Law Enforcement

[TwoMinutesHate]

How was Law enforced in the city of Rome? I remember reading that legionaries couldn't come into the city armed and had to camp outside. How were crimes reported? Who captured the criminals, if legionaries couldn't come into the city? Who decided the punishments? Where?

 

2MH

[Antiochus of Seleucia]

There were various militias of what we would now consider 'cops,' probably better suited 'paid vigilantes.' If someone committed a crime they would catch and beat the guy. If they didn't catch him, they'd take someone else and beat him. After the praetorian gaurd was established, they sat around Rome and other large Italian cities and were the only men with weapons in the city.

[Primus Pilus]

There were various militias of what we would now consider 'cops,' probably better suited 'paid vigilantes.' If someone committed a crime they would catch and beat the guy. If they didn't catch him, they'd take someone else and beat him. After the praetorian gaurd was established, they sat around Rome and other large Italian cities and were the only men with weapons in the city.

 

The Praetorians were not armed inside the city and were in fact generally in civilian dress. There were also urban cohorts and vigiles which could act as law enforcement within the city walls, but generally speaking the law was enforced in more traditional manners involving citizen intervention. Of course Lictors still existed in the imperial period for magistrates and were still a symbol of a magistrates ability to enforce the law.

[Gaius Octavius]

The nobles had their own personal guards or gangs which they used not only for protection but to annoy enemies. In lieu of on the spot justice, the magistrates and courts looked to violations of the laws.

[TwoMinutesHate]

So, say there's a murderer on the loose. It's up to the civilians, lictors or praetorians to try and catch him? Is there no secure guard force?

[caldrail]

First of all is the murderer known? A sicarius would hide in dark alleys to commit his crimes and in all likeliehood wouldn't be discovered unless somebody recognised something he'd taken. Young men of good breeding would routinely wander the streets beating up passers-by, sometimes fatally, or even commit rapes. To some extent this was tolerated (drunken young men have always had a tendency toward violence after all) unless the result was serious enough.

 

Once someone was recognised, an outraged citizen might complain to his patron, or perhaps consult a lawyer if he was wealthy. In either event, word gets about, a deal is done, and the armed guards arrive to carry off the careless criminal for some painful and probably public sentence.

 

There was no organised approach to law enforcement as such, which seems a bit odd for the roman mindset.

[Antiochus of Seleucia]

or even commit rapes.

 

Even though prostitutes costed as much as a loaf of bread.

 

What I'd like to know is: Since all court cases were settled in Rome, if two reletively unknown plebs from Spain were to go to court, and the antagonist didn't show up, how do we find him?

[caldrail]

As regards the rapes, it wasn't a matter of cost, it was for the thrill of taking the woman anyway.

 

As regards our spanish villains, the authority in charge of the case would send word to the governor that Sanchez didn't turn up and could he see that he does? The governor would then have one of his staff assigned to the task, who would then set someone on finding him before the roman authority loses patience.

[Sula]

I believe that in the city of Rome the Vigiles played a role in law enforcement. Their main job was to watch out for fires and aprehend those who were puting people in danger of fire but I their mandate covered other crimes as well. There were a number of groups of Vigiles assigned to diffrent districts.