Lex Scantinia (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Lex Scantia) was an ancient Roman law (named after aedile Scantinius Capitolinus who had lived around 225 BC) and introduced in 149 BC during the Roman Republic that regulated sexual behavior, including pederasty, adultery and passivity, potentially legislating the death penalty for same-sex behavior among free-born men. Allegations exist that even before Lex Scantinia such laws existed in Rome, but direct evidence of these laws has been lost.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] For instance, on supplicium fustuarium, public beating to death as the legal standard punishment for same-sex behavior among free-born men in Rome long before Lex scantinia, see Polybius, The Histories, volume VI, chapter 37.
All Roman laws, including Lex Scantinia, regulating sexual behavior only expanded towards free-born citizens. Slaves were considered as res, as things, and could be freely used for any activity otherwise illegal. Other than opposite-sex activities, same-sex activities with slaves were however not encouraged as a form of sexual pleasure. In fact, same-sex activities were rather regarded as punishment for bad slaves, inherently identical to beatings.[8]
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Passing of the law
Some confusion is caused in the literature because the Lex Scantinia was named after an aedile called Scantinius Capitolinus who around the year 225 BC had been sentenced on charges of same-sex activities with Marcus Claudius Marcellus that he had been accused of by the latter's father of the same name, while the law itself was proposed in 149 BC by a tribune named Scantinius as well.
Some modern writers therefore assume that these two men were one and the same and the Lex Scantinia was in fact passed as early as 225 BC, also because they assume that no other similar laws had existed in Rome priorly to Lex Scantinia according to which Scantinius Capitulinus could have been sentenced. Ancient sources however contradict both assumptions (see above), even though it was indeed unusual in Roman legal practice to name a law not after its initial proposer or legislator.
History and legacy
In 50 BC, while being praetor, Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus presided over a Law Court which stated the cases that violated the Lex Scantinia. Thus, we can gather that the Lex Scantinia still commanded legitimate authority a century after it had been passed.
In 17 BC, Lex Scantinia was supplemented by the Lex Iulia de Adulteriis Coercendis passed by emperor Augustus and banning adultery in general. A later 3rd century amendment of Lex Iulia included the Sententiae by Julius Paulus which re-emphasized the death penalty for same-sex behavior. The Sententiae were influential enough they were regarded as a genuine and in fact integral part of Lex Iulia maybe from their first appearance on, at the latest since the reign of emperor Justinian I who greatly praised their influence on Roman mores denouncing same-sex activities.[9]
The Lex Scantinia thus is not only the first Roman law documented by name regulating sexual behavior, but also began an unbroken history of Roman legal regulation of sexual behavior that further spanned over Lex Iulia/Sententiae until the legislations of Justinian I.
See also
Further reading
- Joh. Frid. Christ. (1726), Historia legis Scantiniae ("History of Lex Scantinia")
- Theodor Mommsen (1899), Römisches Strafrecht ("Roman Criminal Law"), p. 703f (Mommsen also quotes either Seneca the Elder or Seneca the Younger commenting on Lex Scantinia)
- Münzer's (1921) entry for Scantinius in: Pauly-Wissowa (ed.), Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft ("Specialist Encyclopedia of Classical Ancient Philology")
- VALERI MAXIMI FACTORVM ET DICTORVM MEMORABILIVM LIBRI NOVEM, volume VI, section V ff
- Article on struprum cum masculo by W. Kroll in Pauly-Wissowa (ed.), Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, 1921
- On supplicium fustuarium, public beating to death for same-sex behavior among free-born men in Rome long before Lex scantinia, see Polybius, The Histories, book VI: The Roman Constitution, chapter VI: The Roman Military System, section 37 (including comment by William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875)
- Article Päderastie by M. H. E. Meier in Ersch & Gruber (eds.), Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste
- Wilhelm Rein, Das Criminalrecht der Römer von Romulus bis auf Justinianus ("Roman Criminal Law from Romulus up to Justinian I"), 1844, p. 864
- Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, Tabu Homosexualität - Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils ("The taboo of homosexuality: The history of a prejudice"), 1978, p. 187-196
- Williams, Roman Homosexuality
- Hubbard, A Sourcebook for Homosexuality in the Greek and Roman World
- F. X. Ryan: The Lex Scantinia and the Prosecution of Censors and Aediles, Classical Philology, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Apr., 1994), pp. 159-162
External links
- Lex Scantinia de nefanda venere
- See entry Scantinius in Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
- Valerius Maximus (translated by Henry J. Walker): The story of Scantinius (from Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX) later resulting in the passing of Lex Scantinia named after Scantinius the aedile
References
- ^ VALERI MAXIMI FACTORVM ET DICTORVM MEMORABILIVM LIBRI NOVEM, volume VI, section V ff
- ^ Article on struprum cum masculo by W. Kroll in Pauly-Wissowa (ed.), Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, 1921
- ^ On supplicium fustuarium, public beating to death for same-sex behavior among free-born men in Rome long before Lex scantinia, see Polybios, The Histories, volume VI, chapter 37
- ^ See article Päderastie by M. H. E. Meier in Ersch & Gruber (eds.), Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste
- ^ Theodor Mommsen, Römisches Strafrecht, 1899, p. 703f (in English as Roman Criminal Law)
- ^ Wilhelm Rein, Das Criminalrecht der Römer von Romulus bis auf Justinianus ("Roman Criminal Law from Romulus up to Justinian I"), 1844, p. 864
- ^ Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, Tabu Homosexualität - Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils ("The taboo of homosexuality: The history of a prejudice"), 1978, p. 187
- ^ Craig A. Williams (Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center): Review of Roman Sexualities by Judith P. Hallett, Marilyn B. Skinner, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. Pp. 343. ISBN 0-691-01178-8., Bryn Mawr Classical Review 1998.10.16
- ^ Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, Tabu Homosexualität - Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils ("The taboo of homosexuality: The history of a prejudice"), 1978, p. 188
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