proscription

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

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.

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 incldued 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.

{{main|Sulla's proscription}}

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 the fact 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.

The proscription of 43 BC was the second major proscription. It began with an agreement in November 43 between the triumvirs Octavian Caesar, Marcus Antonius, and Marcus Lepidus after two long meetings. Their aim was to avenge Julius Caesar’s assassination, eliminate political enemies, and acquire their properties. The proscription was aimed at Julius Caesar’s conspirators, such as Brutus and Cassius, and other individuals who had taken part in the civil war, including wealthy people, senators, knights, and republicans such as Sextus Pompey and Cicero. There were 2,000 names on the list in total, and a handsome reward of 2,500 drachmae for bringing back the head of a free person on the list (a slave's head was worth 1,000 drachmae); the same rewards were given to anyone who gave information on where someone on the list was hiding. Anyone who tried to save people on the list was added to the list. The material belongings of the dead victims were to be confiscated. Some of the listed were stripped of their property but protected from death by their relatives in the Triumvirate (e.g., Lucius Julius Caesar and Lepidus' brother Paullus). Most were killed, in some cases gruesomely. Cicero, his younger brother Quintus Tullius Cicero (one of Julius Caesar's legates) and Marcus Favonius were all killed in the proscription.{{cite book|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/47*.html|title=Roman History, Books 46-50 (Loeb Classical Library, Vol. V)|last=Dio|first=Cassius|publisher=Harvard University Press|others=[Earnest Cary, Trans.]|year=1917|isbn=9780674990913|location=Cambridge, MA|section=XLVII|access-date=18 April 2015}} Cicero's head and hands were famously cut off and fastened to the Rostra.

Contemporary Roman historians provide conflicting reports as to which triumvir was most responsible for the proscriptions and killing. They agree that enacting the proscriptions was a means by all three factions to eliminate political enemies.{{Sfn|Scott|1933|pages=19–20}} Marcus Velleius Paterculus asserted that Octavian tried to avoid proscribing officials whereas Lepidus and Antony were to blame for initiating them. Cassius Dio defended Octavian as trying to spare as many as possible, whereas Antony and Lepidus, being older and involved in politics longer, had many more enemies to deal with.{{Sfn|Scott|1933|page=19}}

This claim was rejected by Appian, who maintained that Octavian shared an equal interest with Lepidus and Antony in eradicating his enemies.{{Sfn|Scott|1933|page=20}} Suetonius said that Octavian was at first reluctant to proscribe officials, but eventually pursued his enemies with more vigor than the other triumvirs.{{Sfn|Scott|1933|pages=19–20}} Plutarch described the proscriptions as a ruthless and cutthroat swapping of friends and family among Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian. For example, Octavian allowed the proscription of his ally Cicero, Antony the proscription of his maternal uncle Lucius Julius Caesar, and Lepidus his brother, although only Cicero would ultimately be killed as a result of these concessions.{{Sfn|Scott|1933|page=19}}

• Attainder
• Damnatio memoriae
• Enemy of the people
• Homo sacer
• Hostis humani generis
• Ostracism
• Outlaw
• Personae non gratae
• Purge
• Targeted killing

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• {{Cite journal |last=Scott |first=Kenneth |date=1933 |title=The Political Propaganda of 44–30 B.C. |journal=Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome |volume=11 |pages=7–49 |jstor=4238573}}

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• Michnik, Adam, and Elzbieta Matynia. "The Ultras of Moral Revolution." Daedalus 136, no. 1 (2007): 67–83. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20028090
• Mousourakis, George. A Legal History of Rome. London: Routledge, 2007.
• Plutarch, The Life of Sulla.
• Ridley, Ronald T. "The Dictator's Mistake: Caesar's Escape from Sulla." Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte Bd. 49, H. 2 (2nd Qtr., 2000), pp. 211–229
• Robinson, O.F. Penal Practice and Penal Policy in Ancient Rome. Routledge, 2007.

{{Conformity}}

Category:Political and cultural purges

Category:Roman law