DECREE OF THE SENATE ON THE TIBURTINES
   
( 159 BC )
 
 
( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, p. 32, n. 36 ).
 
 
      Tibur, a free Latin city closely allied to Rome, apparently had sent an embassy to the Senate to clear itself of charges which had been made against it. The character of these charges is unknown. It is of interest that the Senate undertook to represent the whole Roman people in external affairs, even when the matter was with a neighboring community. The use of the second person in referring to the Tiburtines shows that this is a letter sent by the praetor to Tibur containing the substance, though not the exact text, of the Senate's action.
      The bronze tablet containing this text was found at Tibur, now Tivoli, Italy, in the sixteenth century, but is now lost.
 
 
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
 
 
      The praetor Lucius Cornelius, son of Gnaeus, consulted the Senate on May 5 in the Temple of Castor.
      Aulus Manlius, son of Aulus, Sextus Julius . . . , and Lucius Postumius, son of Spurius, assisted in drafting the decree.
      Whereas you Tiburtines spoke and absolved yourselves in these matters, the Senate considered them, as was just.
      We also have heard rumors of the kind that you said have been reported to you. We do not have the opinion that these rumors are true, because we know that you could not do these things, because of the treatment that we deserve from you, because you are not of such a nature as to do them, and because to do them would benefit neither you nor your commonwealth.
      And after the Senate heard your words, we are all the more of the opinion which we had : that there has been no wrongdoing by you in these matters. Since you have been absolved in these matters in the eyes of the Senate, we believe—and you may properly be of this opinion—that you are absolved also in the eyes of the Roman people.