LAW ON PIRACY
   
( 101-100 BC )

 
( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, pp. 60-61, n. 56 ).
 
 
     For a long time the Romans did not maintain a fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean, and, after the decline of the Rhodian sea power, piracy began to flourish in the East. There is no direct evidence that this law was designed to give Gaius Marius a command in the East after his defeat of the Teutons and the Cimbrians (102-101 B.C.), unless it was intended that Marius should go while still consul and then have his imperium extended. At any rate, whatever may have been intended, nothing was done and piracy continued to flourish until it was suppressed by Pompey (67 B.C.).
     The law was engraved on a marble pillar, which was discovered at Delphi, Greece, between 1893 and 1896.
 
 
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
 
 
1) . . . The consul who next takes office shall write to all the peoples who have friendship and alliance with the Roman people letters, in which he shall order them to provide that Roman citizens and their Latin allies in Italy may conduct their business affairs, as is required, in the eastern cities and islands without danger and that they may be able to sail the seas in safety, and he shall remind them that Cilicia was occupied by the Roman people for these reasons and not from love of power or gain. Likewise, he shall write to the kings who reign in the Island of Cyprus, in Alexandria and Egypt, Cyrene, and Syria, who have friendship and alliance with the Roman people. By writing he shall make it clear that it is right for them to provide that no pirate shall proceed from their dominions, lands, or boundaries, that their magistrates and the commanders of garrisons whom they appoint shall not receive the pirates, and that they shall provide, so far as is in their power, that the Roman people shall have them as earnest cooperators for the common safety of all. He shall give these letters, addressed to the kings in accordance with this law, to the envoys from Rhodes, whenever they are about to return to their fatherland.
 
2) The consul, whose province it is to care for these matters, shall provide for their safety according to the statutes and the laws, and, if hereafter delegations are appointed by anyone of the allies, and if it is necessary, the consul likewise shall present them, whenever they choose, to the Senate, and the Senate shall decree as it appears to it in the public interest and in accordance with its own good faith. Whatever the Senate decrees in regard to the said matter, every magistrate or promagistrate shall provide and shall arrange that their decision shall be executed thus.
 
3) The consul, whose province it is, shall report to the delegations the decision of the Senate. To the envoys who are in Rome from the Rhodian people he shall give an extraordinary audience with the Senate and shall introduce these envoys into the Senate outside the regular order without alleging any pretext. He shall provide that the decree of the Senate shall be decided on that same day, whenever he introduces them in accordance with this law, whether it is a law or a plebiscite. He shall be permitted to do this without penalty.
 
4) The praetor, the consul, or the proconsul, whoever goes to the province of Asia as governor in the consulship of Gaius Marius and Lucius Valerius, when he arrives in the province, shall send letters to the friendly and allied peoples and to the above-mentioned kings and also to whomsoever the consul shall think fit to write in accordance with this law, just as it appears best to him. And he shall send a copy of this law to the cities and to the states to which it is proper to send one in accordance with this law, providing and attending, insofar as is in his power, that, whatever letters, sent to whatever peoples in accordance with this law, are delivered in accordance with this law, the letters, according to the custom of each of them to whom letters have been sent in accordance with this law, shall be recorded on a bronze tablet, otherwise, on a marble stone or also on a bulletin board, and that they shall be displayed in the cities, either in a temple or in a market place, clearly, where they who wish, when standing on the ground level, can read them. And he also shall write that . . . the rulers shall do these things for their people and that whoever in accordance with this law . . . shall provide that this shall be executed thus.
 
5) Likewise, the praetor, the consul, or the proconsul, who in accordance with this law, whether it is a plebiscite or a law, in the coming years shall have Macedonia as his province, immediately, on entering his magistracy, shall proceed to Thrace, which the general Titus Didius conquered. He shall provide the same procedure as written above and shall provide that this province . . . and . . . as it seems best to him, that the public revenues throughout all this province shall be collected in such a way that they may be augmented on demand with the greatest degree of security. And he in each year not less than . . . days . . .
 
6) The quaestor whose province is Asia or Macedonia . . . shall administer the public funds. He shall punish forthwith . . . and he shall not be held to account until he returns to Rome . . . He shall make the contracts with whom it is proper for him to do this in accordance with this law, and no magistrate or promagistrate shall prohibit him from doing whatever is proper to be done, as has been ordered, in accordance with this law.
 
7) The praetor, the consul, or the proconsul, whose province is Asia or Macedonia, within the next ten days after he knows that this law has been authorized by the people in the Assembly, shall swear that he will do everything ordered in this law and he shall not act otherwise than is written in this law nor in opposition to it with fraudulent intent.
 
8) The magistrates now in office, except the plebeian tribunes and the prefects, within the next five days after the people authorize this law, and whoever hereafter shall hold office, except the plebeian tribunes and the prefects, shall swear, within the next five days after entering office, if they are in Rome, in the name of Jupiter and their ancestral gods that they will do everything that is included in this law and will provide that it shall be executed, and that they will not act in opposition to this law, and that they will not act that anyone else may so act, and that they will not act otherwise than is provided in this law that it shall be executed.
 
9) No one shall act in opposition to this law with fraudulent intent, but he shall do whatever it is proper for anyone to do in accordance with this law. No one with fraudulent intent shall do or decree anything by which this law by a pretext may be disregarded, lest whatever is proper in accordance with this law should not be executed. The magistrates, for whom it is proper to swear and to act, shall swear and shall act in such a way that they will not do less than or otherwise than is written in this law. Whoever acts or decrees in opposition to this law or whoever does not do what is proper in accordance with this law or whoever does not swear in accordance with this law shall be subject to penalty, and anyone who wishes shall be permitted to bring action against him.
 
10) If anyone does anything in opposition to this law, or if anyone does not act or swear as it is proper for him to act or to swear in accordance with this law, and if anyone does less than this law specifies or in any other way acts in opposition to what is written in this law, or if anyone maliciously decrees or violates this law, he shall be condemned in the amount of 200,000 sesterces for each specific act that he has violated, and if he acts otherwise than is written in this law, and whatever he does otherwise than is recorded in this law, he must pay this fine to the people. And anyone who wishes, provided that he is freeborn in this city and has the right of action and of bringing suit for the money in accordance with this law, shall have the right of action and shall bring suit and shall report his name before the magistrate who has jurisdiction on these matters. No magistrate or promagistrate shall act that he shall not be brought to trial, nor shall he forbid that this money shall not be the subject of a legal claim and suit, that a court shall not be constituted, and that the money shall not be paid. If anyone acts or forbids or decrees in opposition to these measures, he also shall be condemned for each specific act, as if he had done something in opposition to this law or as if he had not done what it was proper for him to do in accordance with this law. He also shall be condemned, just as has been written in the case of the others.
 
11) Whatever money is claimed in accordance with this law : if the defendant does not pay the money to the plaintiff in accordance with this law the said praetor to whose jurisdiction the suit on the said matter is brought shall grant a judex or a court in the following way : whatever amount seems proper, the defendant, who is sued in accordance with this law, shall pay to the people without delay . . .