Revision as of 09:20, 6 December 2022 (view source) Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus (Talk | contribs) (Removed lapsed leges, added missing active leges) ← Older edit		Revision as of 14:01, 7 November 2023 (view source) Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus (Talk | contribs) (Added newer laws) Newer edit →
Line 236:		Line 236:
	=CLXII: Lex Lucilia de censu=		=CLXII: Lex Lucilia de censu=
	{{Include summary|:Lex Lucilia de censu (Nova Roma)}}		{{Include summary|:Lex Lucilia de censu (Nova Roma)}}
		+
		+	<br>
		+
		+	=CLXIII: Lex Lucilia Tullia de rebus publicis ordinandis=
		+	{{Include summary|:Lex Lucilia Tullia de rebus publicis ordinandis (Nova Roma)}}
		+
		+	<br>
		+
		+	=CLXIV: Lex Lucilia de vigintiviris=
		+	{{Include summary|:Lex Lucilia de vigintiviris (Nova Roma)}}
		+
		+	<br>
		+
		+	=CLXV: Lex Lucilia de tribunis militum comitiatis=
		+	{{Include summary|:Lex Lucilia de tribunis militum comitiatis (Nova Roma)}}
		+
		+	<br>
		+
		+	=CLXV: Lex Lucilia iudiciaria=
		+	{{Include summary|:Lex Lucilia iudiciaria (Nova Roma)}}

---

Revision as of 14:01, 7 November 2023

 Home| Latíné | Deutsch | Español | Français | Italiano | Magyar | Português | Română | Русский | English

This is a consolidated page of all leges currently In Force, for Nova Roma. The pages is a useful means to search efficiently through all the active leges for a particular element or subject of interest (use Ctrl-F to bring up the browser 'Find' feature).

V: Lex Vedia apparitoria

The Lex Vedia Apparitoria is hereby enacted to create the following decuriae of apparitores and delineate their functions.

I. Accensi can be appointed by imperium holding magistrates and officers (henceforth in this law all types of officers shall be understood in the term magistrate), consuls, praetors, and also by censors, or by anyone who has been granted this right by any law. The main job of accensi shall be the duties of a personal assistant of the magistrate, advising, counseling and office management, but they are not limited by this law to this kind of work. The following are the decuriae accensorum:

A. Decuria (I) accensorum censoriorum

B. Decuria (II) accensorum consularium

C. Decuria (III) accensorum praetoriorum

D. Decuria (IV) accensorum aliorum

II. Scribae can be appointed by any magistrate having the ius edicendi or by anyone who has been granted this right by any law. The main job of scribae shall be clerical, administrative work related to writing, creating documents, or communication, but they are not limited by this law to this kind of work. The following are the decuriae scribarum:

A. Decuriae maiores scribarum:

1. Decuria (I) scribarum censoriorum

2. Decuria (II) scribarum consularium

3. Decuria (III) scribarum praetoriorum

B. Decuriae minores scribarum:

1. Decuria (I) scribarum aediliciorum

2. Decuria (II) scribarum tribuniciorum

3. Decuria (III) scribarum quaestoriorum

4. Decuria (IV) scribarum aliorum

III. Praecones can be appointed by any magistrate having the ius edicendi or by anyone who has been granted this right by any law. Interpretes shall be considered as a subtype of the praecones. The main job of praeconum shall be the duties of a herald and public crier, tasks related to communication, publicity, networking and information, but they are not limited by this law to this kind of work. The following are the decuriae praeconum:

A. Decuriae maiores praeconum:

1. Decuria (I) praeconum censoriorum

2. Decuria (II) praeconum consularium

3. Decuria (III) praeconum praetoriorum

B. Decuriae minores praeconum:

1. Decuria (I) praeconum aediliciorum

2. Decuria (II) praeconum tribuniciorum

3. Decuria (III) praeconum quaestoriorum

4. Decuria (IV) praeconum aliorum

IV. Lictores can be appointed, in a limited number defined by law, by imperium holding magistrates, consuls, praetors, by governors, or by anyone who has been granted this right by any law. The main job of lictores shall be the duties of bodyguard and protector of a magistrate, a bailiff or law enforcement officer, government police officer, which in our modern context may include serving as an honor guard at events for the magistrate, contacting, communication and representation, moderation of public forums, but they are not limited by this law to this kind of work. The following are the decuriae lictorum:

A. Decuria (I) lictorum consularium

B. Decuria (II) lictorum praetoriorum

C. Decuria (III) lictorum aediliciorum

D. Decuria (IV) lictorum curiatorum

E. Decuria (V) lictorum aliorum

V. Viatores [1] can be appointed by any magistrate having the ius edicendi or by anyone who has been granted this right by any law. The main job of viatores shall be the duties of a messenger and bailiff, law enforcement and police work, which in our modern context may include contacting, networking, communication and representation, moderation of public forums, but they are not limited by this law to this kind of work. The following are the decuriae viatorum:

A. Decuriae maiores viatorum:

1. Decuria (I) viatorum censoriorum

2. Decuria (II) viatorum consularium

3. Decuria (III) viatorum praetoriorum

B. Decuriae minores viatorum:

1. Decuria (I) viatorum aediliciorum

2. Decuria (II) viatorum tribuniciorum

3. Decuria (III) viatorum quaestoriorum

4. Decuria (IV) viatorum aliorum

VI. The officers with the generic term “apparitor” can be appointed by any magistrate having the ius edicendi or by anyone who has been granted this right by any law. An officer with the generic term apparitor may receive any type of work assigned to him, but they shall normally be advisors, personal assistants and higher ranking members of the staff. The following are the decuriae apparitorum:

A. Decuriae maiores apparitorum:

1. Decuria (I) apparitorum censoriorum

2. Decuria (II) apparitorum consularium

3. Decuria (III) apparitorum praetoriorum

B. Decuriae minores apparitorum:

1. Decuria (I) apparitorum aediliciorum

2. Decuria (II) apparitorum tribuniciorum

3. Decuria (III) apparitorum quaestoriorum

4. Decuria (IV) apparitorum aliorum

VII. Pullarii can be appointed by any augur or by anyone who has been granted this right by any law. The main job of pullarii shall be serving as assistant to an augur, but they are not limited by this law to this kind of work. The pullarii have only one decuria, the decuria pullariorum.

VIII. Other type of apparitores (subordinate officers, staff members, assistants) with titles that are not identified as any of the categories of apparitores in this law may be appointed by any magistrate having the ius edicendi, or by anyone who has been granted this right by any law, but shall not have the right to belong to any decuria.

IX. Other titles and offices can be defined for apparitores in law, which shall be identified as subtypes of these established categories of apparitores, and then they will belong to the decuria of the larger category of title under which they have been identified (for example, this present lex defined the interpretes as one of the praecones, and thus they have the full title “praeco interpres”, and belong to the decuriae praeconum).

X. Other magistrates or even priests, collegia, councils and institutions and societies of Nova Roma shall have the right to appoint any other type of the apparitores than what this present lex allowed if they can cite historical evidence in the appointing document proving that the specific person or entity was entitled to that type of apparitor in ancient Rome.

XI. Organization of the decuriae

Apparitores shall be assigned into decuriae based on the office of the appointing magistrate (as signed in the title of the decuria).

XI.A. A person can belong to many decuriae at the same time, depending on how many different magistrates have appointed the citizen. Membership in the decuria starts with the relevant appointment to the apparitor position and ends with the termination of the office.

XI.B. Decuriae that contain at least three members are entitled to elect, if they decide so, a magister decuriae or decurio, for a one year (renewable) term, to represent their members and their interests, and to promote cohesion and collaboration between the same type of officers working for the same type of magistrates. Decuriones or magistri decuriae do not receive census points for this office.

XI.C. The album decuriarum apparitoriarum. decuriae, their membership and the decuriones, shall be published and maintained on the official website of Nova Roma by the praefectus rei publicae administrandae.

XII. Evaluation of the work of apparitores

XII.A. Before the end of their term of office, superiors of the apparitores shall review the work performance of their apparitores in an edict. If the superior does not have the ius edicendi, the praefectus rei publicae administrandae shall issue the edict for that officer.

XII.A.1. In the edict, the superiors shall give one of these marks to their apparitores: “EXCELLENT”, “ADEQUATE”, or “UNSATISFACTORY”.

XII.A.2. If the superior fails to publish the edict on the apparitores’ work performance review, or missing one of the apparitores, their apparitores shall receive the mark “NO REVIEW”.

XII.A.3. Apparitores who resign from office shall also receive the mark “NO REVIEW”.

XII.A.4. Apparitores who are removed by edict during the year shall receive their review at that time.

XII.B. These marks shall be recorded and publicly displayed on the official website of Nova Roma, in the album of the memberships of the decuriae. After three “UNSATISFACTORY” and “NO REVIEW” marks combined, the apparitor shall lose 10 Census Points each time three are reached. The reason for the penalty in case of the “NO REVIEW” mark didactical: it shall be understood as the apparitores’ failure to assist, warn and urge the magistrate to perform the required task even if it was entirely the failure of the magistrate. On one hand, negligent magistrates cause harm to their apparitores, and in the future people should avoid working for such magistrates; on the other hand, apparitores who cannot make their superior to do this task in the interest of the entire staff, or who do not care to remind and assist their superiors about matters so important, may also learn from the failure.

Learn more ...

VIII: Lex Vedia tributaria

In accordance with paragraph II.E.1. of the Constitution of Nova Roma, the Lex Vedia Tributaria is hereby enacted to instruct the censors in the matter of the division of the voting citizenry of Nova Roma into their respective tribes.

I. The censors shall apportion individuals among the rural tribes as evenly as possible by the assigning of newly enrolled citizens into those tribes that are numerically deficient.

II. The censors may, if possible, assign members to tribes based on geography, but such considerations shall be secondary to the goal of maintaining equal membership in the tribes.

III. No citizen shall be removed from one tribe to be included in another, save those who are transferred to the urban tribes by their failure to vote in the annual magisterial elections.

IV. Members of the urban tribes who subsequently vote in the annual magisterial elections and therefore have the right to be returned to one of the rural tribes, shall be assigned to such a tribe based on section I of this law, and will not necessarily be returned to their original tribe.

V. Membership in the tribes shall be a matter of public record, and shall be published by the censors annually no later than the last day of November.

Learn more ...

X: Lex Vedia de ratione edictorum

The Lex Vedia de Ratione Edictorum is hereby enacted to provide guidelines for the issuance of magisterial edicta, as provided for in the Constitution.

I. As described in the Constitution, the activities of magistrates in the furtherance of their official activities shall, in large part, take place through the issuance of edicta (edicts). While edicta may be issued and acted upon under the authority of the issuing magistrate, edicta shall be published in at least one of the following public fora within 72 hours of their issuance: the officially sponsored email list or the officially sponsored Internet message board. Such edicta shall be posted in the aerarium Saturni by the magister aranearius as soon as practical.

II. Edicta are subject to intercessio (veto) by those legally empowered to do so by the constitution. Such intercessio may be issued as soon as the edictum has been issued, but no longer than 72 hours after its publication as described in section I, above.

Learn more ...

XIII: Lex Iunia de iure iurando

This lex is hereby enacted to put in place an oath of office for any citizen assuming any magistracy of Nova Roma or any office, whether elected or appointed. Besides the oath of office, a magistrate, governor or a promagistrate with imperium must be inaugurated and invested into his or her office according to regulations determined by the Collegium Pontificum. The oath must be taken on the day, or as soon as possible afterwards, that the office is to be assumed. An officer who is required to take an oath may not take any official action or use any powers of the office until the following oath is taken:

I. The following oath must be taken publicly in the main official forum of Nova Roma before someone elected or appointed to any magistracy of the people can exercise the rights of his or her office. Promagistrates and governors must also take this oath. Commissioners, apparitors and other lower officers of the state must take this oath only if required by the appointing authority.

“I, [enter Roman name here (enter macronational name here)], as [enter the title of the office here] of Nova Roma, do hereby solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Senate and People of Nova Roma, the New Roman Republic, Nova Roma, and to the majesty of the New Roman people, the Quirites.

I, [enter only Roman name here], swear that as [enter the title of the office here] I will serve, protect and defend the republic, the laws and the Declaration of Nova Roma, that I will always act in the best interests of the Senate and People of Nova Roma, and that I will fulfill the obligations and responsibilities of the office of [enter the title of the office here] to the best of my abilities.

I further swear that as [enter the title of the office here] I will follow the mos maiorum, I will honor the Gods of Rome in my public dealings, I will uphold and defend the Roman religion as the State Religion of Nova Roma, and that I will promote the culture of ancient Rome and pursue the Roman virtues in my public and private life.

In the presence of my ancestors and the Gods of the Roman people, by their will and favor, I hereby accept the office of [enter the title of the office here] and all the rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities attendant thereto.”

II. The same regulations apply to magistrates of the Nova Roman plebs, the tribuni plebis and aediles plebis, but they shall also swear a special allegiance to the Plebs, and the first part of their oath of office shall read as follows:

“I, [enter Roman name here (enter macronational name here)], as [enter the title of the office here] of Nova Roma, do hereby solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the New Roman Plebs, the Senate and People of Nova Roma, the New Roman Republic, Nova Roma and to the majesty of the New Roman People, the Quirites.

I, [enter only Roman name here], swear that as a sacrosanct [enter the title of the office here] I will serve, protect and defend the plebs, the republic, the laws and the Declaration of Nova Roma, that I will always act in the best interests of the Plebs of Nova Roma, and that I will fulfill the obligations and responsibilities of the office of [enter the title of the office here] to the best of my abilities... (The rest of the oath shall be the same as the oath of the magistrates of the people.)”

III. The oath, in its published written form, must be taken in Latin and in the mother tongue of the officer who is taking it. In its spoken form, it is acceptable to take the oath in only one of these languages. Official translations shall be authorized by praetorian edict.

Learn more ...

XV: Lex Cornelia de tempore publico constituendo

This law is enacted in order to provide Nova Roma with a standard time that all of its citizens may refer to, regardless of location in the world.

"For all purposes, the time in Rome shall be regarded as the official time of Nova Roma: official purposes that require the use of this standard time include but are not limited to, the time at which voting in one of the comitia begins and ends, the time at which a newly appointed magistrate officially acquires his/her office, and the time at which a magisterial edict takes effect. Magistrates are advised to use official Nova Roman time in all official announcements."

Learn more ...

XXVI: Lex Vedia de civitatis petitionibus per suffragia

I. No applications for Citizenship are to be processed or approved while one or more of the Comitia is in the process of undertaking a vote and/or election. Such applications may be accepted and held until the end of the election and/or vote in question, whereupon they are to be processed with all due diligence and speed, subject to all other laws which may otherwise apply to the process.

II. During the time when applications for citizenship are not processed as described under this law, the magister aranearius shall post an announcement where individuals completing the application for citizenship may reasonably be expected to see it, explaining the situation and giving a reasonable estimate of when the prospective citizens may expect to have their applications processed.

Learn more ...

XXXIII: Lex Cornelia et Maria de mutandis nominibus

I. Introduction

A. This law is set forth to define the procedures by which a citizen may apply to add, alter, or substitute any portion of his or her Roman name, and to state the guidelines by which such an application may be judged. This is done in order to attain a measure of conformity with ancient Roman naming conventions and tradition. Note that this law, and its procedures and guidelines, apply to changes sought by citizens after the publication of this law, and do not apply to citizens' existing names, although the information herein will certainly be of use to new citizens choosing a Roman name.

B. This law has no impact on chatroom handles, signatures to private or casual e-mail messages, or any other alias that any citizen may choose to use. Rather, 'Roman name' for the purposes of this law refers to the name used by the citizen in public oaths, applications to sodalitates and in other official contexts; this Roman name is the one recorded in the censorial album civium.

C. Note that the use of the male gender throughout this document is done solely for clarity, and is not meant to imply any disparity between the sexes before the law.

D. Also note that this document uses the word sex to describe the physical sex of a person and the word gender to refer to linguistic gender only.

E. It is not the intent of this law to discriminate against or to make any judgment about homosexuality, transgenderedness, or any other sexual identity. No such discrimination should be inferred from any part of this document, nor should it be used as a precedent for any law, magisterial act, edictum, or other action that interferes with the rights of any citizen on the basis of that citizen's sexual identity.

F. The Edictum Censorium de Mutandis Nominibus is hereby rescinded in favor of this lex.

II. Definition of a Roman Name

A. A Roman name consists of a praenomen, nomen, (optionally) cognomen, and (possibly) an agnomen, and, in rare cases, several agnomina.

B. The praenomen is a citizen's given name, and is used to distinguish between members of a particular gens. Since there are very few historical praenomina, and since the role of the praenomen is almost entirely secondary, a citizen is rarely referred to by praenomen alone.

C. The nomen identifies a citizen's gens. Since a change in the stem of a citizen's nomen would necessitate a change in gens -- a case of either adoptio or the founding of a new gens -- it is beyond the scope of this law.

D. The cognomen was originally a nickname. It is used to further identify members within a gens, who could easily be identically named due to the paucity of praenomina. Over time, the cognomen became inherited, and was used to identify specific family lines within a single gens. Changes to adopt certain names as cognomina are restricted, as set forth in paragraphs E and F below. Note that these restrictions do not apply in any way to cognomina under which citizens have already received citizenship.

E. An agnomen is an additional form of nickname that is commonly bestowed upon a citizen by others, often to commemorate significant accomplishments or important events in the citizen's life. While it is possible for a citizen to add a new agnomen or change an existing one by request, agnomina of distinction must be awarded by a senator, curule magistrate, or pontifex in recognition of service to Nova Roma. Official recognition of such awarded agnomina of distinction is completed by the censors' entering the agnomina in the album civium. Following each such entry by the censores, the latter will provide the magister aranearius with the full Roman name of the distinguished citizen and an explanation of the circumstances and reasons surrounding the award of the agnomen, that the magister aranearius may publish this information to the Nova Roma website as he sees fit.

F. Agnomina of distinction include, but are not limited to, the following: Augur, Augustus, Felix, Imperator, Invictus, Magnus, Maximus, Pius, and adjectives indicating conquest of a land. Among these, Augustus, Imperator and adjectives of conquest may only be awarded by the Senate; other names, if approved by the censors, may be used as simple cognomina. Note that these restrictions do not apply in any way to agnomina under which citizens have already received citizenship.

G. EXAMPLE: Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos would be Quintus of the Metellus branch of gens Caecilia. His family would be referred to as the Caecilii Metelli, in order to distinguish them from the other families within gens Caecilia. His agnomen, Nepos, distinguishes him from any other Quintus of the Caecilii Metelli. As nepos means grandson, it also most likely distinguishes him as the third in a line of like-named people.

III. Procedures

A. A citizen wishing to change his name shall first contact his paterfamilias and present his reasons for desiring a name change, as well as the desired name. The paterfamilias will in turn contact the censores should he approve of the name change, or should he find that he requires help in determining whether or not to approve the change.

B. Patresfamiliarum are instructed to work cooperatively with members of their gens who desire to change their names in order to help them conform to the letter and spirit of this document.

C. Should a paterfamilias disapprove of a citizen's desired name change, refusing to present it to the censores, said citizen may appeal to the censores within ninety (90) days of the refusal.

