Lex Julia


A Lex Julia was an ancient Roman law that was introduced by any member of the Julian family. Most often, "Julian laws", Lex Iulia or Leges Iuliae refer to moral legislation introduced by Augustus in 23 BC, or to a law from the dictatorship of Julius Caesar.

Lex Iulia de Civitate Latinis et Sociis Danda (90 BC)

Apart from Augustus's laws on marriage, this lex Julia is probably the best known of the laws under this name. In the midst of the Social War, a conflict between the Italians and the Romans over the withholding of Italian citizenship, the consul Lucius Julius Caesar passed a law to grant all Italians not under arms citizenship. It was primarily passed to prevent those who had not risen up against Roman rule from doing so. The next year, the Romans introduced the lex Plautia Papiria de Civitate Sociis Danda, which granted Roman citizenship to the allies which had rebelled, in an attempt to further stem the rebellion.

Lex Iulia de Repetundis (59 BC)

This law was passed by Gaius Julius Caesar, restricting the number of 'gifts' that a governor could receive during his term in a province, and also ensured that governors balanced their accounts before leaving a province.

Lex Iulia Municipalis (45 BC)

Sets regulations for the Italian municipalities. See Tables of Heraclea.

Moral legislation of Augustus (18–17 BC)

Under Augustus, the Leges Juliae of 18–17 BC attempted to elevate both the morals and the numbers of the upper classes in Rome and to increase the population by encouraging marriage and having children. They also established adultery as a private and public crime.
To encourage population expansion, the Leges Juliae offered inducements to marriage and imposed disabilities upon the celibate. Augustus instituted the "Law of the three sons" which held those in high regard who produced three male offspring. Marrying-age celibates and young widows who wouldn't marry were prohibited from receiving inheritances and from attending public games.

Augustan ''Leges Iuliae''

The extracts below are from later legal codes and textbooks, but are also valuable in the sense that they are based on, and frequently quote from, the actual text of Augustus' laws.

Ulpian (3rd century)

As written down by Ulpian
;The Lex Julia relating to marriage: By the terms of the Lex Julia, senators and their descendants are forbidden to marry freedwomen, or women who have themselves followed the profession of the stage, or whose father or mother has done so; other freeborn persons are forbidden to marry a common prostitute, or a procuress, or a woman manumitted by a procurer or procuress, or a woman caught in adultery, or one condemned in a public lawsuit, or one who has followed the profession of the stage....

Justinian (6th century)

Under the rule of Emperor Justinian
;The Lex Julia on adultery: Public prosecutions are as follows....the Lex Julia for the suppression of adultery punishes with death not only those who dishonour the marriage bed of another but also those who indulge in unspeakable lust with males. The same Lex Julia also punishes the offence of seduction, when a person, without the use of force, deflowers a virgin or seduces a respectable widow. The penalty imposed by the statute on such offenders is the confiscation of half their estate if they are of respectable standing, corporal punishment and banishment in the case of people of the lower orders.