﻿118 THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 



eKpoTouv Tw "Odcova Xa/xirpu?, Koi vrpo? tov<; l-mrea'i dfiiWav eiroiovvTO -Trepl rifj-Stv koI So'^tj? tqv 

 avBpo'i. 



It is, for my purpose, unnecessary to enter upon a consideration of the disputed 

 point, whether the "lex Roscia theatralis" established a new privilege, as the brothers 

 Stockmann (in their dissertation Dc Leffibus Roman. Theairal), and W. A. Becker 

 (in his Haiidbuch cler Romischen Alterthumcr), and some others, maintain ; or whether 

 it revived a previously existing right, — a \'iew strongly favored by the language in 

 the ^ibove-quoted passages of Cicero pro Murena ("restituit" and "restitutus") and 

 of VeUejus Paterculus, and maintained by Ph. E. Hutschke (in his Verfassung ties 

 Konigs Servius TuUius, p. 361) and Zunipt (in his paper on Eoman Knights, p. 94). 

 The fact that this privilege of the Knights was recognized by the "lex Eoscia" is for 

 my purpose sufficient. 



The " lex Julia theatralis " — one of the large number of laAvs which Julius Ctesar 

 enacted during the last two years of his life (after 46 B. C, 708 U. C), when he had 

 finally established liis supreme power — was probably nothing else than a re-enactment 

 of the " lex Roscia." It is incidentally mentioned by Pliny in his historical sketch of 

 the use of rings among the Eomans (Nat. Hist. 33. 2. 32) : " Hac de causa constitutum, 

 ne cui jus [sc. annuli] esset, nisi qui ingenuus ipse, patre, avo paterno HS CCCC cen- 

 sus fuisset et lege Julia theatrali in quatuordecim ordinibus sedisset." 



A change, although of no great importance, was made in the law under Augustus. 

 The "ordo equester," to which the "lex Roscia," and of course the "lex Julia" also, 

 had reference, bemg based upon a property qualification, and forming thus a moneyed 

 aristocracy, " decoctores " — that is, persons who had squandered the whole or so much 

 of their estate that the remainder fell short of the "census equester" — were excluded 

 from the privilege of occupyuig a seat in the " quatuordecim," and had another place 

 assio-ned to them. Cf Cic. Phil. 2. 18 : " Tenesque memoria praetextatum te deco- 

 xisse 1 Patris, inquies, ista culpa est. Concede. Etenim est pietatis plena defensio. 

 lUud tamen audaciae tuae, quod sedisti in quatuordecim ordinibus, cum esset lege 

 Roscia decoctoribus certus locus constitutus, quam\is quis fortunae vitio non suo de- 

 coxisset." Juven. 3. 152: 



" Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se, 

 Quam quod ridicules homines facit. Exeat, inquit. 

 Si pudor est, et de pulvino surgat equestri, 

 Cujus res legi non sufficit, et sedeant hie 

 Lenonum pueri quocunque in fornice nati ; 

 Hie plaudat nitidi praeconis filius inter 

 Pinnirapi cultos juvenes juvenesque lanistae. 

 Sic libitum vano, qui nos distinxit, Othoni." 



