| DECREE
OF POMPEY ON CITIZENSHIP ( 89 BC ) |
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( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, p. 63, n. 60 ). |
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| This
document is the earliest example of a lex data ( administrative
decree ) issued by a general under the authority of a lex rogata
( legislative act ) enacted by an assembly. It is a decree
of Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, father of Pompey the Great ( Gnaeus
Pompeius Magnus ), and it confers Roman citizenship as well as
other rewards upon Spanish cavalrymen serving with his forces at the
sieges of Firmum and of Asculum, Italian towns in the territory of Picenum
along the Adriatic Sea, during the Social War ( 91-88 B.C. ). While this decree was made in Pompey's camp at Asculum, its copy was preserved in Rome, Italy, where two bronze fragments of it were found in 1908 and 1910. |
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| LATIN TEXT ( RICCOBONO ) | ENGLISH TRANSLATION | |
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Cn. Pompeius Sex. [f. imperator] virtutis causa | equites
Hispanos ceives [Romanos fecit in castr]eis apud Asculum a. d.
XIV k. dec. | ex lege Iulia. |
The
general Gnaeus Pompeius, son of Sextus, for their valor made Spanish
cavalrymen Roman citizens in camp at Asculum on November 17 in accordance
with the Julian Law. |
|
| in
consilio [fuerunt : |
In
the advisory council were ... |
|
| Turma
Sallvitana |
The
Salluitan squadron ... |
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| Cn. Pompeius
Sex. f. imperator | virtutis caussa turmam | Sallvitanam
donavit in | castreis apud Asculum | cornuculo et
patella, torque, | armilla, palereis ; et frumentum | duplex. |
The general Gnaeus Pompeius, son
of Sextus, for their valor presented the Salluitan squadron in camp
at Asculum with a helmet-horn and a plate, a necklace, a bracelet, breast-bosses,
and a double ration of grain. |
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