D. A paterfamilias who wishes to change his name shall apply to the censores directly.

E. Should an applicant fail to obtain a name change from the censores, he may, within ninety (90) days of the refusal, appeal to a consul or praetor to bring the matter before the people through a vote in the Comitia Populi Tributa.

1. Note that such an action requires the citizen who desires the change to temporarily waive his rights of confidentiality as defined in Lex Cornelia de Privatis Rebus, in order that evidence for and against the application may be presented to the populace.

2. Also note that the decision to convene the Comitia Populi Tributa, along with the schedule for doing so, is the purview of the consules and praetores, and is therefore beyond the scope of this edict.

IV. Guidelines

A. An application for a name change is confidential. The requested name, along with any and all evidence presented with it, is considered confidential information as covered by the Lex Cornelia de Privatis Rebus. Censores, patresfamiliarum, and anyone called to provide testimony by any party in the procedure are not to divulge any information applicable to the name change to anyone without the applicant's written permission, except as directed by this law. Such exceptions include the following:

1. A paterfamilias providing relevant information upon referring a request for a new name to the censores.

2. A paterfamilias or other citizen providing relevant information upon a censor, consul, or praetor's request, as in the case of an appeal of a denied application.

3. A citizen presenting evidence before the Comitia Populi Tributa in the case of an appeal to those comitia.

B. The guiding principle in considering name changes is to be conformity with ancient Roman tradition.

1. New praenomina should be historically attested ones.

2. As previously stated, agnomina of distinction are not to be granted to citizens on request, but can be awarded to any citizen by any senator, curule magistrate, or pontifex in recognition of any special service to the Republic. It is up to the patresfamiliarum and censores to determine what is and is not an agnomen of distinction on a case-by-case basis.

3. Cognomina and agnomina can be new coinages, but must be conducive to Latin declension, and must have a clear meaning -- both semantically and in specific relation to the citizen requesting the added or changed name.

4. The gender of the name is to be consistent; each part is to agree with all others in gender and shall be according to the sex in which the citizen is officially recognized by their country of macronational citizenship.

Learn more ...

XXXIV: Lex Vedia de assiduis et capite censis

 Home| Latíné | Deutsch | Español | Français | Italiano | Magyar | Português | Română | Русский | English

This lex has been modified by the lex Cornelia Octavia de assiduis et capite censis, enacted on on the a.d. IX Kal. Ian. ‡ M. Octavio L. Sulla (II) cos. ‡ MMDCCLV a.u.c., and the lex Apula de assiduis et capite censis, enacted on on the prid. Kal. Ian. ‡ Fr. Apulo C. Laenate cos. ‡ MMDCCLVIII a.u.c..

Current version as modified by the lex Cornelia Octavia de assiduis et capite censis and lex Apula de assiduis et capite censis

Learn more ...

CII: Lex Equitia familiaris

I. Legal Status.

A. Every citizen is either sui iuris (in his own power) or alieni iuris (in another's power).

B. Any citizen who is a paterfamilias (father of the household) or a materfamilias (mother of the household) is sui iuris; any citizen who is sui iuris is a paterfamilias or materfamilias.

C. Any citizen who is a filiusfamilias (son in power) or a filiafamilias (daughter in power) is in the patria potestas (hereafter 'potestas') of his or her paterfamilias and / or materfamilias.

D. A wife who is married cum manu is in the manus of her husband; if her husband is a filiusfamilias she is also in the potestas of her husband's paterfamilias and / or materfamilias. If her husband is sui iuris, he is her paterfamilias; if her husband is alieni iuris, his paterfamilias and / or materfamilias is / are her paterfamilias and / or materfamilias.

E. Any citizen who is in potestas or in manus is alieni iuris.

II. Familiae.

A. A familia (household) consists of a paterfamilias and everyone who is in his potestas or manus; or a materfamilias and everyone who is in her potestas; or two heads of household together in a free marriage and everyone who is in their shared potestas.

B. Within this law, the phrase 'paterfamilias and / or materfamilias' means the paterfamilias where he has sole potestas over his familia, or the materfamilias where she has sole potestas over her familia, or both heads of household where they share potestas over their familia.

C. Within this law, the phrase 'paterfamilias or materfamilias' means the paterfamilias where he has sole potestas over his familia, or the materfamilias where she has sole potestas over her familia, or either one of the heads of household where they share potestas over their familia.

D. A paterfamilias and / or materfamilias hold(s) potestas over his, her, or their legal descendants (except those who have been emancipated, married cum manu into another familia, or adopted into another familia) and the wives cum manu of those legal descendants.

E. A male citizen who is sui iuris is the paterfamilias of all those in his potestas or manus; a female citizen who is sui iuris is the materfamilias of all those in her potestas.

F. Potestas cannot be shared except by two citizens who are married to one another in a free marriage and are both sui iuris. Where two or more citizens who are sui iuris but are not married to one another in a free marriage have a claim under this law to potestas over another citizen, the praetores may decide the matter, giving potestas to whichever party is best able to fulfill the duties and exercise the rights of a paterfamilias or materfamilias towards the person concerned.

G. For the purpose of family law, and with regard to their familia, a sui iuris citizen couple in a free marriage who share potestas are treated as a single legal person, and any action taken by one of them by virtue of their potestas is considered a joint action by both together. For all other purposes each remains individually answerable at law for his or her own actions.

III. Rights & Duties of Patria Potestas and Manus.

A. A paterfamilias or materfamilias may make legal contracts and transactions, and acquire, hold, and dispose of property and contractual rights, benefits, and obligations, on behalf of his or her familia or its individual members.

B. A paterfamilias or materfamilias may give or withhold specific or general consent for members of his or her familia to make legal contracts or transactions, or acquire or dispose of property or contractual rights, benefits, or obligations.

C. A paterfamilias or materfamilias may regulate the conduct of members of his or her familia by means of rewards and punishments. No officer or organ of the state shall interfere either to assist or to prevent the imposition of punishment by a paterfamilias or materfamilias upon a member of his or her familia.

D. A paterfamilias and / or materfamilias hold(s) responsibility for the upbringing, education, good conduct, and well-being of those in his, her, or their potestas or manus.

IV. Legal Capacity

A. A citizen who is alieni iuris has no legal capacity to make or witness any legal contract or transaction, or to acquire or dispose of property or contractual rights, benefits, or obligations, except with the explicit consent (whether specific or general) of his or her paterfamilias or materfamilias.

B. A citizen who is sui iuris but is below the age of 18 has no legal capacity to make or witness any legal contract or transaction, or to acquire or dispose of property or contractual rights, benefits, or obligations, except through his or her tutor or tutrix.

C. Anyone who, having entered into such a contract or transaction, later discovers that the other party was at the time alieni iuris and acting without the necessary consent, has sixty (60) days to petition the praetores for the restoration, as nearly as possible, of the status quo ante; if he or she does not, it is considered that he or she has reaffirmed that contract or transaction as between himself or herself and the paterfamilias and / or materfamilias of the original party.

D. Any paterfamilias or materfamilias who discovers that anyone in his or her potestas or manus has entered into such a contract or transaction without the necessary consent has sixty (60) days to petition the praetores for the restoration, as nearly as possible, of the status quo ante; if he or she does not, it is considered that he or she has reaffirmed the contract or transaction as between himself or herself and the other party.

E. Anyone who, having entered into such a contract or transaction, later discovers that the other party was at the time sui iuris but below the age of eighteen (18) and not acting through his or her tutor or tutrix, has sixty (60) days to petition the praetores for the restoration, as nearly as possible, of the status quo ante; if he or she does not, it is considered that he or she has reaffirmed that contract or transaction.

F. Any tutor or tutrix who discovers that his or her pupillus or pupilla has entered into such a contract or transaction without acting through him or her has sixty (60) days to petition the praetores for the restoration, as nearly as possible, of the status quo ante; if he or she does not, it is considered that he or she has reaffirmed the contract or transaction.

V. Legal Action.

A. A citizen who is alieni iuris may not be party to legal action except where explicitly provided by lex, decretum, edictum, or senatus consultum.

B. If a citizen who is alieni iuris commits an offence, his or her paterfamilias and / or materfamilias are liable for it; if, in such a case, the paterfamilias' and / or materfamilias' failure to prevent the commission of the offence was due to his or her unavoidable physical absence, the praetor may, at his or her discretion, include in the formula an exceptio (defence) or vis maior (insurmountable necessity).

C. If anyone commits an offence against or incurs a legal obligation to a citizen who is alieni iuris, the latter's paterfamilias or materfamilias may take legal action on his or her behalf.

D. A tutor or tutrix may represent and act on behalf of his or her pupillus or pupilla in legal matters, but is not personally liable for the offences of the pupillus or pupilla.

E. No one shall be held legally liable for any offence except one who was legally liable at the time.

VI. Changes In Legal Status

A. A filiusfamilias or filiafamilias becomes sui iuris if he or she is emancipated.

B. A filiusfamilias or filiafamilias becomes sui iuris if he or she has no legal ascendant who is a citizen.

C. A wife cum manu becomes sui iuris if her marriage is dissolved.

D. A wife cum manu becomes sui iuris if her husband dies or loses his citizenship.

E. A citizen who is alieni iuris becomes sui iuris if he or she is or becomes a flamen, rex sacrorum, a pontifex, or a civil magistrate.

F. A paterfamilias or materfamilias becomes alieni iuris if he or she is adopted by adrogatio.

G. A materfamilias becomes alieni iuris is she is married cum manu.

VII. Marriage

A. If two people live together with affectio maritalis (marital affection), i.e., regarding themselves as married to one another, their relationship is a free marriage.

B. If a male and a female citizen live together for a full year with affectio maritalis without the woman being absent from their home for three or more nights in a row, they may declare their relationship a marriage cum manu contracted by usus. Without such declaration their marriage remains a free marriage.

C. If a male and a female citizen undergo the ceremony of coemptio in the presence of five witnesses who have the capacity to witness legal transactions, their relationship is a marriage cum manu contracted by coemptio.

D. If a male and a female citizen of whom one is a patrician or a member of the collegium pontificium undergo the ceremony of confarreatio in the presence of the pontifex maximus, their relationship is a marriage cum manu contracted by confarreatio.

E. If two people are married to one another under the law of the state in which they live but meet none of the criteria set out in VII. A., B., C., or D., their relationship is a free marriage.

F. If a materfamilias marries cum manu, those in her potestas are transferred to the potestas of her husband.

VIII. Dissolution Of Marriage.

A. If a person in a free marriage notifies his or her spouse in writing that he or she wishes the marriage to end, that marriage is dissolved. If, however, both spouses regain affectio maritalis within a year of the dissolution, the marriage resumes as if there had been no dissolution.

B. If a person in a free marriage contracts a new marriage in any of the ways set out in VII, the former marriage is dissolved. If, however, the original spouses regain affectio maritalis within a year of the dissolution, the marriage resumes as if there had been no dissolution.

C. If a husband married cum manu by coemptio or by usus emancipates his wife, the marriage is dissolved. If, however, the spouses retain affectio maritalis or regain affectio maritalis within a year of the dissolution, the marriage resumes as a free marriage.

D. If a couple married cum manu by confarreatio undergoes the ceremony of diffareatio, the marriage is dissolved. If, however, the spouses retain affectio maritalis or regain affectio maritalis within a year of the dissolution, the marriage resumes as a free marriage.

IX. Prohibited Marriages.

A. No marriage may exist if either party is younger than 18 years.

B. No marriage may exist between a citizen and his or her legal or biological ascendant or descendant.

C. No marriage may exist between a citizen and his or her legal or biological collateral relative if either party is fewer than two degrees removed from their common ascendant; except that a marriage between adoptive collateral relatives may exist if at least one party is sui iuris.

D. No marriage may exist between a citizen and the former spouse of his or her legal or biological ascendant or descendant, or between a citizen and the legal or biological ascendant or descendant of his or her former spouse.

X. Emancipation

A. A paterfamilias and / or materfamilias may emancipate a person, thus releasing him or her from potestas or manus, provided that he, she, or they notify the praetores of the emancipation, and provided that five witnesses who have the capacity to witness legal transactions also notify the praetores that they bear witness.

B. A citizen who is alieni iuris and whose paterfamilias and / or materfamilias refuses(s) to emancipate him or her may petition the praetores; if the praetores, after consulting with the paterfamilias and / or materfamilias, consider the refusal unreasonable, they may declare the petitioner sui iuris.

XI. Adoption.

A. A paterfamilias and / or materfamilias may adopt by adrogatio another citizen who is sui iuris provided that the adoptive parent(s) is / are at least 18 years older than the adopted child, and provided that the adoptive parents(s) and the adopted child all notify the pontifex maximus of their consent, and provided that the pontifex maximus consents, and provided that the comitia curiata bears witness (without right of refusal).

B. A paterfamilias and / or materfamilias may adopt by adoptio another citizen who is alieni iuris provided that the adoptive parent(s) is / are at least 18 years older than the adopted child, and provided that the adoptive paterfamilias and / or materfamilias and the former paterfamilias and / or materfamilias all notify the praetores of their consent, and provided that five witnesses who have the capacity to witness legal transactions also notify the praetores that they bear witness.

C. A citizen adopted by adrogatio becomes the legal child of the adoptive parent(s) and passes into his, her, or their potestas, and ceases to be the legal child relative of his or her former relatives except those in his or her potestas or manus; anyone in the potestas or manus of the adopted child becomes the legal descendant of the adoptive parent(s) in whatever relationship is appropriate to the new relationship between the adopted child and the adoptive parent(s), and passes into the potestas of the adoptive parent(s).

D. A citizen adopted by adoptio becomes the legal child of the adoptive parent(s) and ceases to be the legal relative of his or her former relatives, and passes from the potestas of his or her former paterfamilias and / or materfamilias into the potestas of the adoptive parent(s).

E. A citizen adopted by adrogatio or by adoptio takes the name of his or her adoptive father (or, if there is no adoptive father, the name of his or her adoptive mother), adjusted to his or her gender as appropriate, and adds an agnomen formed from his or her former nomen with the ending -ianus or -iana (e.g., Salix becomes Salicianus, Equitia becomes Equitiana). Any other relatives transferred from one familia to another by adrogatio also change their names in the same way.

XII. Tutela.

A. Any citizen who is sui iuris but is below the age of 18 must have a tutor or tutrix (guardian); a citizen who has a tutor is referred to as a pupillus or pupilla.

B. If a citizen is emancipated by his or her paterfamilias and / or materfamilias, his or her former paterfamilas and / or materfamilias is / are his or her tutor, tutrix, or tutores, unless during the emancipation process it is explicitly stated in the notification to the praetores and explicitly witnessed by all the witnesses that one of the witnesses it to be tutor instead.

C. If a citizen is emancipated by the praetores, the praetores must appoint a tutor or tutrix.

D. If a citizen becomes sui iuris on the death of his or her paterfamilias or materfamilias, and if in a valid will the deceased has nominated an eligible citizen as tutor or tutrix, the nominated citizen has thirty (30) days from the time when the will takes effect to accept the nomination; if he or she does not, he or she is considered to have refused.

E. If a citizen who is sui iuris but is below the age of eighteen (18) has no tutor under XII. B., XII. C., or XII. D., his or her nearest eligible legal relative is tutor or tutrix, without right of refusal; if several eligible legal relatives are equally closely related, they are joint tutores.

F. If a citizen who is sui iuris but is below the age of eighteen (18) has no tutor under XII. B., XII. C., XII. D., or XII. E., the praetores may appoint a consenting eligible citizen to be tutor or tutrix.

G. If a citizen who is sui iuris but is below the age of 18 has need of a temporary tutor or tutrix (for instance while waiting for a tutor nominated in a will to accept, or to take legal action on behalf of the pupillus or pupilla against the latter's regular tutor or tutrix), the praetores may appoint a consenting eligible citizen to be tutor or tutrix for a specified period or until a specified condition be fulfilled.

H. To be eligible to be a tutor or tutrix a person must be a full citizen over the age of eighteen (18), sui iuris, and not prohibited from doing so by a court judgement of the ruling of a magistrate with imperium.

I. A tutor or tutrix may make legal contracts or transactions, and acquire, hold, and dispose of property and contractual rights, benefits, and obligations, on behalf of his or her pupillus or pupilla, but only in such a way as to conserve or increase the property and contractual rights and benefits of his or her pupillus or pupilla.

K. A tutor or tutrix must make arrangements and, if necessary, financial provision for his or her pupillus' or pupilla's education and upbringing.

L. When a pupillus or pupilla reaches the age of eighteen (18) his or her tutor or tutrix is relieved or his or her duties and must surrender to the pupillus or pupilla any property or contractual rights, benefits, or obligations acquired or held on his or her behalf.

M. If a pupillus or pupilla enters the potestas of another citizen, his or her tutor is relieved of his or her duties and must surrender to the new paterfamilias and / or materfamilias any property or contractual rights, benefits, or obligations acquired or held on behalf of the pupillus or pupilla.

XIII. Succession.

A. Any citizen who is sui iuris and aged eighteen (18) or above, and who is not prohibited from doing so by a court judgement or the ruling of a magistrate with imperium, may make a legal will.

B. A will is invalid unless witnessed by five citizens who have the capacity to witness legal transactions, and unless the testator was of sound mind at the time when the will was written, and unless the will clearly names as heir at least one citizen who is sui iuris (or becomes sui iuris on the testator's death) and not prohibited from acting as heir by a court judgement or the ruling of a magistrate with imperium.

C. A citizen named as heir in a valid will may refuse up to thirty (30) days after discovering that he or she has been named as heir. The will may name another eligible citizen as secondary heir in case the primary heir refuses, and so on indefinitely. If no heir so named accepts, the will is invalid. A citizen who becomes sui iuris as a result of the death of the deceased may not refuse the inheritance.

D. If a paterfamilias or materfamilias dies without leaving a valid will, any citizens who become sui iuris as a result of the death become heirs without right of refusal; if no citizens become sui iuris as a result of the death, the nearest eligible legal relative(s) become(s) heir(s), each having the right to refuse up to thirty (30) days after discovering that he or she is heir; if there are no eligible legal relatives prepared to accept the inheritance, the inheritance passes to the gens of the deceased and may be disposed of by agreement of the patresfamiliarum and matresfamiliarum of the gens.

E. If more than one person is heir and the will, if there is one, does not state in what proportions they are to share the inheritance, the inheritance is shared equally; except that if there is no valid will and the heirs are those who have become sui iuris as a result of the death, stirpitial representation applies as in ancient law. If one person who is named co-heir in a will refuses the inheritance, his or her share goes to the other heirs in proportion to their existing shares.

F. The heir(s) inherit(s) any property and contractual rights, benefits, and obligations which were held by the deceased and within the jurisdiction of Nova Roma, and must put into effect the instructions given by the deceased in any valid will except any instructions which are illegal, immoral, or impossible; and must assume responsibility for the familial sacra of the deceased.

XIV. Remedies.

A. Any citizen who has the legal capacity to take legal action may bring an action under the Lex Salicia Iudiciaria, or whatever lex shall supersede it, against a paterfamilias and / or materfamilias for seriously and consistently failing in his, her, or their duties to his, her, or their familia or a particular member of it. The praetor shall direct in his or her formula that if the reus, rea, or rei be found guilty his, her, or their familia or a particular member of it be removed from his, her, or their potestas or manus and, if necessary, placed under the tutela of a tutor or tutrix. The praetor may include other penalties at his or her discretion.

