Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, Roman Civilization Volume I, Selected Readings: The Republic and the Augustan Age, 3^rd Edition, 1990, New York, Columbia University Press, pp.590-596

(The editors’ “The Emperor” has been replaced by “Imperator” or "Augustus" and their notes are at the end of the documents.)

[page 590] 202. THE CYRENE EDICTS  

This long Greek inscription from Cyrene, first published in 1927 and widely discussed since, constitutes the most important epigraphical find for the reign of Augustus since the famous Res Gestae. It contains four imperial edicts of 7/6 B. c. and a fifth, appending a decree of the Senate, of 4 B. c. The first edict revises the judiciary system of the province, patterned after the criminal courts of Rome, by providing for mixed juries of Greeks and Romans in capital cases. The second concerns a case which apparently established the precedent for the prosecution (attested under subsequent emperors) of affronts to imperial statues under the law of maiestas (lese majesty: cf. § 200 and volume 2, § 6). The third edict, which limits the privileges of newly created Roman citizens, is an important document on the subjects of multiple citizenship and compulsory public services in the provinces. The fourth edict, dealing with the jury system in Cyrene, supplements the first. The decree of the Senate appended to the fifth edict established anew, accelerated procedure by judicial commissions of Roman senators in extortion cases limited to a claim for recovery and involving no concomitant capital charges against the accused public official. Altogether these edicts shed invaluable light on the fusion of Hellenistic and Roman law in the eastern provinces; since Crete-Cyrene was a senatorial province, they also constitute important evidences of Augustus' maius imperium (cf. note 14).

[page 591] SEC, vol. IX, no. 8 (=FIRA, vol. I, no. 68)

I  Imperator Caesar Augustus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunition power for the seventeenth year, acclaimed imperator fourteen times declares:

Since I find that there are all told in the provincial territory of Cyrene 215 Romans of all ages with a census rating of 2,500 denarii or more, from whom the jurors are chosen;⁹¹ and since embassies from the cities of the province have complained bitterly that among these same Romans there exist certain conspiracies to oppress the Greeks in trials on capital charges, the same individuals acting in turn as accusers and as witnesses for one another; and since I myself have ascertained that some innocent people have in this way been oppressed and carried off to the supreme penalty, it is my view that, until the senate makes a decision on this matter or I myself find some better solution,⁹² it will be the right and proper procedure for those governing the province of Crete and Cyrene to impanel in the provincial territory of Cyrene the same number of Greek jurors from the highest census rating as of Romans-no Greek or Roman to be less than twenty-five years of age, and none to have a census rating and property of less than 7,500 denarii, if there is a sufficient number of such persons, or, if the full number of jurors who need to be impaneled cannot be made up on this basis, they shall impanel men possessing half this census rating, but not less, as jurors in trials of Greeks on capital charges. A Greek under indictment shall be given the right to decide, the day before the prosecution opens its case, whether he wants his jurors to be all Romans or half Greeks; and if he chooses half Greeks, then the balls shall be checked for equal weight 93 and the names shall be written on them, and from one urn the names of the Romans and from the other those of the Greeks shall be drawn until a total of twenty-five is obtained in each group. Of these the prosecutor may, if he wishes, dismiss one from each group, and the accused three out of the total, provided he does not dismiss either all Romans or all Greeks. Then all the others [page 592] [after hearing the case] shall separate for the balloting, the Romans casting their votes separately in one box, the Greeks separately in a second; then a separate count shall be made of the votes on either side, and the governor shall pronounce in open court the verdict of the majority of all the jurors. Furthermore, since the kinsmen of murdered persons generally do not leave unjustifiable deaths unavenged and it can be expected that those responsible will not lack Greek prosecutors to demand justice on behalf of their slain relatives or fellow citizens, it is my view that all who in the future govern Crete and Cyrene will act rightly and fittingly if in the provincial territory of Cyrene they do not permit a Roman to act as a prosecutor of a Greek for the murder of a Greek man or woman, except where someone who has been honored with Roman citizenship takes action concerning the death of one of his relatives or fellow citizens.

