Lex Gabinia

[the5500th]

Hi,

I have been looking for information on the Lex Gabinia but I just keep a finding 1 or 2 paragraph summary. The same goes for Caesars campaign against Pontus when he was young. Even in book that are just about Caesar. If anybody has information of these other then a simple summery then I would be very thankful.

Thanks

Edited May 10, 2010 by the5500th

[Melvadius]

Hi,

I have been looking for information on the Lex Gabinia but I just keep a finding 1 or 2 paragraph summary. The same goes for Caesars campaign against Pontus when he was young. Even in book that are just about Caesar. If anybody has information of these other then a simple summery then I would be very thankful.

Thanks

 

Bill Thayer's Lacus Curtius site has an extract from William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875. dictionary which cites the Lex Gabinia as follows:

 

Gabiʹnia Tabellaʹria. [Tabellariae.]

 

There were various Gabiniae Leges, some of which were Privilegia, as that (B.C. 67) for conferring extraordinary power on Cn. Pompeius for conducting the war against the pirates (Cic. pro Lege Manil. 17; Vell. Pat. II.31; Dion Cass. XXXVI.6; Plut. Pomp. 25).

 

A Gabinia Lex, B.C. 58, forbade all loans of money at Rome to legationes from foreign parts (Salaminii cum Romae versuram facere vellent, non poterant, quod Lex Gabinia vetabat, Cic. ad Att. V.21, VI.1, 2). The object of the lex was to prevent money from being borrowed for the purpose of bribing the senators at Rome. There was a Lex Gabiniae intitled De Senatu legatis dando (Cic. ad Q. Fr. II.13).

 

Bill has been known to post on this site so I will bow to him or anyone else who knows more about this topic but suspect that because the sources cite a number of different sources that we do not have a complete copy of the various constituent parts of the Lex, instead what is known of it has come from compiling elements of, or at least interpretations of, those elements quoted in the various sources listed.

[Primus Pilus]

I assume you mean the Lex Gabinia of 67 regarding the eastern command of Pompeius. On the Roman Legal Instutions page, I've provided the direct links to the ancient source material of the major laws.