B. Any citizen who who has the legal capacity to take legal action may bring an action under the Lex Salicia Iudiciaria, or whatever lex shall supersede it, against a tutor or tutrix for failing in his or her duties to his or her pupillus or pupilla. A pupillus or pupilla may petition the praetores to appoint a temporary tutor or tutrix to bring such an action on his or her behalf. The praetor shall direct in his or her formula that if the reus be found guilty his pupillus or pupilla be removed from his or her tutela and placed under the tutela of another tutor or tutrix. The praetor may require the reus or rea to make restitution for any avoidable diminution of the property or contractual rights or benefits of the pupillus or pupilla and to meet personally any contractual obligations incurred by the tutor or tutrix on behalf of the pupillus or pupilla, and may include other penalties at his or her discretion.

XV. New Citizens.

A. A new citizen entering Nova Roma as the legal child of another citizen takes that citizen's nomen and cognomen, and may choose a praenomen and agnomina subject to the approval of his or her new legal parent and of the magistrates tasked with citizen registration. A new citizen entering Nova Roma as the legal child of a married citizen couple takes the nomen and cognomen of his or her legal father, and may choose a praenomen and agnomina subject to the approval of his or her new legal parents and of the magistrates tasked with citizen registration.

B. A person who is the biological child of a citizen or of a married citizen couple, or who is the legally adopted child of a citizen or of a married citizen couple according to the law of the state in which he or she lives, shall have the right to become a citizen as the legal child of that citizen or married citizen couple.

C. A new citizen entering Nova Roma as a paterfamilias or materfamilias takes the nomen appropriate to his or her gens and a cognomen not already held by any member of that gens.

XVI. Miscellaneous Provisions.

A. To have capacity to witness a legal transaction a person must be a citizen, sui iuris, aged eighteen (18) years or above, and not prohibited from doing so by a court judgement of the ruling of a magistrate with imperium.

B. All citizens retain those rights guaranteed in the Constitution of Nova Roma. The rights of alieni iuris citizens may be exercised on their behalf by their paterfamilias, materfamilias, tutor, or tutrix, except where an alieni iuris citizen is petitioning a praetor directly.

C. No citizen may vote in comitia for another citizen, regardless of familial status, unless a proxy statement has been filed by the citizen granting a voting proxy. This proxy statement must be filed with the presiding magistrate of the comitia during the contio period prior to the vote.

D. The praetores may clarify, supplement, and interpret this law with reference to the relevant provisions and practices of republican Roman law, and with reference to the principles of justice and equity, as was done by the praetores of antiquity.

Learn more ...

CIII: Lex Equitia de iurisdictione

This law is enacted in order to further define the term "competence" as used in the Lex Salicia Iudiciaria

I.

The praetores shall have competence to grant trial in any matter between citizens (or in any matter between a citizen and a peregrinus or between peregrini provided that the conditions set in the Lex Salicia Poenalis, Article VII. B are observed), with the following exceptions:

A.The praetores shall not grant trial against a reus who is a sitting magistrate.

B.The praetores shall not grant trial against a reus who is a former dictator regarding any action taken by that person in the course of his duties as dictator.

II.

Whenever a praetor shall receive a petitio actionis regarding which he is forbidden by this lex from granting trial, he shall dismiss the petitio actionis under the Lex Salicia Iudiciaria article II. A.

III.

The governor of a provincia shall have competence to grant trial in any matter between citizens who live in that provincia (or in any matter between a citizen and a peregrinus who both live in that provincia or between peregrini who both live in that provincia provided that the conditions set in the Lex Salicia Poenalis, Article VII. B are observed).

A.In such cases, all laws concerning the administration of justice shall apply as usual, any reference to the praetor or the praetores being construed as referring to the governor.

B.Should the praetores receive any petitio actionis concerning a matter which is between two citizens who live in the same provincia, or between a citizen and a peregrinus who live in the same provincia, or between two peregrini who live in the same provincia, they shall pass the petitio to the governor of that provincia.

C.Should a petitio submitted to a governor be dismissed by that governor, or should the governor fail to respond to such a petitio within 120 hours (5 days) of its submission, the petitioner may submit the same petitio to the praetores, and the praetores may deal with the petitio as under the lex Salicia iudiciaria and all other relevant laws.

Learn more ...

CIX: Lex Popillia senatoria

This lex follows the institutions of the kings in establishing a maximum size for the senate, and the lex Ovinia of c.318 in setting guidelines for the selection of new senatores.

I. ((Number of senatores))

After each census the censores shall declare a maximum number of senatores.

A. This number shall be 15% of the total number of assidui at the time, or the nearest whole number.

B. This number shall be the maximum number of senatores until the number is revised by the censores after the following census.

C. This number shall never be lower than the number of senatores who exist at the time of the declaration, regardless of the number of assidui.

D. This number shall never exceed 300, regardless of the number of assidui.

E. After they have declared the maximum number of senatores (and not before), the censores shall revise the list of senatores.

II. ((Removal of senatores))

The censores may remove senatores from the list.

A. They shall begin with the list drawn up by the previous censores.

B. They shall first strike from the list those who have died or lost their citizenship since the last list was drawn up.

C. They may also strike from the list any existing senatores whose past conduct they consider seriously harmful to the dignity of the senate. They shall make public explanation of their reason for doing so.

D. An existing senator may only be removed from the list with the agreement of both censores.

III. ((Sublection of senatores))

The censores shall add new senatores to the list.

A. After removing any senatores whom they wish to remove from the list, the censores shall sublect (add) new senatores to the list until the total number of senatores is equal to the maximum which they have set, or as near to the maximum as the censores consider reasonable.

B. They shall first sublect any dictatorii (citizens who have completed terms as dictator) who have not already been sublected, removed, or passed over for sublection.

C. They shall next sublect any censorii (citizens who have completed terms as censor) who have not already been sublected, removed, or passed over for sublection.

D. They shall next sublect any consulares (citizens who have completed terms as consul) who have not already been sublected, removed, or passed over for sublection.

E. They shall next sublect any praetorii (citizens who have completed terms as praetor) who have not already been sublected, removed, or passed over for sublection.

F. They shall next sublect citizens at their discretion, giving due weight to their past tenure of public office, to their seniority, and to their good character. These may include citizens who were passed over or removed from the senate by previous censores.

G. They may pass over for sublection any citizen qualified under III.B, C, D, or E whose past conduct they consider would be seriously harmful to the dignity of the senate. They shall make public explanation of their reason for doing so.

H. A new senator may only be added to the list with the agreement of both censores.

IV. ((Ius sententiae dicendae))

Higher magistrates and ex-magistrates shall be entitled to attend meetings of the senate.

A. Any flamen Dialis, dictator, censor, consul, or praetor shall be entitled to attend meetings of the senate and to vote therein; any tribunus plebis shall be entitled to attend meetings of the senate but not to vote therein.

B. No flamen Dialis, dictator, censor, consul, praetor, or tribunus plebis shall be counted toward the total number of senatores.

C. Any dictatorius, censorius, consularis, or praetorius shall be entitled to attend meetings of the senate and to vote therein, except one who has been deliberately passed over for sublection.

D. No dictatorius, censorius, consularis, or praetorius shall be counted toward the total number of senatores unless he or she has already been sublected by the censores.

V. ((Immunity))

A decision of the censores to remove an existing senator, or of either censor to pass over a citizen for sublection, is not subject to any appeal or provocatio and cannot be used as grounds to prosecute any current or former censor.

VI. ((Repeals))

The leges Vedia senatoria, Arminia senatoria, and Octavia de senatoribus are repealed.

Learn more ...

CX: Lex Fabia de nominibus approbationibusque

PREAMBLE:

This lex provides a frame in the way prospective citizens can choose their roman name. It encompasses historical research in the form of attested lists of Republican names and takes into consideration the laws of Nova Roma that deal with citizenship approval and the scope of Pater / Mater Familias authority on this particular matter. Application to Nova Roman citizenship implies acceptance and agreement to the terms of the present lex and is subject to a probationary period as described by lex Equitia de tirocinio civium novorum. The Censores reserve the right to refuse any application that does not abide by the following articles.

For the purpose of this lex, and as per lex Labiena de gentibus is recognised as the basic unit of society in Nova Roma. Gentes are composed of many different familiae that share the same nomen. Pater / Materfamilias are head of these officially recognised familiae and not of the gentes. This lex spells out the procedures that the Censores will follow in dealing with the approval of prospective citizens to Nova Roma and the incidence those procedures will have on their names.

This lex hereby complements the lex Cornelia et Maria de mutandis nominibus whose article II.E is repealed. Whenever a contradition arises between the lex Cornelia et Maria de mutandis nominibus and the present lex de nominibus approbationibusque, the present lex shall have precedence.

BASIS OF AUTHORITY

This lex is based on lex Labiena de gentibus and lex Equitia familiaris and takes into consideration the fact that Familiae are now the basic social units of Nova Roma. As such Pater / Materfamilias are now head of Familiae (natural or adopted) and not Gentes as was previously the case.

DEFINITIONS

The definitions below are provided to help cives understand the context within which Nova Roman nomenclature applies.

• A Familia (pl familiae) (household) constists of a pater or materfamilias and all who are in their potestas or manus OR two heads of household together in a free marriage and all who are in their shared potestas.

• A Domus (pl domus) or Stirps (pl. Stirpes) is an informal group of people who all share the same "nomen-cognomen" combination. There are no recognised heads of Domus; The heads of the familiae whose pater / materfamilias belong to the domus may, however, act in concert to authorise any new citizen to use their "nomen-cognomen" combination.

• A Gens (pl gentes) regroups all the people who share the same nomen. There are no recognised heads of Gentes in Nova Roma. As long as a new citizen does not choose an existing "nomen-cognomen" combination (see domus), he/she can choose to join any gens he / she likes.

I. Names in Nova Roma

I.A. Nomenclature

As per Roma Antiqua the nomenclature of free male citizens is that of the "tria nomina" (three names) formed as "praenomen-nomen-cognomen". The preferred choice for female nomenclature in Nova Roma is also the "tria nomina": This is to reflect the equal treatment of each prospective citizen, regardless of his / her gender, required by the constitution. The Censores, however, MAY recognise the Roman tradition in naming female citizens and may, in certain exceptional cases and after a personal application to the Censores, allow the following nomenclatures: "nomen only" or "nomen-cognomen".

I.A.1. Praenomen

Here is presented a list of Republican praenomina available to the prospective citizen. Each praenomen has been historically researched and attested. This list will be reviewed as and when new evidence comes to light: Please note that NO Praenomen that does not appear on this list will be accepted by the Censorial office without a special application. Please note that this list includes all the most common praenomina: They are accepted as standards by most scholars and will also be accepted by the censores without discussion. There are however a few other, far less common, praenomina available on request, look below.

Praenomina are very often abbreviated, and the abbreviations will be used in most official communications and records.

Common praenomina: the praenomina nearer to the beginning of the list are more frequent; those nearer to the end are less frequent.

Abbreviation	Male	Female
C.	Gaius	Gaia
L.	Lucius	Lucia
M.	Marcus	Marca
P.	Publius	Publia
Q.	Quintus	Quinta
T.	Titus	Tita
Ti.	Tiberius	Tiberia
Sex.	Sextus	Sexta
A.	Aulus	Aula
D.	Decimus	Decima
Cn.	Gnaeus	Gnaea
Sp.	Spurius	Spuria
M'.	Manius	Mania
Ser.	Servius	Servia
Ap.	Appius	Appia
N.	Numerius	Numeria

Rare praenomina: a list of Republican rare praenomina available to the prospective citizen is presented on the Name page (Index Nominum) of the main Nova Roma Website. This list will be updated by the Censores as new evidence comes to the foreground. These praenomina are only available on request and such requests must be approved by the Censores.

I.A.2. Nomen

The Nomen or genticilium serves to identify which gens a prospective citizen will belong to. The list of Nomina (or gentes) available in Nova Roma can be found in the album gentium. A citizen wishing to join a familia within a gens must seek the approval of the Pater / materfamilias of the said familia. The choice of a gens is subject to the articles II.B.i. and II.B.ii. of the present lex.

Prospective citizens are authorised to petition the Censores if they wish to create a new Gens, thus introducing a new nomen in Nova Roma. If their claim is justified, historically valid and supported by adequate evidence, the censores may, exceptionally, consider such request and eventually decide to authorise the creation of a new gens.

I.A.3. Cognomen

The magistrates of Nova Roma understand the personal nature of cognomina and the fact that they reflect physical or behavioural characteristics. Therefore cognomina may be accepted even if they don't appear on the recommended list. The prospective citizen must be able to justify his / her choice on either historical or personal grounds and that must be subject to the expressed condition that the chosen cognomen be a Latin word. Please note the restriction applied to cognomina that are already attached to a family in a particular gens (see point II.B.i.a of the present lex). A list of recommended cognomina can be found in the Nova Roma web-pages for Roman names. This list will be updated by the Censores as and when new evidence comes to light.

Special Cognomina: this lex revokes article II.E of lex Cornelia et Maria de mutandis nominibus whereby special cognomina were known under the word "agnomina".

Honorary cognomina are conferred upon a citizen by special dispensation. They can be awarded by a vote of the Senate in recognition of service to Nova Roma. They are not available to be chosen at the application stage.

Geographical honorary cognomina that refer to a provincia or regio (e.g. Germanicus, Britannicus) of Nova Roma and Roma Antiqua are subject to the same limitations as they were customarily bestowed upon a general after a successful campaign. Rare exceptions can be made by the censores in the case of citizen born in the provincia covering the territory of his/her macronation. In that latter case, the geographical cognomen will not be seen as honorary and can be requested at the application stage.

Cognomina that refer to the name of a deity will not currently be accepted unless the prospective citizen specifically expresses a desire to honour a god or goddess that he / she already worships and contact the Censores to present his / her case prior to sending his / her application.

I.B. Name change

I.B.1. Introduction

The choice of a Roman name being a very personal and intimate matter, the Censores and their staff must do their utmost to guide and help prospective citizens to choose the right name on the first instance. As such, no name change should be allowed after the original application has been approved to the satisfaction of all parties involved. However, on exceptional circumstances, the Censores reserve the right to authorise such name change if the citizen in question can effectively argue his / her case and only if this change affects the praenomen, cognomen or agnomen. The ruling of the Censores is final.

In case of a nomen change (i.e. change of gens), the only procedure authorised is that of adoption. Adoption takes the forms of adrogatio or adoptio according to the status, Sui Iuris or Alieni Iuris, of the adopted party. The procedures of Adoption are defined by the lex Equitia familiaris and the effect on name are described below: the citizen wishing to change his / her nomen must seek approval from the new Pater / Materfamilias whose domus he / she wishes to be part of. Upon approval, this prospective citizen will take the praenomen, nomen and eventual cognomen of his / her new Paterfamilias / Materfamilias.

Recent experiences, however, where the Censorial Cohors had to deal with multiple adoptions of several members of the same gens into one familia has shown that in these cases the only distinction between members of that familia would have been to add yet another cognomen (primus, secundus, tertius etc.) to distinguish one civis from the other. The censorial office judged that this solution was not satisfactory as it cannot ensure that each civis would easily be identifiable nor that his / her own individuality would truly be reflected in their new name. The following articles, I.B.ii and I.B.iii, reflect those experiences and propose a way of dealing with adoptions that is consistent with traditional Roman nomenclature and the spirit of flexibility and practicality that were qualities of our forefathers.

I.B.2. Adoption involving two cives belonging to two different gentes

I.B.2.a. The adopted party will take the Nomen AND Cognomen of his / her adopting parent.

I.B.2.b. The adopted party will add to his / her new name a second cognomen based on the root of his / her old Nomen to which will be added -ianus / -iana according to the gender.

I.B.2.c. The adopted party will be able to retain his/her praenomen and cognomina should he/she wish to, so long as the adopting parent agrees.

I.B.2.d. Example: M. Anicius Brutus wishes to be adopted by the paterfamilias L. Lucretius Candidus. M. Anicius Brutus wishes to keep his Praenomen Marcus. His new name, after the adoption is completed, will be: M. Lucretius Candidus Anicianus.

I.B.3. Adoption involving two cives belonging to the same gens

I.B.3.a. The adopted party will take the Nomen AND Cognomen of his / her adopting parent.

I.B.3.b. The adopted party will retain his / her old Cognomen and use it as a second cognomen in his new name. This second cognomen will not be inherited by his / her filiifamilias.

I.B.3.c. The usual Cognomen resulting from adoption (ending in -ianus / -iana and based on the root of the nomen of the adopted party and as defined by the lex Equitia familiaris is dropped.

I.B.3.d. The adopted party will be able to retain his / her praenomen should he / she wish to, so long as the adopting parent agrees.

I.B.3.e. Example: M. Anicius Brutus wishes to be adopted by the paterfamilias L. Anicius Lepidus. M. Anicius Brutus wishes to keep his Praenomen Marcus. His new name, after the adoption is completed, will be: M. Anicius Lepidus Brutus. Please note the difference with point I.B.2.d above where the new name would have been: M. Anicius Lepidus Anicianus.

I.B.4.

There exists the possibility of administrative name correction, permitted only in very limited cases upon the request of the citizen, at the discretion of the Censorial Office. In the case of administrative name correction, citizens who made a mistake in choosing their praenomen, nomen, cognomen, or cognomina, at the time of their application for citizenship may be allowed to correct their names, even their nomen gentilicium. If a citizen corrects his name by administrative name correction process, any connection to his or her original gens is eliminated, and all public records shall show only the new name of the citizen (only the Censorial Database must archive the previous version of the name), and the citizen has to be regarded as if he or she had always had this name. The censores are especially encouraged to allow all such name corrections when incorrect or unhistorical names are being corrected to authentic ones, but they shall compel the citizens to change as few parts, and to change as little in their name, as possible. As a general guideline to the Censorial Office, citizens who are unknown to the wide public of Nova Roma always should be allowed to correct their names. Well-known citizens should not take up a completely new name, but additions of new cognomina may be tolerated.

II. Approval procedures and names

II.A. Introduction

II.A.1. ((Joining gentes))

This lex applies the revocation by lex Labiena de gentibus of the right of former heads of Gentes (until now also known as Patres / Matresfamilias) to approve or reject the application of a prospective citizen to join a particular Gens.

II.A.2. ((Joining familiae))

This lex confirms the right of heads of Familiae known as Pater / Materfamilias to approve or reject the application of a prospective citizen to join a particular Familia.

II.B. Approval authority

II.B.1. Approval authority in a Familia and / or Domus

II.B.1.a. Familia

Each Familia duly registered with the censorial office will be headed by a Pater / Materfamilias chosen as per the recommendations found in lex Labiena de gentibus.

II.B.1.b. Domus

Each Domus duly registered with the censorial office will be confirmed in its position by the right of using a reserved and specific cognomen within a Gens to differentiate itself from other Domus in that Gens.

No prospective citizen of a particular Gens may choose the cognomen of a Domus already existing within that Gens, unless the prospective citizen has been approved by all the Patres / Matresfamilias of the familiae existing in the said Domus. In effect the new prospective citizen will become the pater / materfamilias of a new Familia within the Domus.

Existing citizens must go through the process of Adoption (either adoptio or adrogatio) to enter an existing Domus. See point I.B.iii.

II.B.1.c. Approval authority of the Pater / Materfamilias

The Pater / Materfamilias of a Familia duly registered with the censorial office will have the ultimate authority in accepting or rejecting the application of any prospective citizen wishing to join this Familia.