II  Imperator Caesar Augustus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the seventeenth year, declares:

Publius Sextius Scaeva does not merit reproach or censure for ordering Aulus Stlaccius Maximus son of Lucius, Lucius Stlaccius Macedo son of Lucius, and Publius Lacutanius Phileros, freedman of Publius, to be sent on to me from the province of Cyrene under guard because they had said that they had knowledge concerning my security and the commonwealth and wished to declare it.⁹⁴ In so doing Sextius performed his duty conscientiously. However, since they have no information that concerns me or the commonwealth but have declared and convinced me that they had misrepresented and lied about this in the province, I have set them free and am releasing them from custody.⁹⁵ But as for Aulus Stlaccius Maximus, whom the envoys of the Cyrenaeans accuse of having removed statues from public places, among them even the one on the base of which the city inscribed my name, I forbid him to depart without my order until I have investigated this matter.

[page 593] III Imperator Caesar Augustus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the seventeenth year, declares:

Persons from the province of Cyrene who have been honored with [Roman] citizenship I order nonetheless to perform in their turn the personal compulsory public services of the Greeks. Excepted are those to whom, by decree of my father or myself in accordance with a law or a decree of the senate, exemption was granted together with citizenship. And even for those to whom such exemption was granted, it is my pleasure that they shall be exempt only as to the property they possessed at the time, but for all subsequent acquisitions they shall be subject to the usual charges. ⁹⁶

IV  Imperator Caesar Augustus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the seventeenth year, declares:

Regarding disputes which occur henceforth between Greeks within the province of Cyrene, excluding indictments for capital crimes, where the governor of the province must himself conduct the inquiry and render a decision or else set up a panel of jurors [as detailed in the first edict]-for all other cases it is my pleasure that Greek jurors shall be assigned unless some defendant or accused desires to have Roman citizens as jurors; and for those to whom in accordance with this decree of mine Greek jurors are assigned, it is my pleasure that no juror shall be assigned from the city from which either the plaintiff or the accuser or the defendant or the accused comes.

[page 594] V Imperator Caesar Augustus, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the nineteenth year, declares:

A decree of the senate was passed in the consulship of Gaius Calvisius and Lucius Passienus, with me as one of those present at the writing. ⁹⁷ Since it affects the welfare of the allies of the Roman people, I have decided to send it into the provinces, appended to this my prefatory edict, so that it may be known to all who are under our care. From this it will be evident to all the inhabitants of the provinces how much both I and the senate are concerned that none of our subjects should suffer any improper treatment or any extortion.

Decree of the Senate

Whereas the consuls Gaius Calvisius Sabinus and Lucius Passienus Rufus spoke "Concerning matters affecting the security of the allies of the Roman people which  Imperator Caesar Augustus, our princeps, following the recommendation of the council which he had drawn by lot from among the senate,⁹⁸ desired to be brought before the senate by us," the senate passed the following decree: Whereas our ancestors established legal process for extortion [see §§ 100, 146, 158] so that the allies might more easily be able to take action for any wrongs done them and recover moneys extorted from them, and whereas this type of process is sometimes very expensive and troublesome for those in whose interest the law was enacted, because poor people or persons weak with illness or age are dragged from far-distant provinces as witnesses, the senate decrees as follows:

If after the passage of this decree of the senate any of the allies, desiring to recover extorted moneys, public or private, appear and so depose before one of the magistrates who is authorized to convene the senate, the magistrate-except where the extorter faces a capital charge -shall bring them before the senate as soon as possible and shall assign them any advocate they themselves request to speak in their behalf before the senate; but no one who has in accordance with the laws been excused from this duty shall be required to serve as advocate against his will.

