Proscription in Ancient Rome

The Prescriptions of Sulla

Proscriptions in Ancient Rome were official lists of individuals declared enemies of the state, whose property was confiscated and whose lives were forfeit. Although the Latin term proscriptio originally referred to public notices or advertisements, it gained a darker political meaning during the late Roman Republic, beginning with the dictatorship of Sulla in 82–81 BC, when it became a systematic method for eliminating rivals, punishing alleged treason, and redistributing wealth through state-sanctioned executions and confiscations. Later employed on a larger scale by the Second Triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus in 43 BC, proscriptions stripped the condemned of citizenship and legal protection, encouraged informers with rewards, and financed political and military ambitions through seized estates. While presented as measures to protect the state, they became symbols of political terror and the erosion of republican legal norms during Rome's era of civil wars.

Origin

Proscriptions (Latin proscriptio, plural proscriptiones) initially meant public advertisements or notices signifying property or goods for sale.[1]

During the dictatorial reign of Sulla, the word took on a more sinister meaning. In 82 or 81 BC, Sulla instituted the process of proscription in order to purge the state of those supporters of his populist rivals, Gaius Marius and his son. He instituted a notice for the sale of confiscated property belonging to those declared public enemies of the state (some modern historians estimate about 520 people were proscribed as opposed to the ancient estimate of 4,700 people) and condemned to death those proscribed, called proscripti in Latin.

Treason

There were multiple reasons why the ancient Roman government may have adopted proscription. The Law of Majesty (lex maiestatis), or treason crime consisted of a range of measures. This included assisting an enemy in any way (crimen laesae majestasis), acts of subversion and usurpation, offenses against the peace of the state, offenses against the administration of justice, and violation of absolute duties. Overall, crimes in which the state, emperor, or the state's tranquility were implicated, or offenses against the good of the people, would be considered treason, and, therefore, would invoke proscription. Some of these measures were comparable to the public safety laws of modern times. Others, like violating absolute duties, could arise from accident or circumstance but would invoke punishment regardless.

Punishment for treason was harsh and meant to highlight the seriousness and shamefulness of the crime committed. There were a variety of punishments for capital crimes, including death, loss of freedman status, loss of citizenship with a loss of family rights, or loss of family rights only. Death was a very common punishment and was referred to as summum supplicium, or the "extreme penalty". Death was often the punishment for all but the mildest forms of treason. The so-called "interdiction from water and fire" was a civil excommunication practically resulting in exile, which included forfeiture of citizenship and property. The condemned would be deported to an island. Emperor Augustus frequently employed this method of exile as it kept banished men from banding together in groups. This punishment was reserved for only the mildest forms of treason, however, the death penalty invoked for most other cases.

Sulla's dictatorship

An early instance of mass proscription took place in 82 BC, when Lucius Cornelius Sulla was appointed dictator rei publicae constituendae ("Dictator for the Reconstitution of the Republic"). Sulla proceeded to have the Senate draw up a list of those he considered enemies of the state and published the list in the Roman Forum. Any man whose name appeared on the list was ipso facto stripped of his citizenship and excluded from all protection under law; reward money was given to any informer who gave information leading to the death of a proscribed man, and any person who killed a proscribed man was entitled to keep part of his estate (the remainder went to the state). No person could inherit money or property from proscribed men. Many victims of proscription were decapitated and their heads were displayed on spears in the Forum.

Sulla used proscription to restore the depleted Roman Treasury (Aerarium), which had been drained by costly civil and foreign wars in the preceding decade, and to eliminate enemies (both real and potential) of his reformed state and constitutions; the plutocratic knights of the Ordo Equester were particularly hard-hit. Giving the procedure a particularly sinister character in the public eye was that many of the proscribed men, escorted from their homes at night by groups of men all named "Lucius Cornelius", never appeared again. (These men were all Sulla's freedmen.) This gave rise to a general fear of being taken from one's home at night as a consequence of any outwardly seditious behaviour.

Sulla's proscription was bureaucratically overseen, and the names of informers and those who profited from killing proscribed men were entered into the public record. Because Roman law could criminalise acts ex post facto, many informers and profiteers were later prosecuted.

The proscription lists created by Sulla led to mass terror in Rome. During this time, "the cities of Italy became theaters of execution." Citizens were terrified to find their names on the lists. Those whose names were listed were ultimately sentenced to death. The executions were brutal and consisted of beheading. Often, the heads were then put on display for the city to see. The bodies of the condemned were often mutilated and dragged before being thrown into the Tiber River. Additionally, those who were condemned lost rights even after their brutal death. Those killed were denied the right to a funeral, and all of their possessions were auctioned off, often to the ones who killed them. Negative consequences arose for anyone that chose to assist those on the list, despite not being listed on the proscribed lists themselves. Anyone who was found guilty of assisting the condemned was capitally punished.

Families were also punished as a result of being related to one of the proscribed. It was forbidden to mourn the death of a proscribed person. According to Plutarch, the greatest injustice of all the consequences was stripping the rights of their children and grandchildren. While those proscribed and their loved ones faced harsh consequences, the people who assisted the government by killing any person on the proscription list were actually rewarded.

Second Triumvirate

The proscriptions of the Second Triumvirate were a series of political purges initiated in 43 BC by Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus to avenge Julius Caesar’s assassination, eliminate rivals, and seize wealth during the Roman civil wars. Following their agreement, lists naming around 2,000 individuals - including senators, equestrians, and prominent republicans such as Cicero [2] - were published, with rewards offered for killing or betraying those proscribed and confiscation of their property. While some victims were spared through personal connections, many were executed, and ancient historians later debated which triumvir bore the greatest responsibility, with sources such as Appian, Cassius Dio, Suetonius and Plutarch presenting differing interpretations of Octavian’s role and the brutal political bargaining behind the purge.[3]

References

^ Magill, Frank N. (15 April 2013). The Ancient World: Dictionary of World Biography. Routledge. pp. 1209–. ISBN 978-1-135-45740-2. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
^ Dio, Cassius (1917). "XLVII". Roman History, Books 46-50 (Loeb Classical Library, Vol. V). [Earnest Cary, Trans.] Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674990913. Retrieved 18 April 2015. }: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^ Scott 1933, pp. 19–20.

Bibliography

Scott, Kenneth (1933). "The Political Propaganda of 44–30 B.C.". Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. 11: 7–49. JSTOR 4238573.