HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The (‘ Canuleian law’), or , was a law of the Roman Republic, passed in the year 445 BC, restoring the right of (marriage) between
patricians The patricians (from la, patricius, Greek: πατρίκιος) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom, and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after ...
and plebeians.


Canuleius' first rogation

Five years earlier, as part of the process of establishing the Twelve Tables of Roman law, the second decemvirate had placed severe restrictions on the plebeian order, including a prohibition on the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians.
Gaius Canuleius Gaius Canuleius, according to Livy book 4, was a tribune of the plebs in 445 BC. He introduced a bill proposing that intermarriage between patricians and plebeians be allowed. As well, with his fellow tribunes he proposed another bill allowing one ...
, one of the
tribunes of the plebs Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of ...
, proposed a ''
rogatio :''See Rogation days for usage pertaining to the Christian calendar of the Western Church.'' In Roman constitutional law, ''rogatio'' is the term (from Latin ''rogo'', "ask, place a question before") for a legislative bill placed before an As ...
'' repealing this law. The consuls, Marcus Genucius Augurinus and Gaius Curtius Philo, vehemently opposed Canuleius, arguing that the tribune was proposing nothing less than the breakdown of Rome's social and moral fabric, at a time when the city was faced with external threats. Undeterred, Canuleius reminded the people of the many contributions of Romans of lowly birth, including several of the
kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'' ...
, and pointed out that the Senate had willingly given Roman citizenship to defeated enemies, even while maintaining that the marriage of patricians and plebeians would be detrimental to the state. He then proposed that, in addition to restoring the right of ''conubium'', the law should be changed to allow plebeians to hold the consulship; all but one of the other tribunes supported this measure. An ill-chosen remark by the consul Curtius, to the effect that the children of mixed marriages might incur the displeasure of the gods, thereby preventing the proper taking of auspices, inflamed the people to the extent at which the consuls yielded to their demands, allowing a vote on Canuleius' original ''rogatio''. The prohibition on intermarriage between patricians and plebeians was thus repealed.


Second proposal

The second question, however, permitting plebeians to stand for the consulship, was not brought to a vote. The senator Gaius Claudius Sabinus, brother of one of the decemvirs, argued vehemently against it, and urged that force be used against the tribunes when they obstructed a levy of troops unless the Senate agreed to consider the law. This radical escalation was prevented by his colleague,
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus ( – ) was a Roman patrician, statesman, and military leader of the early Roman Republic who became a legendary figure of Roman virtue—particularly civic virtue—by the time of the late Republic. Cincinnatus wa ...
, and his brother,
Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus (513 BCafter 423 BC) was a Roman statesman and general who served as consul six times. Titus Quinctius was a member of the gens Quinctia, one of the oldest patrician families in Rome. He was the son of Luc ...
.Livy, iv. 7. Claudius then suggested that
military tribunes with consular power A consular tribune was putatively a type of magistrate in the early Roman Republic. According to Roman tradition, colleges of consular tribunes held office throughout the fifth and fourth centuries BC during the so-called "Conflict of the Or ...
might be elected from either order, instead of consuls; but he was not willing to bring the matter forward himself, delegating the distasteful matter to Titus Genucius, brother of the consul, who was of a mind to compromise with the plebeians. This proposal was well-received, and the first consular tribunes were elected for the following year, BC 444.


In popular culture

In the novel, ''
Goodbye, Mr. Chips ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' is a novella about the life of a school teacher, Mr. Chipping, written by English writer James Hilton and first published by Hodder & Stoughton in October 1934. It has been adapted into two feature films and two televi ...
'', set in an English
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the
schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after ...
Mr. Chipping describes the law to his Roman history class, suggesting a pun that could be used as a mnemonic device:
"So that, you see, if Miss Plebs wanted Mr. Patrician to marry her, and he said he couldn't, she probably replied: 'Oh yes, you ''can, you liar''!' " (emphasis supplied). James Hilton, ''
Goodbye, Mr. Chips ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' is a novella about the life of a school teacher, Mr. Chipping, written by English writer James Hilton and first published by Hodder & Stoughton in October 1934. It has been adapted into two feature films and two televi ...
'', Little, Brown, and Company (1934).


See also

* Roman law * List of Roman laws *
List of legal Latin terms A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
* Morganatic marriage


Notes


References


Bibliography

* Titus Livius ( Livy), '' History of Rome''. * Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ''Romaike Archaiologia'' (Roman Antiquities). * T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'', American Philological Association (1952). * '' Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 2nd ed., N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard, eds., Clarendon Press (1970). * Harriet I. Flower
''Roman Republics''
Princeton University Press (2011), . Roman law 445 BC 5th century BC in law Marriage law Marriage in ancient Rome Family law in ancient Rome Exogamy {{Italic title