[page 595] In order that the cases of those bringing such charges in the senate may be heard, the magistrate who grants them access to the senate shall the same day in the presence of the senate, with not less than two hundred [members] on hand,⁹⁹ choose by lot four from all those of consular rank who are in Rome itself or within twenty miles of the city; likewise three from all those of praetorian rank who are in Rome itself or within twenty miles of the city; likewise two from all the other senators and those possessing the right to voice opinion in the senate who are then either in Rome or less than twenty miles from the city. ¹⁰⁰ But he shall not choose anyone who is seventy years of age or over, or is the incumbent of a magistracy or an authority, or presiding officer of a law court, or commissioner of grain distribution;¹⁰¹ or anyone prevented by illness from performing this duty, who excuses himself on oath before the senate and presents three members of the senate to attest this on oath; or anyone who is so closely related by family or marriage to the accused that he may not, in accordance with the Julian Judiciary Law, ¹⁰² be compelled to give evidence in a public action against his will; or anyone who the accused swears before the senate is hostile to him (but he shall not by such oath eliminate more than three). From the nine selected in this manner, the magistrate who does the drawing shall see to it that within two days those claiming the money and the one from whom they claim it make rejections in turn until five are left. If any of these judges dies before the case is decided, or some other cause prevents him from rendering his decision and his excuse is approved by the sworn statement of five members of the senate, then the magistrate, in the presence of the judges and of those claiming the money and the man from whom they claim it, shall again choose by lot from those members who are of the same rank or have held the same magistracies as the man who is being replaced, provided he does not thus choose a member who may not by this decree of the senate be chosen to try the accused.

The judges chosen shall hear and inquire into only those cases in which a man is accused of having appropriated money from a community or from private parties; and, rendering their decision within thirty days, they shall order him to restore such sum of money, public or [page 596] private, as the accusers prove was taken from them. Those whose duty it is to inquire into and pronounce judgment in these cases shall, until they complete the inquiry and pronounce their judgment, be exempted from all public duties except public worship. The senate decrees also that the magistrate who does the drawing of the judges-or, if he cannot, the ranking consul-shall preside over the proceedings and shall grant permission to summon those witnesses who are in Italy, with the proviso that he shall allow a man making a private claim to summon not more than five, and those pressing public claims not more than ten. ¹⁰³ The senate likewise decrees that the judges who are selected in accordance with this decree of the senate shall pronounce in open court each his several finding, and what the majority pronounces shall be the verdict.

91. This low census rating for jury service is indicative of the low level of wealth prevailing among Roman citizens in the province of Crete-Cyrene. At Rome the minimum property rating for jury duty was 100,000 denarii.

92. This clause reflects the principle of collaboration between Senate and princeps inherent in the

constitution of the Principate (cf. p. 555).

93. The lots ("balls") were checked for equal weight to equalize the chance of selection.

94. Cf. in § 201 the oath of allegiance in which the inhabitants of the Roman provinces promised

to report any such information that might come to their attention.

95. It seems strange, at first sight, that Augustus should release these Romans without punishment when they have confessed that they have lied, presumably to implicate Greeks in Cyrene in charges of lese majesty. Augustus' action is to be explained as one of his conciliatory measures intended to calm the seething animosity between Greeks and Romans in the province. His concessions to the Greeks in the other edicts were directed toward the same end.

96. Compulsory public services in the Roman Empire were of two kinds: those based on personal status (munera personalia or corporalia) and those based on property holdings (munera patrimonialia): cf. volume 2, §§ 66,77, 115, 128. In this edict Augustus enunciates the important principle, maintained by his successors, that a provincial's acquisition of Roman citizenship was compatible with retention of his original citizenship (cf. p. 421) and did not exempt him from the performance of munera in his local community unless the grant of citizenship was specifically accompanied by such exemption. Roman citizens of Italian origin residing abroad did at first enjoy exemption from such community obligations, but with the deterioration of municipal finances in the first and second centuries (see volume 2, § 69) this privilege was progressively reduced by  Imperators, until finally the universal citizenship edict of Caracalla in A.D. 212 (Volume 2, § 106) placed all Roman citizens on the same plane.

97. Augustus' being recorded in the preamble as one of "those present at the writing" of the decree means that he was one of the sponsors of the decree in the Senate; cf. the first paragraph of the decree, below. This is the only extant example of an emperor's participation in this formality.

98. On  Augustus' consilium see note 12.

99. That is, about one third of the membership; cf. introduction to § '97.

100. Recuperatores was the Latin term for judges of such ad hoc tribunals. The three-category system by which their names were drawn was that used in appointing senatorial commissions. The twenty mile radius from Rome was meant to correspond to a day's journey.

101. Such high officials were generally exempted from legal process during tenure of office.

102. This law of 17 B. C. regulated the procedures of the criminal courts.