Lex Aelia

Lex Aelia This and a Lex Fufia passed towards the end of the sixth century of the city (Cic. in Pison. 5, 10) gave every magistrate the right of declaring beforehand his intention of taking the omens on a fixed day, and thereby (on the plea of their being unfavourable) of preventing the assembly of the Comitia (obnuntiatio). This right was frequently exercised against the tribunes of the people (Cic. in Vatin. 7, 9), for which reason Clodius (B.C. 58) got it temporarily taken away (D. C. 38.13). The better opinion seems to be that there were two distinct leges (see Walter, Geschichte des römischen Rechts, § 152, note 98); they are frequently mentioned by Cicero, especially in Vatin.; pro Sestio; in Pison.; ad Att. 1.16, 2.9, 4.16, 5. See also Orelli's discussion of them in his Onomasticon; Index Legum, where the passages in which they are mentioned are collected; and Mommsen, Römisches Staatsrecht, i. pp. 80, 107.