II.B.1.d. The duty of the Pater / Mater Familias in guiding prospective Citizens.

II.B.1.d.i As the person responsible to welcome new citizens into the Familia and guiding them in Nova Roma, the Pater / Materfamilias has the duty to help and support the prospective citizen in his / her choice of name, following the laws and edicta that guide such selection, before the familial approval reaches the censorial office.

II.B.1.d.ii. Should it come to the attention of the Censores that a Pater / Materfamilias repeatedly approves prospective citizens with names that do not compy with the present lex, a censorial investigation may be launched as to why that is. If no satisfactory explanation is provided, the Censores may issue a public reprimand against the said Pater / Materfamilias for non adherence to Nova Roman practice as defined by the laws, edicta and decreta of Nova Roma.

II.B.2. Approval authority in a Gens

II.B.2.a. The Gens in Nova Roma

II.B.2.a.i. A Gens in Nova Roma is composed of many different Familiae that share a common nomen.

II.B.2.a.ii. Although members of a particular Gens may wish to organise themselves as they see fit, for the purpose of this lex and in accordance with lex Labiena de gentibus the Censores do not recognise the authority of a head of a Gens as far as approving citizens is concerned.

II.B.2.a.iii. Building on the above point, closed Gentes are now abolished as prospective citizens are free to join any Gens they wish as opposed to officially recognised Familiae and Domus that are allowed to present possible restrictive entry conditions.

II.B.2.b. Approval authority to acceptance in a Gens

II.B.2.b.i. Any prospective citizen may choose the Gens of his choice providing he / she doesn't seek to belong to an already existing Domus. In the latter case approval authority falls within the rights and duties of the Pater / Materfamilias as stated in II.B.1.b.

II.B.2.b.ii. The Censores will hold the ultimate authority to approve or reject prospective citizens seeking admission in a Gens but not in a recognised Familia.

III. Sources

Roman Nomenclature:

Diana Bowder "Who Was Who In the Roman World", Cornell University Press, 1980

John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, Oswyn Murray "The Oxford History of the Roman World", Oxford University Press, 2001

T. Robert S. Broughton "Magistrates of the Roman Republic", Vol. 1 and 2, American Philological Association/Scholars Press, 1986

Mika Kajava "Roman Female Praenomina" Institutum Romanum Findlandiae Vol. XIV, Rome 1994: Senatorial Women's Praenomina in the Republican and Imperial Periods ( p. 136)

O. Salomies, "Die romischen Vornamen" (Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 82, 1987).

B. Salway, "What's In A Name? A Survey Of Roman Onomastic Practice From c.700 B.C. to A.D. 700"

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/List-of-Republican-Roman-Consuls

http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/Consuls.List.html

http://www.hostkingdom.net/consuls.html

Learn more ...

CXIII: Lex Minucia de civitate eiuranda

Citizenship in Nova Roma may be voluntarily relinquished or involuntarily revoked according to the Constitution, or may be temporarily suspended under the Lex Fabia de Censu, paragraph VI. Outlined in this lex are the procedures by which a citizen may voluntarily relinquish his or her citizenship by a process of renouncing Nova Roman citizenship, and procedures to be followed when a person returns into citizenship following suspension of citizenship or relinquishment of citizenship.

I. Supersession

The lex Vedia de civitate eiuranda and lex Equitia de civitate eiuranda are hereby repealed.

II. Renouncing from citizenship

A. Citizenship from Nova Roma may be voluntarily relinquished by notification of the censors. Submission to the censors of an intention to renounce citizenship should be made in writing with the intention clearly stated, and may be transmitted in writing via any available means. When a citizen renounces citizenship in Nova Roma, the loss of citizenship will not take permanent effect for a nundinum (8 days, 192 hours) from the date of the censors being notified. If the citizen desires to withdraw his or her resignation during this nundinum and remain a citizen, that citizen may freely do so without penalty. The citizen can withdraw the renunciation of citizenship during this nundinum by notifying the censors of this decision.

B. A parent or guardian may voluntarily rescind Nova Roma citizenship of impuberes (minors) as provided for above.

III. Forfeiture of offices

If citizenship is resigned, any and all public offices, titles, positions held by the citizen are immediately vacated at the time that the censors receive a resignation. No public offices, elected or appointed, shall carry over into a new citizenship should a resigning citizen later reestablish citizenship.

III. Reinstatement

A. Reinstatement of citizenship, after the expiration of the grace period of the resignation nundinum, is granted at the discretion of the censors or the censorial office. Against the decision of the censors, former citizens wishing to be reinstated may turn to the praetors or to magistrates with the right of jurisdiction to start a legal proceedings to appeal against the decision.

B. When a former citizen applies for reinstatement of citizenship, he or she shall have restored his or her census points, which may be subject to penalties due to relinquishment of citizenship.

C. Former titles and offices may be restored by the relevant authorities at their discretion.

Learn more ...

CXIV: Lex Minucia Moravia eiuratione magistratum

This lex clarifies the legal definition of magisterial resignation, consequences of resignation, and those procedures legally necessary to validate and remedy magisterial vacancy due to a resignation of office, in accordance with the Constitution of Nova Roma, Section IV, on 'Magistrates', which states that an office becomes vacant when a magistrate resigns or dies while in office. The language of this lex is binding on resignation of magisterial offices elected in the in the Comitia Centuriata and Comitia Tributa and in the Comitia Plebis Tributa.

I.A. An elected magistrate resigns from office by tendering his or her notification of a resignation to the presiding official (defined below) of the comitia in which the resigning magistrate was elected.

I.B. The Tribunes of the Plebs are the presiding officials of the Comitia Plebis Tributa. A resignation of an office that was elected in the Comitia Plebis Tributa may be tendered in writing directly to one or more Tribunes of the Plebs, or else is tendered to the Tribunes of the Plebs by posting a notice of resignation via the official Comitia Plebis Tributa list, or a list that is supported by Nova Roma as a Public Forum.

I.C. The Consuls and Praetors are the presiding officials of the Comitia Centuriata and Comitia Tributa. A resignation of an office that was elected in the CComitia Centuriata and Comitia Tributa may be tendered in writing directly to one or both Consuls or Praetors, or else is tendered by posting a notice of resignation on a list that is supported by Nova Roma as a public Forum.

II.A: A vacancy of office is legally established when an appropriate presiding official acknowledges in writing the receipt of a tendered resignation to the resigning magistrate. A vacancy may also be legally established when the Censors inform the presiding magistrates that a magistrate is unreachable after an absence of 45 or more days.

II.B: Within a nundinum (192 hours) of receiving notification of a resignation, the presiding official of the respective comitia – any one of the Consuls or Praetors, or any one of the Tribunes of the Plebs, as the case may be, shall acknowledge receipt in writing to the resigning magistrate. The resigning magistrate may not use any of his or her powers and rights as a magistrate from the moment of announcing the resignation. The loss of magistracy will not take permanent effect until the presiding official accepts it, but if the resignation nundinum expires, it becomes permanent automatically. The resigning magistrate may withdraw the resignation during this nundinum, and resume full powers and rights as a magistrate, unless the presiding official has formally accepted and made it official record already. The resignation will be dated to the time when the resignation was announced by the resigning magistrate. If a presiding magistrate claims that a magistrate resigned in private communication, but the magistrate in question denies it, and there is no public evidence of the resignation, the resignation shall not be considered to have happened.

II.C. Consuls shall not accept a resignation from office of a magistrate elected in the Comitia Plebis Tributa.

II.D. Tribunes of the Plebs may only accept the resignation from office of a magistrate elected in the Comitia Centuriata and Comitia Tributa as in II A and B when none of the Consuls or Praetors is available to accept the resignation on behalf of this comitia.

III. Elections shall be held within a month of the established vacancy for a suffect magistrate in the legally appropriate comitia, according to prevailing legal procedures governing elections of that comitia.

IV. This lex does not in itself restrict a former magistrate from standing for election in the Comitia Plebis Tributa or in the Comitia Centuriata and Comitia Tributa to fill the vacancy caused by his or her resignation, and for which he or she is eligible to hold.

V. The presiding official of a comitia who lawfully acknowledges receipt of a resignation from office of any magistrate who was elected in either the Comitia Plebis Tributa or Comitia Centuriata and Comitia Tributa, as outlined in this lex, shall be responsible for communicating this information to the Censors, the Magister Aranearius and to the citizenry via public fora within the following a nundinum (192 hours) from the time that the resignation goes into effect.

Learn more ...

CXXI: Lex Galeria de privatis rebus

I. The Lex Cornelia de privatis rebus is repealed.

II. The Lex Octavia de privatis rebus is repealed.

III. Confidential information consists of the following:

A. information given directly by a person for the purpose of applying for citizenship; and

B. information given directly by a person for the purpose of updating or correcting information referred to in III.A above; and

C. information obtained from the subscription list of the e-mail list that currently constitutes the Forum or main list of Nova Roma, other than information which is available to every member of that e-mail list; and

D. information obtained from the subscription lists from the publications of Nova Roma.

IV. Information is given directly when it is provided voluntarily by the person to whom it pertains.

V. Where confidential information is held in official records or by any magistrate, it shall be made available to any censor, consul, praetor, magister aranearius [1], or magistrate legally responsible for the handling of applications for citizenship, upon request by that person. It shall be made available to any provincial governor, upon request by that governor, if and only if it pertains to a person living in the province which he or she governs. It shall not be made available to any other person except as provided below.

VI. A censor may at his or her discretion give confidential information to a magistrate other than one entitled to received it under V above upon request by that magistrate.

VII. A magistrate who receives confidential information under V or VI above may at his or her discretion give that information to his or her lawfully appointed assistant.

VIII. A censor may at his or her discretion give confidential information on request to a municipal agent of law enforcement or other person entitled by municipal law to demand and be given the information. Where a censor receives such a request, he or she shall inform the person to whom the information pertains of the request, of all circumstances relevant to the request, and of the censor's actions in response to the request.

IX. Other than as set out above, no person shall give to any other person any confidential information about any third person without the permission of that third person.

X. Nothing in this lex shall be taken to prohibit any person from asking any other person for information about himself or herself. Nothing in this lex shall be taken to prohibit any person from giving information about himself to any other person.

Learn more ...

CXXVII: Lex Cornelia de quaestoribus

In recent years, Nova Roma has had ongoing vacancy issues, specifically regarding the electoral officers. Some offices often experienced the absence of the office holder due to personal or macronational problems. This has an adverse affect on the people of Nova Roma, and this law intends to address the issue of vacant offices and absent magistrates by authorizing the consuls, praetors and aediles to order the quaestors to complete various tasks and to deputize or to stand in for various magistrates.

I. In the event of a magisterial or administrative vacancy (vacant office or absent, unavailable officer), the consuls can order a quaestor to stand in for the absent magistrate. The quaestor so appointed by the consuls will not have the powers of the magistrate that they are substituting for, but they shall do those duties for the missing or absent magistrate which do not require using the specific constitutional powers uniquely possessed by the missing or absent magistrate.

II. A presiding magistrate of voting comitia may order any quaestor to accept appointment for the positions of rogator, diribitor and custos if there is lack of volunteers for these positions; the quaestor may not refuse the order of the magistrate unless the quaestor declares his or her candidacy in the same election for which he or she was selected to be an electoral officer.

III. Magistrates who know in advance that they will be unavailable or incapable of doing their duties for a period of time have the right to delegate part of their powers and duties and to empower any quaestor to stand in for them and to complete specific tasks, including tasks that are within the exclusive power of the magistrate who is giving the authorization. The magistrate may order the selected quaestor without an option for refusal. The designation of the quaestor as deputy and the tasks the quaestor is empowered to do in the name of the magistrate shall be briefly defined in an edict, as well as the extent of time of the authorization.

III.A. The quaestor will not be permitted to usurp any power of the magistrate for which he or she has not received specific authorization.

III.B. Quaestors, so empowered to act in the name of a magistrate, shall declare in the name of which magistrate they are acting for in all of their official acts and documents they compose during their authorized period of service.

III.C. Quaestors may not be delegated the power of intercessio, the powers of lectio senatus, recognitio equitum, the regimen morum (which term includes the animadversio and the nota), and the right to convene the senate or the comitia. Quaestors may be delegated the right to convene the comitia in the name of a magistrate in case of legal proceedings upon specific authorization and instructions by the praetor or other magistrate holding a trial before the people.

IV. Magistrates may order any of the four quaestors who are not consular or praetorian quaestors to complete various tasks determined by the magistrates within their field of competence.

V. Magistrates shall consult with the selected quaestor before assigning duties to them, and shall not overload them with unrealistic demands. Magistrates are required to exercise discretion and understanding when ordering quaestors to perform various tasks. Quaestors who become overloaded with tasks have the right to complain to the tribunes of plebs, asking them to veto the order of the magistrate. Quaestors may also seek a higher ranking magistrate to veto the lower ranking magistrate making the excessive demand, or, if all of these attempts fail, quaestors can send a petition to the senate asking exemption from under the order of the magistrate.

Learn more ...

CXLII: Lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda

Preamble

We, the Senate and People of Nova Roma, as a symbolically and spiritually independent and sovereign nation, herewith set forth this law as the foundation of our governing institutions and common society. We hereby declare Nova Roma to be the commonwealth in possession of the renascens populus Romanus, the renascent modern Roman people worldwide, regardless of their status of citizenship, as established by the Contract with the Gods at the October Horse ceremony in the 20th Year of Nova Roma, which completed the founding process of the New Roman Nation, and which was sealed by the Confirmed Declaration of Nova Roma and the installation of the Pignora Imperii and the New Palladium. Nova Roma shall stand as a beacon for those who identify as Romans anywhere in the world, who all shall be considered members of the Nova Roman Nation. Nova Roma is hereby established as the home community of all Romans and all things Roman, embodied in ancient Roman form, as its most classical incarnation, but inheriting and cultivating all periods of Roman history, from archaic to medieval and modern. As the spiritual heir to ancient Rome, Nova Roma shall restore and maintain the Pax Deorum and shall serve as the homeland and worldly focus for the Religio Romana. As heir to the Roman Republic and Empire, Nova Roma shall endeavor to exist, in all manners practical and acceptable, as the modern restoration of the ancient Roman Republic. The religion, culture, law and society of Nova Roma shall be patterned principally upon those of the ancient Roman Republic, or when needed or deemed more practical, on other periods of Roman history, preferably on the Principate. In its mission to revive Roman civilization, Nova Roma shall always endeavor to recreate the best of ancient Rome and the most classical expression of a Roman tradition. Nothing shall be permitted or legally valid in Nova Roma which would violate the spirit, purpose and principles of the Confirmed Declaration of Nova Roma.

The primary function of Nova Roma shall be to fulfill the Confirmed Declaration of Nova Roma, to restore the Roman Nation and attend the Cultus Deorum, to revive and to promote the study and practice of the mos maiorum, the religion, culture and virtues of classical Roman civilization, defined as the period from the founding of Rome in 753 BCE to the final extinction of the Sacred Fire of Vesta in 394 CE, and of all things Roman from other periods secondarily, encompassing such fields as religion, culture, law, politics, language, literature, philosophy, fashion, craftsmanship, art and architecture, and to found the Roman model city of Nova Roma.

I. Constitutional Basis

A. This law shall be the Constitution of Nova Roma, a special lex ('law') serving as the basic authority for all decision-making within Nova Roma, and shall limit the authority of all magistrates and institutions, of all other leges (translated as 'laws') passed by the Comitia, decreta (translated as 'decrees') of the priestly collegia, magisterial edicta (translated as 'edicts') and Senatus consulta (translated as either 'recommendations' of the Senate or 'decrees' of the Senate) shall be subject to it. This law may be altered by a lex passed by a two-thirds majority vote of Comitia Centuriata and ratified by a two-thirds majority vote of the Senate before it shall take effect.

B. Legal precedence and interpretation. The English terms “law” or  “legal” document within the context of Nova Roma shall be understood to refer to this lex constitutiva or to any lex, decretum, Senatus consultum or edictum if its nature and context is unspecified; more properly 'law' is the English translation of the term lex passed by Comitia. This present lex shall be the highest legal authority within Nova Roma. It shall thereafter be followed in legal authority by Senatus consulta ultima, edicta issued by a legally appointed a dictator, leges properly voted and passed by one of the Comitia, decreta passed by the Collegium Pontificum, decreta passed by the Collegium Augurum, Senatus consulta, and edicta issued by magistrates or other officers (in order of descending authority as described in section IV of this law, such edicts being binding upon themselves as well as others), in that order. Should a lower authority conflict with a higher authority, the higher authority shall take precedence. Should a law contradict another of the same rank of legal precedence without explicitly superseding it, the most recent law shall take precedence. Should the law of Nova Roma be silent or ambiguous in a question, ancient Roman law and legal convention shall be used as guide to the decision or interpretation. Interpretation of law and the legality and validity of disputed law or action shall be in the power of the magistrates, and relevant officers, with iurisdictio (with the possibility of overriding each other's decisions in order of authority), of the praetors in the first place as part of their primary duties, or of any higher magistrates with iurisdictio if they see the need to intervene, which can be overridden by Senatus consulta or leges, and in cases of religious law and the unwritten laws of sacred Roman traditions, the mos maiorum, of the Collegium Pontificum, which can be overridden by leges. Against the ruling of all these institutions on questions of interpretations, intercessio, provocatio or Nova Roman judicial process may be initiated, defined by lex. For the special case of adjudicating the validity of a disputed tribunician prehensio and intercessio, the rules in section IV.A.7.a-b apply.

C. This Constitution shall serve as the bylaws for Nova Roma, a legally incorporated entity in the state of Maine, USA (hereafter referred to as the "corporation"). The terms republic and state shall be understood to refer to the corporation within the context of Nova Roma. The other governing documents of the corporation shall be the leges of the Comitia which are the general assembly resolutions of the corporation, the decreta of the Collegium Pontificum and Collegium Augurum, which are cultural directive committee resolutions of the corporation, the Senatus consulta of the Senate which are the board resolutions, and the edicta of the magistratus which are the executive resolutions of the officers of the corporation. The Senatus consulta ultima are extraordinary board resolutions in corporate terminology. The governing bodies of the corporation shall be the Comitia Centuriata and the Comitia Tributa, which shall be the General Assembly of the members of the corporation (general meeting, the same body but with two different methods of voting); the Comitia Plebis Tributa shall be the Plebeian Committee of the General Assembly (composed of a class of members defined as plebeians), empowered to issue resolutions of the General Assembly in less important questions defined in these bylaws; the Priestly Colleges shall be Cultural Committees of the corporation, entrusted with keeping the corporation in line with its founding principles and cultural mission; the Senate shall be Board of Directors of the corporation, and the officers of the corporation shall be the magistrates, governors, priests and other elected or appointed officers of Nova Roma, as follows:

1. The consuls shall be the presidents of the corporation;

2. The praetors shall be the vice-presidents of the corporation;

3. The censors shall be the secretaries of the corporation;

4. The aediles shall be the deputy secretaries and culture and community directors of the corporation;

5. The quaestors shall be the treasurers and assistant directors of the corporation.

6. Other officers of the corporation: the tribunes of the plebs shall be the members' advocates of the corporation; the praefectus rei publicae (administrandae) shall be the chief executive officer, the curator aerarii the chief financial officer and the curator rei informaticae the chief information officer, the exact Latin titles and job descriptions of all of which can be defined and changed by law; the apparitors shall be senior and junior assistants of the management; the curators, legates and prefects shall be managers or supervisors of the management; the governors shall be regional presidents of the corporation; the various priests of Nova Roma shall be cultural officers, responsible to keep the organization within the spirit of Roman culture and religion.

