Leges Valeriae

Leges Valeriae proposed and carried B.C. 508 by the consul P. Valerius, with the object of relieving himself from the suspicion of aiming at the kingly power and increasing his own popularity: means by which he acquired the name of Publicola or Poplicola, by which he is generally known. The first and best known of his laws is that which reduced the powers of the magistrate (de Provocatione--de Multa) by enacting that every citizen, whether patrician or plebeian, should have an appeal (provocatio) to the Comitia (curiata, Walter, Geschichte des röm. Rechts, § 40; Schwegler, 21.17, 25.12; centuriata, Mommsen, Röm. Geschichte, 2.1, and Huschke, Rein, Becker-Marquardt, &c.) from any magisterial sentence by which he was condemned to death or flogging (Cic. de Rep. 2.31, 54; V. Max. 4.1; Liv. 2.30), or to payment of any fine larger than two sheep and five oxen (Plut. Popl. 11). Cicero (de Rep. 2.31, 54) says that this was the first lex passed at the Comitia Centuriata. The right of appeal only applied to Rome and its precincts within a mile of the city, for the imperium of the consuls beyond this boundary was unlimited ( neque enim provocationem esse longius ab urbe mille passuum, Liv. 3.20). The second Lex Valeria of Publicola declared accursed anyone who formed designs to grasp the kingly power, and made both him and his property sacer [SACRATAE LEGES]: Dionys. A. R. 5.19, 70; Plut. Popl. 12.