roman laws and literary sources, Murder Was Not a Crime also explores the dictator Sulla's "murder law," arguing that it lacked any government concept of murder and was instead simply a collection of earlier statutes repressing poisoning, arson, and the carrying of weapons. Reinterpreting a spectrum of scenarios, Gaughan makes new distinctions between the paternal head of household and his power over life and death, versus the power of consuls and praetors to command and kill.
Author / Editor information
Judy E. Gaughan teaches at Colorado State University.
Reviews
Overall, this is an enjoyable and well-researched work, which offers an interesting hypothesis that I hope will be a useful addition to the wider debate on Roman law. As stated above, however, one of its greatest strengths is its consideration of the wider implications of homicide in Roman society. Accordingly, it sheds a fascinating new light on the wider issues of power in the republican period and beyond.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Abbreviations
ix -
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Preface
xv -
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Acknowledgments
xvii -
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Introduction
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1. Killing And The King
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2. Power Of Life And Death: Pater And Res Publica
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3. Killing And The Law, 509–450 B.C.E.
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4. Murder Was Not A Crime, 449–81 B.C.E.
67 -
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5. Capital Jurisdiction, 449–81 B.C.E.
90 -
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6. License To Kill
109 -
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7. Centralization Of Power And Sullan Ambiguity
126 -
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Epilogue
141 -
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Notes
143 -
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Bibliography
181 -
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Index
191