7. The extraordinary corporate officers who are appointed only occasionally are the of the dictator, which is an extraordinary supreme president of the corporation, the magister equitum, which is an extraordinary vice-president, and the interrex, which is the temporary president of the corporation.

8. Additional corporate officers, or different corporate titles for the aforementioned officers other than described here, may be defined by edicta, decreta, leges and senatus consulta. In place of the censors, who are not permanent officers but hold office intermittently at fixed intervals, when there are none in office, the aediles shall fill the corporate legal role of secretary, but when doing so, they may not possess the powers of the censors other than which is specifically attributed to them by these bylaws or other laws of Nova Roma.

9. Members of the corporation are called “citizens”, or “people”, collectively; the reference to “people” as a source of law in these Bylaws and in the entire legal code of Nova Roma shall be understood to refer to the members' General Assembly (Comitia). Members are divided into membership fee paying members with more rights and enhanced voting power, called assidui, and non-paying members with limited rights, called capite censi or proletarii. Membership fee is called “tax” (or tributum) inside Nova Roma. Members of the corporation exercise their voting rights in voting groups, called centuries and tribes, within the differently voting variants of the General Assembly, further regulated by general assembly resolution. The result of the voting of the General Assembly is calculated not from the result of the individual votes of members, but from the result of the votes of these individual voting groups, the vote of each voting group being determined by the votes of the members cast internally within the voting group.

D. Any change to the Articles of Incorporation of Nova Roma, Inc. may be made by a lex passed by a two-thirds majority vote of Comitia Centuriata and ratified by a two-thirds majority vote of the Senate.

E. The use of male pronouns and technical terms within this Constitution is done solely for clarity, and shall not be construed to imply any disparity between genders before the law.

II. Citizens and Gentes

A. Citizenship. Regardless of citizenship, all people who identify as Romans shall be considered the spiritual members of the Nova Roman nation, with special emphasis of respect toward the people living in the former territory of the Roman Empire, especially those of Romance languages and nationalities, whereas the renascent Roman people, consecrated as native Romans by the Pignora Imperii, shall be the spiritual owners of Nova Roma. However, only citizenship grants any actual legal membership status and rights within the corporation. The full citizens of Nova Roma are those who possess the civitas Nova Romana optimo iure, they are the members of the corporation. The families of the cives optimo iure, and all spiritual members of the Nova Roman nation, either individuals or entire Roman communities, receive partial citizenship without voting or membership rights, the civitas Nova Romana sine suffragio, as defined by law, if they are registered in a manner defined by law. Entire Roman or non-Roman communities or individuals can receive the lesser partial associate citizenship of the civitas Latina (Latin citizenship) with the ius Latinum also knowns as ius Latii, or the allied or friend status, socius or amicus, as defined by separate law, which grant associate status to close partners of Nova Roma.  Any and all rights of a citizen, and citizenship itself, may be restricted, suspended or terminated, as a disciplinary measure, in process defined by law. Full citizenship, civitas optimo iure, shall be regulated as follows:

1. Any person 18 years old or older may apply for Citizenship.

2. Citizens may apply for Citizenship on behalf of their children or legal wards (as defined by relevant macronational law) under the age of 18. Such Citizens shall be known as impuberes.

3. Citizenship is open to anyone regardless of ethnic heritage, gender, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation.

4. Citizenship may be involuntarily revoked by those means that shall be established by law, or may be voluntarily relinquished by notification of the censors or by public statement before three or more witnesses.

5. Impuberes may have their Citizenship relinquished on their behalf by their parent or legal guardian (as defined by relevant macronational law) by notification of the censors or by public statement before three or more witnesses.

B. Citizens who have reached the age of 18 shall have certain fundamental rights (iura) and basic duties (munera). It is the mandatory duty of each citizen to register for the census, and it is an optional duty to pay the tributum and to perform the munus militiae (ceremonial and reenactment military service for Nova Roma) which shall be redeemable by alternative solutions, regulated by law. The fundamental rights that each citizen shall be guaranteed are contained in this enumeration, but it shall not be taken to exclude other rights that citizens may possess:

1. The ius suffragii, the right to vote in elections as members of their various Comitia on matters brought before the People;

2. The ius honorum, the right to be eligible for office, subject to requirements set by law;

3. The ius commercii, the right to pursue business enterprises within Nova Roma and the right to receive reasonable encouragement to build a strong economy through Roman-oriented commerce; the only restrictions being those informational and other materials copyrighted by the State, which shall remain the property of the State;

4. The ius conubii, the right to have a lawful marriage within Nova Roma with anyone, regardless of their citizenship status, and to have the children of any such marriage to be part of the Nova Roman Nation, however, full citizenship will be granted to these children only upon registration with the censors;

5. The ius provocationis, the  right of provocatio; to appeal a decision of a magistrate that has a direct negative impact upon that citizen to the Comitia Tributa;

6. The ius legis actionis, the right to receive justice, protection and redress in case of conflict with other citizens, non-citizens or with the State, in fair internal judicial procedure, defined by law;

7. The right and obligation to remain subject to the civil rights and laws of the countries in which they reside or hold citizenship, regardless of their status as dual citizens of Nova Roma;

8. The right of protection from ex post facto laws so that no citizen may suffer:

a. A penalty for an action which was not subject to a penalty when the action was performed. If an action was subject to a penalty when the action was performed but is no longer subject to any penalty, no penalty shall be applied for that action.

b. A greater penalty for an action than the penalty which was applicable when the action was taken. If an action was subject to a penalty when the action was performed but is now subject to a lesser penalty, the lesser penalty shall be applicable for that action.

9. The right to participate in all public fora and discussions, restricted only in case of disruptive behavior. Such officially sponsored fora shall be expected to be supported, maintained and reasonably moderated in the interests of maintaining order and civility;

10. The right to seek and receive assistance and advice from the State in matters of Roman culture and activities;

11. The right to privacy; security in one's home, person, and property; and authority over one's home, person, and property. Homes may not be searched, persons may not be detained, and property may not be seized, except by judicial ruling or by a special provision of law, and;

12. The ius sacrorum, the right to complete authority over one's own personal and household religion, rites and beliefs, Roman or otherwise; except when the laws mandate public participation in the ceremonies of the Religio Romana, such as the case of magistrates.

C. The Genera Gentilicia. There are two gentilic genera into which all citizens fall:

1. The patriciatus (the patrician genus)

a. The patriciatus shall consist of a minimum of 30 families.

b. Should there be fewer than 30 patrician families the Senate shall have the power to nominate a plebeian family to the Comitia Curiata for elevation to patrician status.

c. The Senate shall have the power to nominate additional families to the Comitia Curiata for elevation to patrician status if this elevation does not cause the patriciatus to exceed 5% of the population of Nova Roma.

d. A patrician family may allow its members to form new patrician families.

2. The plebs (the plebeian genus). The plebs shall consist of individuals who do not belong to the patriciatus.

D. Gentes (clans), stirpes (branches, dynasties), familiae (families) and domus (households). Familiae being the backbone of Roman society, the prerogatives and responsibilities of the familia are of primary importance to Nova Roma. Except where specifically dealt with in the law, each familia shall have the right to determine its own course of action and parents shall have the undisputed right and responsibility to see to the education and raising of their children.

1. Each gens (clan) shall be registered with the censors, who will maintain records of gens membership and other relevant information.

2. No two gentes may have the same nomen. The censors shall be responsible for ensuring this rule is observed.

3. Each gens shall consist of a minimum of one stirps (lineage).

4. No two stirpes' within a gens may have the same cognomen (surname). The censors shall be responsible for ensuring this rule is observed.

5. Each familia shall have a paterfamilias and / or materfamilias who shall act as the leader(s) of the family and speak for it when necessary. The holder(s) of this position must be registered as such with the censors. The paterfamilias and / or materfamilias may, at his, her, or their discretion, expel members of his, her, or their familia, accept new members into it by adoption, or allow members to form new familiae belonging to the same order.

a. The paterfamilias and / or materfamilias may, at his, her, or their discretion, exercise the rights enumerated in paragraph II.B of this law on behalf of impuberes in his, her, or their familia, with the exception of the rights under paragraphs II. B. 1-4.

E. Curiae, Tribes, Centuries and Classes

1. There shall exist thirty curiae, into which the censors shall divide all of the gentes, and each ten curiae shall be joined up in one of the three ceremonial tribes, the Ramnes, Tities or Luceres, directed by law passed by the Comitia. Unlike the voting tribes and the centuries, the curiae do not vote directly in the Comitia Curiata, but they are represented by the lictores curiati.

2. Separately from the three ceremonial tribes, there shall exist nineteen voting tribes, into which the censors shall divide all of the citizens. Fifteen of these tribes shall be designated the rural tribes, made up of those citizens who are designated as assidui. Four of these tribes shall be designated the urban tribes, and shall be made up of those citizens who are designated as capite censi or proletarii. Citizens shall be assigned by the censors into tribes as directed by law passed by the Comitia.

3. There shall exist a number of voting centuries, set by law enacted by the Comitia Centuriata, one reserved for the capite censi or proletarii, the rest for the assidui, into which the censors shall divide all of the citizens.

4. The centuries shall be established within five Classes into which the censors shall divide all of the citizens according to qualifications set by lex. The exact composition of the centuries and classes shall be determined by law passed by the Comitia Centuriata, but shall be weighted in favor of those citizens who have shown the greatest commitment to Nova Roma.

F. Ordo equester (equestrian order). The Equestrian Order shall consist of high standing citizens who excel in their service to the Res Publica. Equestrians shall be enrolled into the Ordo Equester as specified by laws approved by the Comitia. There shall be two grades of equestrians, the equites equo publico (public knights) who shall be the equestrians proper, and equites equo privato (private knights) who shall not be considered full members of the Equestrian Order, and a preliminary grade of the tribuni aerarii equestres (equestrian treasury tribunes), as defined by law.

III. Comitia

The Comitia are the highest organs of the republic possessing all powers of the people and the state. A law passed by the Comitia is called lex. No session of the Comitia may be held without taking the auspices before with favorable result and without an opening and closing ceremony of the Religio Romana; any lex enacted without this procedural step shall be invalid.

A. The Comitia Curiata (Curiate Assembly) shall be made up of thirty lictores curiati (lictors of the curia), appointed to their positions by the Collegium Pontificum (college of pontiffs). It shall be called to order by a consul or praetor in point III.A.1, or by the pontifex maximus or a pontifex in points III.A.2-5, when the Comitia Curiata can be also called Comitia Calata, and the Collegium Pontificum shall set the rules by which the Comitia Curiata shall operate internally. No magistrate shall exercise the rights contained in imperium and auspicia maiora without the formal grant by the Comitia Curiata.  It shall have the following responsibilities:

1. To invest elected and appointed magistrates, governors or other officers with auspicia maiora and imperium (full or greater imperium to consuls and to officers specially empowered with consular imperium, and lesser imperium to praetors and to officers specially empowered with praetorian imperium), without right of refusal individually or as a body. When imperium is prorogued, it shall not be invested again by the Comitia Curiata. Imperium is defined as chief command and presidency, complete power over provinces and military, supreme executive, judicial and disciplinary power, which includes the ius imperandi (the power to command and to give orders to anyone), full iurisdictio (the power to interpret and administer the law and to administer justice), full ius coercitionis (the right to enforce the law and their own decisions, even by disciplinary or preventive actions), ius intercessionis (the right to forbid decisions or actions of the colleague or lesser magistrates), and ius edicendi (the right to issue edicta); all these within the boundaries or provincia of the office, and it grants the honor of being preceded by lictors as a symbol of supreme power. With certain exceptions defined by this lex, imperium cannot be exercised within the central administration of Nova Roma, where it is subject to both provocatio and tribunician intercessio;

2. To witness the appointment of official priests and priestesses of the Religio Romana, adoptions, and the recording of wills.

3. To approve or reject the elevation of a plebeian family to the patriciatus;

4. To approve or reject an adoption that elevates a plebeian to the patriciatus or lowers a patrician to the plebs;

5. To approve or reject an application from a patrician who wishes to renounce his status and become a member of the plebs.

B. The Comitia Centuriata (Centuriate Assembly) shall be made up of all of the citizens, grouped into their respective centuries. While it shall be called to order by either a consul or a praetor, only the comitia centuriata shall pass laws governing the rules by which it shall operate internally. It shall have the following powers:

1. To enact laws binding upon the entire citizenry;

2. To elect the consuls, praetors, and censors;

3. To try legal cases in which the defendant is subject to permanent removal of citizenship.

C. The Comitia Populi Tributa (Tribal Assembly of the People), abbreviated as 'Comitia Tributa', which shall always refer to these Comitia, not to the Comitia Plebis Tributa, shall be made up of all citizens, grouped into their respective tribes. While it shall be called to order by either a consul or a praetor, only the comitia populi tributa shall pass laws governing the rules by which it shall operate internally. It shall have the following powers:

1. To enact laws binding upon the entire citizenry;

2. To elect the quaestors and curule aediles;

3. To try legal cases that do not involve permanent removal of citizenship.

D. The Comitia Plebis Tributa (Tribal Assembly of the Plebs), abbreviated as 'Concilium Plebis',  shall be made up of all non-patrician citizens, grouped into their respective tribes. While it shall be called to order by a tribune of the plebs, only the comitia plebis tributa shall pass laws governing the rules by which it shall operate internally. It shall have the following powers:

1. To enact plebiscites with the force of law, binding upon the entire citizenry, but those addressing finances or foreign policy (external relations of Nova Roma, alliances, unions) shall be ratified by the Senate before they shall take effect;

2. To elect the plebeian aediles and tribunes of the plebs;

3. To try legal cases solely involving members of the plebs that do not involve permanent removal of citizenship.

IV. Magistrates

Magistrates are the elected and appointed officials responsible for the maintenance and conduct of the affairs of state and for the welfare of the people. Higher magistrates posses the auspicia maiora  (the consul, censor and dictator have a higher degree of auspicia maiora which can be called auspicia maxima, the praetor and the magister equitum shall have a lesser degree) and higher potestas (power), the lower magistrates (the rest of the magistrates) possess the auspicia minora and lower potestas. The higher magistrates, together with the curule aediles, are curule magistrates and shall be accorded distinguished respect and their historical insignia and privileges. There are two categories of magistrates: magistratus ordinarii (those who are ordinarily elected) and extraordinarii (those who are only occasionally appointed). Qualifications necessary to hold these positions may be enacted by law properly passed by one of the Comitia. No magistrate or promagistrate shall enter office without a taking of office ceremony of the Religio Romana before, including an inauguration and taking the vows of imperium, the oaths and auspices for the term of office with favorable result; a magistrate or promagistrate without these procedural steps may not legally exercise any powers of his office. No one may hold more than one magistracy at the same time.

A. The magistratus ordinarii are to be elected by the Comitia annually, with the exception of the censors, defined in IV.A.1. As the powers of the praetors and censors are derived from the consul's historical regia potestas, the consuls, praetors and censors shall be elected under the same auspices, and, in addition, the praetors shall be considered as minor colleagues of the consuls whose full ceremonial title is “praetor iudex consul”. Newly elected quaestors shall assume office on the Nones of December (December 5); the tribuni plebis and aediles plebis shall enter their offices on the fourth day before the Ides of December (December 10); all other magistrates shall enter their offices on the Kalends of January (January 1). Should an office in mid-term become vacant and suitable candidates be at hand, an election shall be held in the appropriate Comitia to elect a successor to serve out the remainder of the term within one month of the vacancy. The magistratus ordinarii, in decreasing order of authority, are as follows:

1. Censor. Two censors shall be elected by the Comitia Centuriata to be regarded as the most sacred magistrates kept in the highest respect, to serve a term lasting a maximum of eighteen months, to be elected once in every thirty months, to conduct the census of Nova Roma, which shall be initiated no later than in the thirtieth month after the lustrum of the previous census, observing that one in two censuses be completed before the end of every fifth calendar year of Nova Roma. The censors shall not necessarily remain in office until the end of their term, but they may resign from office after they have completed the census and the lustrum. If a censor dies, resigns, or is removed from office, the remaining censor shall resign no later than within a nundinum. When there are no censors in office, their duties listed under IV.A.1.c-d, without the right to award public knighthoods, shall be continued by the Censorial Office directly administered by the praefectus rei publicae administrandae under the legal authority of the consuls who shall only supervise the lawfulness of the operation of the Censorial Office; the rest of the censorial powers shall remain in abeyance. All censorial decisions shall be made by unanimous collegial decision. The censors shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

a. To hold potestas and the auspicia maiora, and to conduct the census with the lustrum, which shall include the lectio senatus (appointment and removal of senators), the recognitio et probatio equitum (elevation to, or removal from, the Equestrian Order), the regimen morum (general control, with disciplinary power, over the public conduct and morals of citizens, including the punishments of tribu movere: to re-allocate an assiduus citizen from a rural tribe to an urban tribe; senatu movere: to remove a senator from the senate, equum adimere: to remove the rank of “eques equo publico” from an equestrian; in aerarios referre: to remove the voting rights of citizens by exclusion from all tribes and centuries, simultaneously removing them from the Senate and the Equestrian Order, too), to possess an incomplete ius coercitionis limited to be used within their duties, and the ius edicendi restricted only to issue those edicta that are necessary to carry out those tasks in which they are mandated by law to engage;

b. To review, evaluate and set the direction of the public works, properties (in cooperation with the aediles) and finances of the state between two censuses;

c. To maintain the album civium (list of citizens) including the list of gentes, the allocation of citizens into tribes, centuries and classes as described by law, and other appropriate information regarding them;

d. To maintain the album equitum (lists of members of the equestrian order), including the power to add and remove names on that list;

e. To maintain the album senatorium (list of Senators), including the power to add and remove names on that list according to qualifications set by law;

f. To safeguard the public morality, virtue, honor and decency through public chastisements (animadversio) and through the collegial administering of notae;

i. The nota censoria shall include the public explanation of the reasons for the disciplinary action and the recommended behavior which could convince the censors to lift the nota;

ii. The nota censoria shall impose one or more punishments that the censors are empowered to inflict, listed at IV.A.1.a;

iii. A nota shall remain in force until such time as it is removed by the same or by subsequent censors;

g. To appoint apparitors and other officers to assist with administrative and other tasks, as they shall see fit.

2. Consul. Two consuls shall be elected annually by the comitia centuriata to serve a term lasting one year. They shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

a. To hold the regia potestas et imperium and the auspicia maiora, and to exercise, even when the use of imperium is restricted, full iurisdictio, the ius coercitionis, the ius intercessionis, the ius edicendi, the ius agendi cum populo (the right to call the Comitia of the whole people), the ius agendi cum Senatu (also known as “ius agendi cum patribus”, the right to call the Senate) and to have the honor of being preceded by twelve lictors; the consuls are responsible in general for the government of Nova Roma;

b. To issue those edicta necessary to advance the mission and function of Nova Roma and to administer the law;

c. To call the Senate, the comitia centuriata, and the comitia populi tributa to order;

d. To pronounce intercessio (intercession; a veto) against another consul or magistrate of lesser authority;

e. To appoint by unanimous collegial decision, the praefectus rei publicae (administrandae), modelled on the ancient praefectus urbi, as a general deputy, representative and prime assistant to coordinate the executive offices and the administration of Nova Roma, and individually or collegially, apparitors and other officers to assist with administrative and other tasks, as they shall see fit.

