law
lex Porcia
also: Porcian law, Porcian law and Sempronian laws
One of three Porcian laws of the second century BC (associated with the Catos and with P. Porcius Laeca, tr. pl. 199) reinforcing the citizen's right of provocatio and forbidding the scourging or execution of a Roman citizen without trial. Cicero invokes it as the cornerstone of citizen liberty in the climactic outrage of Verr. 2.5 against Gavius and again in the Pro Rabirio.
Reading notes
- Against Verres, Second Hearing, Book V §163 Porcian law and Sempronian laws
Lex Porcia (provocatio: a Roman citizen could not be flogged or executed by a magistrate without trial at Rome) and the Gracchan leges Semproniae extending citizen protections. The two foundational pillars of the Roman citizen's standing protections in the provinces.