3. Praetor. Two praetors shall be elected by the Comitia Centuriata to serve a term lasting one year. They shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

a. To hold the lesser regia potestas et imperium and the auspicia maiora, and to exercise, even when the use of imperium is restricted, full iurisdictio, the ius coercitionis, the ius intercessionis, the ius edicendi, the ius agendi cum populo, the ius agendi cum Senatu, to deputize for the consuls in any of their powers and duties; and to have the honor of being preceded by six lictors; the praetors are responsible for the administration of justice and judicial procedures in Nova Roma which shall be defined and regulated by law;

b. To issue those edicta necessary to advance the mission and function of Nova Roma and to administer the law;

c. To call the Senate, the Comitia Centuriata, and the Comitia Tributa to order;

d. To pronounce intercessio against another praetor or magistrate of lesser authority;

e. To appoint apparitors and other officers to assist with administrative and other tasks, as they shall see fit.

4. Aedilis curulis (curule aedile). Two curule aediles shall be elected by the comitia populi tributa to serve a term lasting one year. They shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

a. To hold lower potestas, incomplete iurisdictio (the right to interpret and administer the law and to administer justice, limited to cases within their duties and to smaller punishments defined by law), incomplete ius coercitionis limited to be used within their duties, the ius intercessionis and the ius edicendi, all of which rights and powers are restricted only to be exercised within their scope of authority, that is, to oversee and manage the cultural life, festivals and celebrations, public market and commerce within Nova Roma, the public infrastructure, the official and public fora, media, websites and communication platforms and the public order of Nova Roma, or any additional tasks assigned to them by law; and to have the honor of being preceded by two lictors;

b. To issue those edicta necessary to ensure public order, to regulate public space and market, to see to the maintenance of public facilities, conduct of public games, festivals and gatherings, and to administer the law;

c. To pronounce intercessio against another aedile (curule or plebeian) or magistrate of lesser authority;

d. To appoint apparitors and other officers to assist with administrative and other tasks, as they shall see fit.

e. To maintain the venues of market and commerce within Nova Roma.

5. Aedilis plebis (plebeian aedile). Two plebeian aediles shall be elected by the comitia plebis tributa to serve a term lasting one year. They must both be of the plebs and shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

a. To hold lower potestas, incomplete iurisdictio (the right to interpret and administer the law and to administer justice, limited to cases within their duties and to smaller punishments defined by law), incomplete ius coercitionis limited to be used within their duties, the ius intercessionis and the ius edicendi, all of which rights and powers are restricted only to be exercised within their scope of authority, that is, to oversee and manage the cultural life, festivals and celebrations, public market and commerce within Nova Roma, the public infrastructure, the official and public fora, media, websites and communication platforms and the public order of Nova Roma, or any additional tasks assigned to them by law; and to assist the tribunes of the plebs in any plebeian matter as mandated by them;

b. To issue those edicta necessary to ensure public order, to regulate public space and market, to see to the maintenance of public facilities, conduct of public games, festivals and gatherings, and to administer the law;

c. To pronounce intercessio against another aedile (curule or plebeian) or magistrate of lesser authority;

d. To appoint apparitors and other officers to assist with administrative and other tasks, as they shall see fit.

e. To maintain the venues of market and commerce within Nova Roma.

6. Quaestor. Eight quaestors shall be elected by the Comitia Tributa to serve a term lasting one year. One quaestor shall be assigned to each consul and praetor by mutual agreement or, if such cannot be made, by decision of the newly-elected consuls to serve them as their general assistants in their duties and manager of the funds allocated to these magistrates. The four other quaestors shall be assigned various administrative tasks, duties and projects by any higher ranking officer, by the Senate or the Comitia. Any two of the quaestors, assigned to the provincia of the aerarium by the Senate, shall be the quaestores aerarii, chief treasurers, supervising and administering the aerarium (state treasury), but funds may be spent only according to the directives of the Senate. Any quaestor, even those already assigned to magistrates, can be assigned to governors in the same functions, and after their term of office, the governor can prorogue the term of his quaestor in the territory of the province with the title “proquaestor”.  All quaestors shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

a. To hold lower potestas, incomplete ius coercitionis and ius intercessionis, all of which rights and powers are restricted only to be exercised within their scope of authority, that is, to supervise, manage or execute tasks, duties and projects assigned to them by law or order by a higher ranking officer, the Senate or the Comitia;

b. To guard and administer the legal handover of government, including the oaths of office, to act as legal and financial controllers of the other officers, to serve as public prosecutors, investigators and chief law enforcement officers, to assist at Nova Roman judicial proceedings and to administer the law;

c. To serve as representatives, delegates and deputies of the magistrates, governors or other officers to whom they are assigned, acting in their name with full competence in the extent as defined by their superior;

d. To employ apparitors from among the existing ones, based on mutual agreement between quaestor and apparitor, as assistants in administrative and other tasks, as they shall see fit. This assignment of an apparitor to a quaestor shall be made by an edictum of the praefectus rei publicae administrandae (who shall have the ius edicendi) at the order of the quaestor, or in absence of such praefectus, or by any officer with the ius edicendi at their discretion.

7. Tribunus plebis (tribune of the plebs). Five tribunes of the plebs shall be elected from among the plebeian citizens by the Comitia Plebis Tributa to serve a term lasting one year, who shall be sacrosanct and inviolable. The tribunes of the plebs have powers only within the central civilian administration of Nova Roma, they cannot interact with provincial governors and officers or within the ceremonial military of Nova Roma. They shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

a. To hold the special tribunicia potestas, derived from their ius auxilii ferendi (the right to bring help to a citizen negatively impacted by a magistrate) which is the main duty and the basis of all other powers of the tribunes: the highest degree of ius coercitionis, encompassing the ius prehensionis (prehensio, 'detainment': the right to suspend the citizenship rights and the office of a someone who obstructs the tribunes in the performance of their duties, for no longer than 72 hours), the highest degree of ius intercessionis, the ius edicendi, the ius agendi cum plebe (the right to call the Comitia of the plebs) and the ius agendi cum Senatu in business concerning the plebs only;

i. As the tribunes are sacrosanct and inviolable, they are empowered to apply disciplinary and judiciary actions within Nova Roma against anyone who hinders them in the exercise of their duties, as defined by law.

ii. The ius prehensionis may only be exercised with the unanimous collegial decision of all tribunes of the plebs, and the issuing of the prehensio shall include a legal reasoning, citing the articles of law which are being violated by the offender. Without such a reasoned exposition, the prehensio is invalid, null and void. The person subject to the prehensio may appeal to the people for legal redress within the first 48 hours of the prehensio, in which case the tribunes are obliged to call the Comitia Plebis Tributa immediately, no later than within 72 hours after the appeal, or if calendrical restrictions do not allow this, on the next possible day, to vote on the justification of the prehensio. If the tribunes do not convene the Comitia within these time frames, or if the Comitia judges the prehensio unjust, the prehensio shall be considered to have been done illegally, and the tribunes lose their right to exercise prehensio for the rest of their term.

b. To pronounce intercessio (intercession; a veto), only within the central administration of Nova Roma, against the actions or decisions of any other magistrate (with the exception of the dictator and the interrex), fellow tribune, other central officers, edicta, decreta after their issuance, or motions for Senatus consulta and leges before their enactment, which would violate, in their interpretation, the rights and interests of the plebs, a plebeian citizen, any citizens, or the mission and function of Nova Roma, or the letter and spirit of any law. Once a pronouncement of intercessio has been made, the other tribunes may, at their discretion, state either their support for or their disagreement with that intercessio. When a dictator is in office, the tribunes' right of intercessio is suspended, and they are not permitted to issue intercessio against consuls and officers acting under the authority of a Senatus consultum ultimum.

i. If the validity of a tribunician intercessio is contested, the praetors, within 48 hours of the issuance of the intercessio, may rule on it based on their full iurisdictio, against which ruling there shall be no place for tribunician intercessio, but the tribunes shall have the right to bring the case to the Comitia Plebis Tributa, within 72 hours after the praetor's decision, or if calendrical restrictions do not allow this, on the next possible day, to overrule the praetors' decision. The declaration of the praetor shall include a legal reasoning, citing the articles of law which serve as evidence for the invalidity of the intercessio. Without such a reasoned exposition, the overruling of the intercessio by the praetor is invalid, null and void. No prehensio may be applied against a praetor for such a praetorian declaration. If the Comitia Plebis Tributa decide that the praetor's verdict was correct, no tribune may ever issue another intercessio against the same action or decision until a new lex authorizes them to do so.

ii. If a tribunician intercessio is declared invalid by the praetors, it ceases to have effect until the decision is overturned by the Comitia Plebis Tributa, and then it shall take force retroactively and it shall annul the act which was vetoed and its effects.

iii. Each Tribune may issue only one such declaration of support or disagreement, but may change their declaration from one to the other, should they wish to do so.

iv. The initial pronouncement of intercessio by a Tribune shall count as that Tribune's declaration of agreement.

v. Should the number or the Tribunes who choose to disagree with an intercessio equal or exceed the number of Tribunes who choose to support it, the intercessio shall be revoked.

1. Intercessio may not be imposed against statements of support for or disagreement with a use of intercessio that are issued pursuant to the preceding paragraph.

2. The issuance and function of intercessio shall be defined according to procedures described by legislation passed by Comitia.

c. To be immune from intercessio pronounced by other magistrates, except as described in paragraphs IV. A. 7 .a. and IV. A. 7. b. above;

d. To be privy to the debates of the Senate, and keep the citizens informed as to the subjects and results thereof, in such manner and subject to such restrictions as may be defined by law;

e. To call the Comitia Plebis Tributa to order; and to call the Senate to order for advice in matters strictly within the sphere of duties of the tribunes, and to enact Senatus consulta which may include such decisions only that are strictly internal business of the plebs or internal administrative matters of the tribuni plebis, except when the tribune shall call the Senate for approving a plebiscite requiring ratification by the Senate, or in other cases defined by law;

f. To help and protect the plebeians and all citizens from any discriminating action of the magistrates, to act as legal controllers of all officers, to conduct judicial procedures in connection with their duties, to serve as public prosecutors, public defenders, and to administer the law;

g. To appoint apparitors to assist with administrative and other tasks, as they shall see fit.

8. Vigintisexvir (Magistrate of the twenty-six). Collectively, the vigintisexviri shall be various magistrates elected by the Comiti Tributa to serve a term lasting one year to fulfill those necessary functions as shall be assigned to them by law enacted by one of the Comitia of the people. Their collective title may be changed by law from vigintisexvir to reflect their real number in Latin.

9. Tribunus militum comitiatus (Elected military tribune). The Comitia Tributa shall elect a number of military tribunes (also called tribuni militum a populo) elected to fulfill functions related to the ceremonial and reenacting military of Nova Roma as defined by law enacted by one of the Comitia of the people. Military tribune is also a military rank (tribuni militum rufuli), promoted by the consuls, praetors, governors or other commanding officers of a legion.

B. The magistratus extraordinarii are as follows:

1. Dictator. In times of emergency or to complete special extraordinary tasks, the consuls, upon the mandate of the Senate, may appoint a dictator to serve a term not to exceed six months, who shall possess all powers and rights of all magistrates and the judiciary, including all of their authorizations mentioned in this lex or elsewhere in the legal system of Nova Roma. A motion for appointing a dictator, the enactment process of the Senatus consultum about the appointment of the dictator, or the actual appointment by the consul, are not subject to tribunician intercessio (installing a dictator by Senatus consultum ultimum shall remain subject to tribunician intercessio). In the mandate for the appointment of the dictator, the Senate shall prescribe definite tasks or boundaries within which the dictator is obliged to remain, and after the task is completed, the dictator shall resign from office within a nundinum. The dictator can exercise imperium within the central administration, as well, subject to neither intercessio nor provocatio, and the edicta of the dictator are absolute, under the constraints of this Constitution, within the tasks and boundaries prescribed by the Senate. The edictum of the dictator may not be used in place of a lex or Senatus consultum to enact a change in the Constitution or in the Articles of Incorporation, or in place of a decretum pontificum to appoint priests. Those instructions and measures of the dictatorial edicta which overruled leges, Senatus consulta or decreta in the legal system of Nova Roma may not remain in force after the term of office of the dictator has ended: they cease to have any validity or effect. However, the edicta or the parts of an edictum that are not in conflict with the aforementioned types of law, the day-to-day management, operational actions and decisions implemented by the dictator for Nova Roma that do not create new law conflicting with laws of higher legal precedence, will not become reversed or annulled automatically after the tenure of the dictatura, only the changes to the legal system of Nova Roma which would be in conflict with existing leges, Senatus consulta or decreta. The dictator shall appoint a magister equitum as his deputy with lesser imperium equal to a praetor's, who shall assist the dictator as mandated and shall act in his name. The dictator shall hold greater imperium and potestas regia than any magistrate and shall have the honor of being preceded by twenty-four lictors.

2. Interrex. Should both consular positions be vacant and should there be no praetors in office at the same time, the Senate shall immediately appoint an interrex to serve a term lasting five days, and as many subsequent interreges, as will be needed to organize elections to elect the suffect consuls and other missing magistrates to serve out the remainder of the term of office, or in case of a new year, the new consuls and magistrates. The interrex must be a member of the patriciatus, and shall have all the powers and responsibilities of a normally elected consul.

C. Promagistratus (Promagistrate). The Comitia and the Senate can prorogue the imperium of consuls, praetors and the potestas of quaestors (quaestors can be prorogued also by the governor who is their superior) to govern provinces and command legions (or to assist therein, in the case of the quaestor), and can specially create, appoint, and grant consular or praetorian imperium to, governors, commanders or special extraordinary officers. Promagistrates are not magistrates, but private citizen officers who are empowered to exercise the office of magistrate.

D. Commissioner. The Comitia, the Senate, the magistrates and other officers with the ius edicendi, have the right to elect or appoint other officers with Roman titles, patterned upon the legal system of ancient Rome. These are not considered magistrates but commissioners of the state, and they include but are not limited to the office of curator, usually appointed by the senate, the legatus (legate), appointed by the Senate, or upon special authorization of the Senate, by magistrates or other officers, the praefectus (prefect) and the praepositus (provost), usually appointed by magistrates or other officers with the ius edicendi, the tribunus (tribune), usually appointed by consuls, praetors, governors and legion commanders, or elected by the people. The Comitia and the Senate can create, appoint, and grant any rights and powers of any magistrates to special extraordinary commissioners to complete specific tasks. Commissioners, magistrates and promagistrates can be an overlapping category: provincial governors are usually promagistrates, less frequently magistrates, appointed as commissioners to govern a province. If authorized by the Senate, a consul or someone with consular imperium can delegate limited praetorian imperium to a commissioner, but such delegated imperium stays the property and remains under the auspices, control and responsibility of the delegating officer.

E. Apparitor (Civil servant). Collectively, the apparitors are not magistrates but various lower officers appointed as assistants to the higher officers and priests by edictum or by other legal instrument. They shall be appointed into various decuriae to fulfill those necessary functions as shall be assigned to them by law. They shall include the scribae, lictores, viatores, praecones, the unspecified apparitores and the accensi. Other types of apparitors may be defined by law based on Roman historical precedence.

F. Military officers. According to the principles of the classical Roman mos maiorum, military and civilian offices and administration are not separated in Nova Roma, and those magistrates and officers who possess imperium are considered (ceremonial and reenactment) military generals. Certain magistrates and other offices who do not possess imperium, but serve as deputies or delegates to imperium holders, such as quaestors, proquaestors, legates, prefects, provosts and military tribunes (or others defined so by the appointing officer) are considered lieutenant generals or lesser generals. Magistrates and other officers defined as generals can appoint and promote various Roman military officers to military ranks, to military appointments (offices, positions), and can grant certain officers the right to appoint lesser military officers, as defined by law. Military officers can serve in the administration of provinces as a type of commissioners and civil servants (militia officialis) together with the apparitors, and they can serve in the praetorium of the imperium holding officers in the central administration, as well. A law shall define the regulation and the various degrees of autonomy of the ceremonial and reenactment military units of Nova Roma and the role and relationship of these generals and officers regarding them. The aforementioned generals' ranks are political military offices and not professional military ranks: the rank of generals is always a political office. The military rank proper of an individual (including but not limited to tribune, centurio, optio, aquilifer, signifer, tesserarius, decanus)  is separate from the political military office (including consul, proconsul, praetor, propraetor, quaestor, proquaestor, legate, prefect, provost, tribune), and different generals can hold different military ranks, or no military rank.

G. General rules for of the operation of magistrates

1. Collegiality. Decisions and actions of the colleague magistrates in the same magistracy can be made individually, jointly or collegially.

a. Individual decisions or actions are the ones taken by only one colleague. Except in cases defined by law, sessions of the Senate and the Comitia can only be called and presided individually. Any decision or action of a magistrate can be vetoed by one or more of his colleagues: the veto procedure (intercessio) and its time frames shall be defined by lex, but the period of time while a decision or action may be vetoed shall be limited to 72 hours, the counting of which period shall be restarted once, and only once, from the time of the first veto in order to allow time for possible counter vetos. As long as an action or decision is not vetoed, it shall be considered to be in force. After a veto has been pronounced, during the period of waiting for possible counter vetoes, the vetoed action or decision shall be considered suspended, and not in force until the end of the waiting period: if a voting has already been started on a vetoed motion, the voting shall proceed uninterrupted, but the law shall not take effect until the end of the veto procedure. If, at the end of the procedure, the veto becomes annulled, the action or decision shall be considered as if it had never been vetoed. These same rules of intercessio shall be applied by the tribunes of the plebs and magistrates of higher authority when vetoing the actions or decisions of magistrates of lower authority.

b. If not all of the colleagues are involved in the making of a decision or action, it shall not be considered to be made collegially, but only a joint decision or action taken by some of the colleagues and not by the entire college.

c. Collegial decisions and actions require the participation (agreement, disagreement, abstention, where the agreements plus abstentions exceed the number of disagreements or vetoes) of all colleagues in the action or decision-making. Unanimous collegial decisions require the agreement or conscious abstention of all colleagues. Colleagues are regarded as involved in an action or decision-making if they were demonstrably informed that they were invited to make a decision or action. If the colleagues are still unresponsive 72 hours after having been contacted and fully informed, their absence shall be counted as conscious abstention even if they protest it later. An unanimous collegial decision may be published as soon as all colleagues were fully informed about it, but it will not be considered unanimous, and might even become null and void depending on the proportion of vetoes, if a colleague still vetoes it.

2. Accountability. Should any officers be found to be derelict in their duties, to abuse their power, or to break the law in any way, they may be removed by a law originating in the Comitia that elected them or by a legal decision of the authority that appointed them. Judicial procedure may not be started against sitting magistrates or promagistrates, but requests for judicial procedure shall be recorded and kept on hold until the end of their term of office when they shall be processed immediately.

3. Transfer of authority. In case of need, certain magistrates shall act in the place of other magistrates, according to the historical and hierarchical nature of their office. If the praetors are not capable to attend their duties, or there are no praetors in office, the consuls, as major colleagues, shall take over the praetorian duties. If the censors are not capable to attend their duties, or there are no censors in office, the consuls shall preside over the censorial office, but they may not directly exercise the censorial functions except in cases, and in a manner, mandated by the Senate or the people; and the aediles shall fill the role of corporate secretary when required by the country of incorporation. As heads of state and government, the consuls, and their deputies, the praetors, shall take over the duties of the aediles if the aediles are not capable to attend their duties, or there are no aediles in office. If only the curule aediles have to be substituted, the plebeian aediles, if only the plebeian aediles have to, the curule aediles shall take over each others' duties. Magistrates, commissioners and governors can transfer their own authority to quaestors (also to proquaestors in the provinces, or optionally also to praetors in the case of the consuls) for a period of time if necessary.

V. The Senate

The supreme policy-making authority for Nova Roma shall be embodied in its Senate. Senators shall be either permanent or temporary members, and voting or non voting members of the Senate. Permanent, full members of the Senate shall be appointed by the censors during the census according to qualifications set by law. Censors, consuls, praetors, and potentially other magistrates determined by lex, shall become ex officio voting members of the Senate upon election to office, but their permanent membership in the Senate will have to be approved by the censors during the census, until which time they shall remain temporary voting members of the Senate. Senators shall hold their senatorial position for life, excepting in cases of resignation or removal from the Senate by the censors or by process of law, loss of citizenship, or extended failure to maintain assiduus status. The Senate may also have non-voting members, defined by lex. The Senate shall have the following powers and responsibilities:

A. As the repository of experience and wisdom in the affairs of State, the Senate shall have the authority to issue Senatus consulta (advice of the Senate) on those topics upon which it shall see fit to comment.

B. The Senate shall exercise control over the aerarium (treasury) and shall oversee the financial endeavors, health, and policy of the state.

1. No later than the last day of November of each year, the Senate shall prepare a budget for the following year. This budget shall deal with the disbursement of funds from the aerarium to the quaestors for various purposes. Even though the quaestors assigned to the consuls shall be responsible for the maintenance of the entire treasury, no funds from it may be disbursed without the prior approval of the Senate. The Senate may, as required by changing circumstances, pass supplemental Senatus consulta to modify the annual budget.

2. The Senate may, by Senatus consultum, impose taxes, fees, or other financial requirements on the citizens in order to maintain the financial welfare of the state.

C. The Senate may, by Senatus Consultum, create provinciae for administrative purposes and appoint provincial governors therefor, who shall bear such titles as the Senate may deem appropriate. The Senate may review each governor on a yearly basis and it remains in the discretion of the Senate whether or not to prorogue such governors, although this review shall not constitute a ban on the authority of the Senate to remove governors from office as its discretion. Governors shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

1. To hold imperium et auspicia and have the honor of being preceded by a number of lictors, depending on the rank and degree of their imperium, and solely within the jurisdiction of their respective provinciae, twelve for governors with consular imperium, six for governors with praetorian imperium, who are prorogued in their imperium after their praetorship, and five for governors who are not holding their governorship as propraetors or haven't held the office of praetor. Provinces shall in the first place be given to sitting consuls and praetors, who shall continue their governorship by prorogation of imperium by the Senate or the Comitia. When it is impossible or impractical, provinces should be assigned to former consuls and praetors, whose imperium shall be renewed by the Senate or the Comitia. When no current or former consul or praetor can be found as the most suitable candidate for the governorship, the Senate or the Comitia can grant imperium and assign the province to another individual. No governor shall assume imperium and auspicia without a taking of office ceremony of the Religio Romana before, including an inauguration and taking the vows of imperium, the oaths and auspices for the term of office with favorable result; a governor without these procedural steps may not legally exercise any powers of his office. When a governor's imperium is prorogued, none of these ceremonies shall be required, except for a new province, but they shall be required when the imperium of a sitting magistrate is prorogued for the first time.

2. To proclaim those edicta (edicts) necessary to engage in those tasks which advance the mission and function of Nova Roma, solely within the jurisdiction of their provinciae (such edicts being binding upon themselves as well as others);

3. To manage the day-to-day organization and administration of their provinciae;

4. To appoint officers to whom authority may be delegated, subject to those restrictions and standards as the Senate shall deem appropriate;

5. To remove officers whom they have appointed, or make changes to their titles and/or delegated authority, subject to those restrictions and standards as the Senate shall deem appropriate.

D. In times of emergency, the Senate shall have the power, by a two-thirds majority vote, to issue the Senatus consultum ultimum (the ultimate decree of the Senate) which can, with the exception of this Constitution, supersede all other laws, the judiciary, the magistrates and the Comitia, by making decisions in their place, and can authorize the consuls and other officers to use their imperium in the central administration with absolute powers, under the constraints of this Constitution and within the prescribed scope as defined by the Senatus consultum ultimum, to deal with a specific situation. The Senatus consultum ultimum is a type of Senatus consultum, and as such, it is subject to tribunician intercessio and to all rules regarding Senatus consulta, but magistrates acting under an enacted Senatus consultum ultimum are not subject to tribunician intercessio or provocatio. The Senatus consultum ultimum may not be used in place of a lex to enact a change in the Constitution or in the Articles of Incorporation, or in place of a decretum pontificum to appoint priests. A Senatus consultum ultimum may not remain in force for longer than three months after its enactment: it ceases to have any special authority other than a regular Senatus consultum, and only those parts of the Senatus consultum ultimum retain validity or effect after the three month period has passed which are not in conflict with laws of higher legal precedence above Senatus consultum. Day-to-day management, operational actions, and decisions implemented under the the Senatus consultum ultimum for Nova Roma that do not create new law conflicting with laws of higher legal precedence, will not become reversed or annulled automatically after the expiration of the Senatus consultum ultimum, only the changes to the legal system of Nova Roma that are in conflict with laws of higher legal precedence.

F. The Senate may, by Senatus consultum, enact rules governing its own internal procedure which may be overruled by laws passed in the Comitia only if ratified by the Senate. Leges passed by one of the Comitia which affect or alter the rules by which another Comitia operate internally, or which affect tor alter this lex or the Articles of Incorporation, and plebiscites addressing finances or foreign policy shall be similarly ratified by the Senate. Such ratifications may be done either before or after the enactment of the lex by the Comitia.

VI. Public Religious Institutions

A. The Religio Romana, the worship of the Gods and Goddesses of Rome, shall be the official religion of Nova Roma.  All magistrates and Senators, as officers of the State, shall be required to publicly show respect for the Religio Romana and the Gods and Goddesses that made Rome great.  Magistrates, Senators, and citizens need not be practitioners of the Religio Romana, but may not engage in any activity that intentionally blasphemes or defames the Gods, the Religio Romana, or its practitioners.

B. The priesthoods of the Gods of Rome shall be organized as closely as practical on the ancient Roman model. The institutions of the Religio Romana shall have authority over religious matters on the level of the state and nation only, maintaining the religious rites of the State and providing resources pertaining to the Religio Romana which Citizens may make use of if they choose.  Nova Roma shall approach all other religions with a syncretistic outlook, offering friendship to all paths which acknowledge the right of those who practice and honor the Religio Romana to do so and respect the beliefs thereof.  Only Citizens of Nova Roma may be members of the public institutions of the Religio Romana, which shall be organized, and have their responsibilities divided, as follows:

1. The Collegium Pontificum (College of Pontiffs) shall be the highest of the priestly collegia. It shall consist of the pontifex maximus and a number of pontifices, the flamines, Vestales, and the rex sacrorum. The Collegium Pontificum shall determine its internal structure, the number of its constituent priests, and shall appoint its own members, elect the pontifex maximus, and shall define, create and appoint all other priesthoods. The powers and duties of the Collegium Pontificum do not limit the unalienable historical rights of the Comitia and the Senate to mandate rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices, religious offerings or other actions, and to institute holidays or festivals. The Collegium Pontificum shall have the following honors, powers, and responsibilities:

a. To control the the calendar, and determine the festivals and the legal character of the days, and what their effects shall be on the institutions of the state, within the boundaries of the example of ancient Rome, to maintain the official state archives, the various fasti and the annales maximi, and to ensure that the sacred mos maiorum of our spiritual ancestors, the unwritten law and code of conduct of ancient Rome, the traditions of the ancient Roman people, the Roman religion, culture and virtues are celebrated and upheld in an authentic form in Nova Roma;

b. To have general authority and disciplinary power over the institutions, rites, rituals, and priesthoods of the public Religio Romana and in questions of authentic revival and practice of the mos maiorum, and the right to interpret its unwritten laws to be observed by the citizens;

c. To regulate the ius divinum (religious law), the sacra publica, the public rituals and ceremonies, the required ceremonial procedures that validate the offices and actions of the officers and institutions of the state,  and

d. To issue decreta (decrees) in all matters discussed in VI.B.1-VI.B.1.c or in any matter that is relevant to the Religio Romana, to any priesthood, and to its own internal procedures (such decreta may not be overruled by laws passed in the Comitia or by Senatus consulta).

2. The Collegium Augurum (College of Augurs) shall be the second-highest ranked of the priestly Collegia. The eldest person of the Collegium shall be the Magister Collegii. The Collegium Augurum shall consist of a number of augurs, determined by the Collegium Pontificum, among whom no more than four may be plebeians. The Collegium Augurum shall coopt its own members, but each member shall be approved and confirmed by the Collegium Pontificum.

a. The collegium augurum shall have the following honors, powers, and responsibilities:

1. To research, practice, and uphold the ars auguria (the art of interpreting divine signs and omens, solicited or otherwise);

2. To issue decreta (decrees) on matters of the ars auguria and its own internal procedures (such decreta may not be overruled by laws passed in the comitia or Senatus consultum).

b. Individual augurs shall have the following honors, powers, and responsibilities:

1. To define templum (sacred space) and celebrate auguria (the rites of augury);

2. To declare obnuntiatio (a declaration that unfavorable and unsolicited omens have been observed that justify a delay of a meeting of one of the comitia or the Senate).

3. Priests shall hold their priesthoods for life, excepting in cases of resignation or removal from priesthood by the Collegium Pontificum, loss of citizenship, or extended failure to maintain assiduus status. Former priests who have resigned or lost their priesthood or citizenship shall remain sacred in their persons, but may exercise no powers or functions, nor shall they be accounted members of their former priestly college. Other religious institutions and priesthoods may be instituted, and different rules than described here set for such other priesthoods, by the Collegium Pontificum, in accordance with the ancient models of the Religio Romana as practiced by our spiritual ancestors.

C. Magistrates and other officers of the people are the executive authorities of the Religio Romana, however, if, for various reasons, they are unable to perform their part in the sacra publica of Nova Roma, they shall have the right to delegate their religious duties to priests of the state, or to any qualified citizens, who as their representatives shall stand in for them in their names in the rituals of the Religio Romana that the magistrates are required to perform.

D. Religious and legal foundations of the institutions of the sacra publica. The first complete ritual, religious and legal establishment of the Collegia, the Senate, the Comitia and the magistrates, initiated by the patres patriae M. Cassius Iulianus and Fl. Vedius Germanicus, was concluded by the ceremonial acts of Completion of the Founding of the Nova Roman Nation, mandated by the People in the original version of this law, on the Ides of October in the year of the tribuni militum consulari potestate Sex. Lucilius Tutor, C. Claudius Quadratus, P. Annaeus Constantinus Placidus and Q. Lutatius Catulus, under the royal auspices of the special rex sacrorum and interrex Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Alexander, pater patriae. The religious and legal validity of the current and past memberships of the Collegia and the Senate derives from the act of ceremonial appointment and confirmation of all members, past and current at that time, by by the rex sacrorum and interrex, authorized by the following passages of the earlier version of this law:

1. The term of office of the tribuni militum consulari potestate shall end on the day before the Ides of October (October 15), in the Sacred 20th Anniversary Year of the Founding of Nova Roma, when they shall transfer the government to a series of interreges.

2. The first interrex shall complete the ritual founding of Nova Roma by reissuing the Declaration of Nova Roma and conducting those proper Latin religious rituals and ceremonies on the Ides of October (October 15), day of the October Horse, a most propitious day to ceremonially close the founding years of Nova Roma, that were missing or not perfectly performed at the founding of Nova Roma 20 years ago. This Completion of the Founding of Nova Roma ceremony shall be performed and the ritual prayers and vows worded in a manner that ensure that Nova Roma as the spiritually legitimate heir to the ancient Roman Empire, and as a state and nation of Nova Romans is fully acknowledged by the Penates, Lares and Manes of the Roman people, the gods of Rome. These rituals shall be supervised by at least one pontifex and one augur who are proficient in Latin and highly respected experts of the sacra publica and cultus deorum. The first interrex in the series of interreges shall be the person who has already served as the first ever interrex of Nova Roma, Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Alexander. His appointment shall be formally made by a Senatus consultum ultimum, enacted no later than the last day of September, and the same Senatus consultum ultimum shall define the specific order and sequence of interreges until the day before the Kalends of January (December 31).

3. After the founding rituals are completed, the elections for the next year shall be conducted by the interreges, in a manner described by the Senatus consultum ultimum that specifies the order and sequence of the interreges, and the new government shall enter office on the next Kalends of January.

Learn more ...

CXLIII: Lex Aurelia de legionibus

Preamble

Whereas in the Declaration of Nova Roma, the New Roman People renounced, “eternally and without exception”, the use of force in the pursuit of the restoration of the Roman republic, in order to exist “as a lawful, peaceful and benign nation, in accord with the principles acknowledged and shared by the world community”, the Army of the New Roman People (Exercitus Populi Novi Romani) may only exist as a ceremonial honor guard and martial arts corps promoting the history of the Roman army and spreading Romanitas and the idea of Nova Roma in the modern world through educational activity, experimental archaeology and historical reenactment. For 20 years, the status of the military reenactment groups of Nova Roma wasn’t regulated by permanent legislation, however, as the expansion of our republic necessitates this, in the 20th Anniversary Year of Nova Roma, the Sacred Year of Concordia, as a tribute to our founding principles, the Nova Roman People enacts the following law:

I. ((The Ceremonial Army of the Nova Roman People))

The entirety of all the military units of Nova Roma is the Exercitus (Reconstructivus/Ritualis) Populi Novi Romani Quiritium (the Reenactment Armed Forces of the New Roman People of the Quirites), and, as a consequence of their imperium, its ceremonial supreme commanders and commanders-in-chief are the consules of the year, its vice-supreme commanders are the praetores, the territorial commanders-in-chief are governors of the provinces, but other, specially appointed commanders may exist, as well.

II. ((The autonomy of the units of the Ceremonial Army of Nova Roma))

The Exercitus Populi Novi Romani Quiritium is composed of independent, autonomous, self-governing reenactment units which all have their own rules of operation, determined by themselves. Their independence can be of varying degree according to their own decision about how much control they want to retain for themselves, but in the list of priority in the access to privileges within Nova Roma the principle must be observed that the more involved is the central management of Nova Roma in the management of the unit, the more support shall be given to the reenactment unit from the organization.

III. ((Types and hierarchy of units))

The highest units of the Reenactment Armed Forces of Nova Roma are the autonomous, self-governing military units, three types of which can exist: the Autonomous Reenactment Legio, the Autonomous Reenactment Cohors, and the Autonomous Reenactment Exercitus, which is an independent and self-governing reenactment organization composed of more than one Legiones. Each Autonomous Reenactment Unit in Nova Roma is completely self-governing and operates according to their own rules and practices. The difference between the Autonomous Reenactment Legio and Cohors is in name only, and it is determined only by the reenactors’ intention of what type of ancient Roman unit they want to represent, therefore these all can be colloquially referred to in a simplified form as “legion (Legio, Cohors) or joint legions (Exercitus) of Nova Roma”, but in order to avoid confusion, all three categories will be referred to as “Automonous Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma” henceforward if all of them are indicated at the same time.

IV. ((Establishment of an Autonomous Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma))

An Autonomous Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma can be established only by an official act of levy of a magistrate or governor with imperium. If a Roman military reenactment group wishes to be part of Nova Roma, or if a Nova Roman citizen or group of citizens wish to create a new reenactment group as part of Nova Roma, they shall obtain the consent of the provincial governor with imperium or any magistrate with imperium, who then shall issue an edict on the levy of the reenactment unit in question, specifying the unit as a Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit. A reenactment group can be declared as a Nova Roman unit only if it requires by rule that all of its soldiers (not including tirones) have to be Nova Roman citizens. The Chief Commanding Officer (CO, simply “commander” hereafter) of the Nova Roman reenactment unit shall be ceremonially appointed by a magistrate or governor with imperium, but the actual method of selecting the commander shall be done according to the internal rules of the unit. The appointment by the Nova Roman authorities is purely a formal and ceremonial action, and the magistrate or governor with imperium must appoint any citizen as commander whom the leadership of the unit requests.

V. ((The internal structure of reenactment units))

The internal structure of these autonomous units, whether they are composed of more divisions, regiments, battalions, companies or squads (legiones, cohortes, manipuli, centuriae, contubernia), is left to the internal decision of that reenactment unit. Nova Roma will keep direct contact only with the autonomous top unit (which encompasses all subdivisions and represents the totality of the reenactment organization), and the responsible contact person and representative for Nova Roma will be the Chief Commanding Officer of the Autonomous Reenactment Unit.

VI. ((The rank and office of a commander of a reenactment unit))

The Chief Commanding Officer of an Autonomous Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma must hold the military rank of Tribunus, or the title of Praefectus Cohortis or Praefectus Legionis, which are not military ranks proper, but political military offices. If the commander’s military rank is not Tribunus, he can hold any other military rank (Tesserarius, Optio, Centurio etc…), but he must immediately be promoted to, and must concurrently hold, the political army rank of Praefectus as well. The rank of Praefectus is automatically granted by Nova Roma to a commander of any Autonomous Nova Roman Reenactment Unit, but formally they shall receive their appointment from the governor of the province where the group resides or from the consuls or from other magistrates with imperium, and the appointing governor or magistrate shall be the immediate ceremonial superior of the appointed commander. This appointment is a requirement to the establishment or recognition of a new Nova Roman unit, and each autonomous unit leader is entitled to it. The duty of the autonomous unit commander is to serve as the representative of Nova Roma within the unit and for the public, and as liaison and coordinator between the leadership of Nova Roma and his unit.

VII. ((Special military political office for commanders of a Legio or an Exercitus))

A commander of an autonomous Legio, or a commander of an autonomous Exercitus, composed of more than one legions, shall wear the political rank of Legatus or Legatus Legionis. This rank is not granted automatically, however, but it is granted at the discretion of the Senate or of a governor or magistrate with imperium. The rank of Legatus is not permanent, it is not a military rank proper, but a political office within the military, and it expires after the term of office is over. In case it has expired, the commander can ask for a renewal of his appointment. If he doesn’t get immediately re-appointed, he can still continue as the actual commander of his reenactment group (but now as Praefectus or Tribunus) without any interruption.

VIII. ((Establishment of an Allied Military Reenactment Unit))

Besides fully Nova Roman reenactment units, Nova Roma accepts Allied Military Reenactment Units as its partner groups. If a Roman or any ancient Roman-era military reenactment group (Germanic, Gallic etc.) wishes to be an allied unit of Nova Roma, they shall obtain the consent of the provincial governor with imperium or any magistrate with imperium, who then shall issue an edict on the acceptance of the reenactment unit in question, specifying the unit as a military reenactment unit allied to Nova Roma. A reenactment group can be declared as an allied unit of Nova Roma only if it has at least one Nova Roman citizen among its soldiers who shall be the representative of Nova Roma within the unit and for the public, and as liaison and coordinator between the leadership of Nova Roma and his unit. There are no other requirements regarding the internal structure of an Allied Reenactment Unit.

IX. ((Establishment of a Friendly Military Reenactment Unit))

A Roman-era military reenactment organization representing any ancient Roman-era culture or ethnicity can apply for the status of recommended or sponsored military unit of Nova Roma with the title “friend of Nova Roma” (amicus populi Novi Romani). If a Roman or any ancient Roman-era military reenactment group (Germanic, Gallic etc.) wishes to be a friend of Nova Roma, they shall obtain the consent of the provincial governor with imperium or any magistrate with imperium, who then shall issue an edict on the acceptance of the reenactment unit in question, specifying the unit as a friend of Nova Roma. A reenactment group can be declared as a friend of Nova Roma only if it makes a reference to its friendship with Nova Roma on its main internet location (website or social media page). There are no other requirements regarding the internal structure of an Friendly Military Reenactment Unit. A unit that is a friend of Nova Roma shall have the right to have its own page on the Nova Roma website where it can introduce and promote itself, and shall have a limited number of promotional opportunities on the fora or social media pages and groups of Nova Roma.

X. ((Rights and privileges of an Autonomous Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit))

An Autonomous Reenactment Unit shall have the following privileges granted by Nova Roma:

X.A. A Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit shall have unlimited use of the website and online communication channels of Nova Roma for advertisement, recruitment and announcements of any kind, restricted only by reasonable forum moderation in case of disruptive or uncooperative behavior.

X.B. A Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit shall have unlimited priority access to expert counsel and assistance regarding research and questions about Roman culture, religion, history, archaeology, military, Latin language or any questions requiring professional assistance for a Roman legionary reenactment unit.

X.C. A Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit shall have priority entitlement to financial or other type of support depending on the state of the treasury.

X.D. A Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit shall have unlimited right to cooperation and networking with all other Nova Roman legions, allied units and groups that are friends of Nova Roma, with priority granted regarding invitations to public appearances and business opportunities offered by other Nova Roman units or by the central or provincial administrations of Nova Roma.

X.E. All these privileges are granted for free to an Autonomous Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma: there is no membership fee, there is no requirement regarding activity and it is not mandatory to appear at Nova Roma events or to do certain things; the unit can operate entirely according to its internal organization. The only requirement regarding activity remains that the unit must recognize its programs, events as events of Nova Roma.

XI. ((Obligations of an Autonomous Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit))

An Autonomous Reenactment Unit or any subdivision unit of an autonomous military reenactment organization of Nova Roma shall fulfill, and once fulfilled, it shall maintain, the following requirements before being conscripted as a Nova Roman legion or other unit type:

XI.A. A Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit shall possess, use, respect and honor with salutation a flag of Nova Roma as its most sacred national flag publicly besides its own unit standards and flags.

XI.B. A Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit shall respect and honor with salutation the magistrates and other state officers of Nova Roma, and shall recognize these magistrates as their own state magistrates, but this remains a ceremonial requirement and the magistrates of Nova Roma don’t have any right to give orders to an Autonomous Reenactment Unit unless it is agreed upon otherwise by the leadership of the unit.

XI.C. A Nova Roman Military Reenactment Unit shall recognize the rank of the officers of other Nova Roman legions as real and equal to its own ranks; this is a purely formal and ceremonial gesture, officers of another reenactment unit shall not have any actual commanding power within an Autonomous Reenactment Unit unless with mutual agreement between the groups.

XI.D. All programs and events of a Nova Roman Reenactment Unit shall count as programs and events of Nova Roma, Nova Roma shall have the right to use the events, programs, photos or promotional materials of the unit, and the unit can also advertise all other programs of Nova Roma as its own programs within the extended organization. A reenactment group of Nova Roma shall state this fact on its main internet location (website or social media page), and shall post a link to the Nova Roma website on its main internet location.

XI.E. Reenactor soldiers of a military unit of Nova Roma shall swear an oath of loyalty to the Nova Roman Republic in which they pledge to promote Roman culture and traditions, Roman virtues and values through their educational activities as reenactors. Reenactor soldiers of Nova Roma must keep the safety of their members and the safety of their audience as their highest priority during their performances, must abstain from any form of real violence of harmful intention, must maintain a high ethical standard of civilized and polite behavior, benevolence and spirit of brotherhood toward all reenactors, must avoid uncivilized conflicts with other groups, or if a conflict emerges, they must not let such conflicts be noticeable to the public in any form.

XII. ((Rights and privileges of an Allied Military Reenactment Unit))

An Allied Military Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma shall have the following privileges granted by Nova Roma:

XII.A. An Allied Military Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma shall have the right to use of the website and the online communication channels of Nova Roma for advertisement, recruitment and announcements of any kind, restricted by the priority rights of the fully Nova Roman legions to these tools.

XII.B. An Allied Military Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma shall have access to expert counsel and assistance regarding research and questions about Roman culture, religion, history, archaeology, military, Latin language or any questions requiring professional assistance for a Roman legionary reenactment unit. This right is restricted by the priority rights of the fully Nova Roman legions to these tools.

XII.C. An Allied Military Reenactment Unit shall have right to cooperation and networking with all other Nova Roman legions, allied units and groups that are friends of Nova Roma.

XII.D. All these privileges are granted for free to an allied unit of Nova Roma: there is no membership fee, there is no requirement regarding activity and it is not mandatory to appear at Nova Roma events or to do certain things; the unit can operate entirely according to its internal organization.

XIII. ((Obligations of an Allied Military Reenactment Unit))

An Allied Military Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma shall fulfill, and once fulfilled, it shall maintain, the following requirements before being recognized as an allied unit of Nova Roma:

XIII.A. An Allied Military Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma shall respect and honor with salutation a flag of Nova Roma.

XIII.B. An Allied Military Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma shall respect and honor with salutation the magistrates and other state officers of Nova Roma, but this remains a ceremonial requirement and the magistrates of Nova Roma don’t have any right to give orders to the allied unit unless it is agreed upon otherwise by the leadership of the unit.

XIII.C. An Allied Military Reenactment Unit of Nova Roma shall recognize the rank of the officers of other Nova Roman legions as real and equal to its own ranks; this is a purely formal and ceremonial gesture, officers of another reenactment unit shall not have any actual commanding power within an Allied Reenactment Unit unless with mutual agreement between the groups.

XIII.D. An allied reenactment group of Nova Roma shall state the fact of alliance on its main internet location (website or social media page), and shall post a link to the Nova Roma website on its main internet location.

Learn more ...

CXLIV: Lex Aurelia de familiis gladiatoriis et ludis gladiatoriis

Preamble

Nova Roma is committed against any use of real violence with harmful intention, however, the ancient Roman martial arts of the gladiators encompasses, besides the negative aspects of violence, a historical value and a deeper meaning of noble ideas of fate, human virtues, honor, life and death, mythological motives and religious devotion. With the non-violent, playful, educational but serious reconstruction of the ancient Roman gladiatorial games, Nova Roma aims to invoke that nobler spirit and spiritual aspect in the martial arts of the gladiators, and strives to educate about their historical and cultural significance in order to promote the history of the Roman army and to spread Romanitas and the idea of Nova Roma in the modern world through educational activity, experimental archaeology and historical reenactment. For 20 years, the status of the gladiatorial groups of Nova Roma wasn’t regulated, however, as the expansion of our republic necessitates this, in the 20th Anniversary Year of Nova Roma, the Sacred Year of Concordia, as a tribute to our founding principles, the Nova Roman People enacts the following law:

I. ((Definition of a familia gladiatoria and ludus gladiatorius))

A gladiatorial reenactment group is officially termed as a familia gladiatoria or ludus gladiatorius; the designation is chosen at the discretion of the group, but the term “ludus” is recommended for those groups where education of children or training of gladiators is in the focus, while the term familia is recommended for a less school-like, veteran gladiatorial group where training is not in the focus but public performances fill most of the time of the group.

II. ((The autonomy of the gladiatorial groups of Nova Roma))

Nova Roma recognizes its own gladiatorial groups and allied gladiatorial groups as an Autonomous Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma or as Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Groups. Each type works as an independent, autonomous, self-governing gladiatorial reenactment group with its own rules of operation, determined by the group. Their independence can be of varying degree according to their own decision about how much control they want to retain for themselves, but in the list of priority in the access to privileges within Nova Roma the principle must be observed that the more involved is the central management of Nova Roma in the management of the gladiatorial group, the more support shall be given to the reenactment group from the organization.

III. ((Establishment of an Autonomous Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma))

An Autonomous Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma can be established only by registration at the aedilician office, and the aediles (either central Nova Roman aediles or municipal, township level aediles) will grant this status if the applicant group meets the requirements. If a gladiatorial group wishes to be part of Nova Roma, or if a Nova Roman citizen or group of citizens wish to create a new gladiatorial reenactment group as part of Nova Roma, they shall obtain the consent of the aediles, who then shall issue an edict on the recognition of the reenactment group in question, specifying the unit as a Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group. A gladiatorial group can be declared as a Nova Roman gladiatorial group only if its lanista is a Nova Roman citizen; the position of the lanista is selected and regulated by internal group rules. The gladiators of the group do not necessarily have to be Nova Roman citizens, but when a decision between groups about granting support, favor or privilege is made, the proportion of Nova Roman citizens in the group shall be taken into the weighing of the selection of the group to be favored.

IV. ((Establishment of an Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group))

An Allied Gladiatorial Group can be established by the same registration method as a fully Nova Roman gladiatorial group, and the aediles shall issue an edict on the recognition of the reenactment group in question, specifying the unit as an allied gladiatorial reenactment group of Nova Roma. A gladiatorial group can be declared as an allied gladiatorial group only if it has at least one Nova Roman citizen among its members who shall be the representative of Nova Roma within the group and for the public, and as liaison and coordinator between the leadership of Nova Roma and his group.

V. ((Rights and privileges of an Autonomous Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group))

An Autonomous Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma shall have the following privileges granted by Nova Roma:

V.A. A Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group shall have unlimited use of the website and online communication channels of Nova Roma for advertisement, recruitment and announcements of any kind, restricted only by reasonable forum moderation in case of disruptive or uncooperative behavior.

V.B. A Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group shall have unlimited priority access to expert counsel and assistance regarding research and questions about Roman culture, religion, history, archaeology, Latin language or any questions requiring professional assistance for a Roman gladiatorial reenactment group.

V.C. A Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group shall have priority entitlement to financial or other type of support depending on the state of the treasury.

V.D. A Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group shall have unlimited right to cooperation and networking with all other Nova Roman or allied gladiatorial groups, with priority granted regarding invitations to public appearances and business opportunities offered by other Nova Roman groups or by the central or provincial administrations of Nova Roma.

V.E. All these privileges are granted for free to an Autonomous Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma: there is no membership fee, there is no requirement regarding activity and it is not mandatory to appear at Nova Roma events or to do certain things; the groups can operate entirely according to its internal organization. The only requirement regarding activity remains that the group must recognize its programs, events as events of Nova Roma.

VI. ((Obligations of an Autonomous Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group))

An Autonomous Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma shall fulfill, and once fulfilled, it shall maintain, the following requirements before being registered as a Nova Roman gladiatorial group:

VI.A. A Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group shall possess, use, respect and honor a flag of Nova Roma as its most sacred national flag publicly besides its own unit standards and flags.

VI.B. A Nova Roman Gladiatorial Reenactment Group shall respect and honor the magistrates and other state officers of Nova Roma, and shall recognize these magistrates as their own state magistrates, but this remains a ceremonial requirement and the magistrates of Nova Roma don’t have any right to give orders to an Autonomous Gladiatorial Reenactment Group unless it is agreed upon otherwise by the leadership of the group.

VI.C. All programs and events of a Nova Roman gladiatorial group shall count as programs and events of Nova Roma, Nova Roma shall have the right to use the events, programs, photos or promotional materials of the group, and the group can also advertise all other programs of Nova Roma as its own programs within the extended organization. A reenactment group of Nova Roma shall state this fact on its main internet location (website or social media page), and shall post a link to the Nova Roma website on its main internet location.

VI.E. It is ethical requirement from the gladiator reenactors of a gladiatorial group of Nova Roma that they shall promote Roman culture and traditions, Roman virtues and values through their educational activities as reenactors. Reenactor gladiators of Nova Roma must keep the safety of their members and the safety of their audience as their highest priority during their performances, must abstain from any form of real violence of harmful intention, must maintain a high ethical standard of civilized and polite behavior, benevolence and spirit of brotherhood toward all reenactors, must avoid uncivilized conflicts with other groups, or if a conflict emerges, they must not let such conflicts be noticeable to the public in any form.

VII. ((Rights and privileges of an Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group))

An Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma shall have the following privileges granted by Nova Roma:

VII.A. An Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma unit shall have the right to use of the website and the online communication channels of Nova Roma for advertisement, recruitment and announcements of any kind, restricted by the priority rights of the fully Nova Roman gladiatorial groups to these tools.

VII.B. An Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma shall have access to expert counsel and assistance regarding research and questions about Roman culture, religion, history, archaeology, military, Latin language or any questions requiring professional assistance for a Roman gladiatorial reenactment group. This right is restricted by the priority rights of the fully Nova Roman gladiatorial groups to these tools.

VII.C. An Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group shall have right to cooperation and networking with all other Nova Roman or allied gladiatorial groups.

VII.D. All these privileges are granted for free to an allied gladiatorial group of Nova Roma: there is no membership fee, there is no requirement regarding activity and it is not mandatory to appear at Nova Roma events or to do certain things; the group can operate entirely according to its internal organization.

VIII. ((Obligatiobs of an Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group))

An Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma shall fulfill, and once fulfilled, it shall maintain, the following requirements before being recognized as an allied group of Nova Roma:

VIII.A. An Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma shall respect and honor the flag of Nova Roma.

VIII.B. An Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group of Nova Roma shall respect and honor the magistrates and other state officers of Nova Roma, but this remains a ceremonial requirement and the magistrates of Nova Roma don’t have any right to give orders to the allied group unless it is agreed upon otherwise by the leadership of the group.

VIII.C. An Allied Gladiatorial Reenactment Group shall state the fact of alliance on its main internet location (website or social media page), and shall post a link to the Nova Roma website on its main internet location.

Learn more ...

CXLV: Lex Arria de censu civium aestimando

Preamble

The Nova Roman people enacts the following law regarding the assessment of the citizens' census as their estimated civic worth, their cultural and organizational wealth held in Nova Roman society, superseding the lex Cornelia de punctis censualibus. The form of government of the Old Roman Republic was aristocratic by plutocracy, the New Roman Republic is aristocratic by meritocracy. This law ensures that the meritocratic principles, and not money and birth, define influence and place in our revived Roman people. Accordingly, the purpose of this law is to encourage and reward merit, such as service to the res publica, work and productive activity, especially conventions and live programs of citizens, intellectual contribution and financial contribution to Nova Roma, and the noble effort of citizens to participate in all areas of Roman studies and Latin, the language of the Roman people, rewarding certified, demonstrated knowledge and expertise that are essential in the educational and historical mission of Nova Roma to restore and promote Roman culture.

I. Census Points

I.A. In ancient Rome, citizens were said "censum habere" i.e. "to possess the census of" (followed by the estimated amount of money), and this census (meaning "wealth", "value") classified them as members across five classes or the equestrian order. In Nova Roma, our "wealth", our "census" is our merit accrued through our service and contribution toward our sacred goals, and through our knowledge about ancient Rome, our expertise in studies and practices that can help bring Romanitas to life and spread Roman culture and virtues across the world. The wealth of a Nova Roman citizen is the citizen's merits toward this mission. These merits reflect a citizen's service toward the republic which embodies this spiritual and educational mission. The assessment of the census (the "wealth in Romanitas") of the Nova Roman citizens is measured in Census Points (Censualia Puncta) which are merit points given for contributions towards various aspects of Nova Roma according to the aforementioned motivations of this law. Census Points are divided into the categories of Service Points, Treasury Points, Status Points, Activity Points, Award Points and Cultural Points so that all relevant areas of civic life can be assessed and valued.

I.B. The assessment, registration and accounting of Census Points are the duty of the censors as part of their powers. It shall be the responsibility of each citizen to review their Census Point account and ensure that all of their offices, statuses, titles, awards, and acquired points are represented. The censors shall strive to be as accurate as they can be, but it is only with the active cooperation and involvement of citizens that the censors can ensure the records are as close to perfection as possible.

II. Supervision and protection of Census Points

II.A. The censors are the supreme authority over the assessment of the Census Points of citizens, the supreme guardians and judges of the Census Point system. If any of the censors suspects a misuse of the Census Points, such as accumulative and unnecessary appointments of friends as officers in order to promote them in the social hierarchy, suspicious or accumulative appointments without any evidence of real work involved, unmerited Census Point awards, or corrupt motivations, the censor is responsible to bring the case to the panel of quaestors, as described at II.C, or directly to Nova Roman court if the censor is absolutely convinced and deem that no preliminary investigation is needed.

II.B. If, during exercising the regimen morum (supervision of public morality) in their power, the censors collegially determine that the citizen in question lost his reputation due to ignominious, disgraceful behavior and infamy, they can rescind those Award Point issues which they find unmerited, disgraced and undeserved. Such a penalty cannot be reversed just by the censors or by a lex. The censors can rescind Award Points only, but cannot rescind other types of Census Points without referring the case to the panel of quaestors first, or to a Nova Roman Court.

II.C. The Census Point Jury Panel of Quaestors. In order to ensure maximum safety and fairness of the Census Point system, the quaestors are also collectively entrusted with the surveillance and protection of the integrity of the Census Point assignments. In case a quaestor suspects any abuse of the Census Point system, as described at II.A., the quaestors as a collective panel shall investigate, judge, and report the case to the censors. If the majority of the quaestors determine that an appointment of an officer or another type of allocation of Census Points has been made out of corrupt motivations, the Census Points in question shall not be counted for the citizen, and the quaestors shall bring the case to the praetor who shall determine if there is a need for a legal process against the abusers. A citizen who has lost Census Points due to the decision of the panel of the quaestors can also appeal to court if the citizen is convinced about the righteousness of his or her case. If both censors disagree with the decision of the quaestorial panel, they can jointly overturn the decision of the quaestorial panel if, at the same time, they refer the case to a Nova Roman court for a decision regarding the allocation of Census Points or the potential criminality of the involved parties. One censor alone cannot overturn the decision of the quaestorial panel, and the overturning of the panel’s decision can only take effect once the case has been referred to Nova Roman court.

II.D. In case there is any doubt regarding the interpretation of the regulations and instructions in this law or the supervision, protections, functioning and mechanisms of the Census Point system, the censors shall decide the interpretation by edict.

III. Categories of Census Points

III.A. Service Points

III.A.1. There shall be two types of Service Points, Past Service Points and Current Office Service Points, which are of the same amount, with the following exception: for the duration of service Current Office Service Points include an extra amount of Census Points to magistrates in order to enhance their social status and influence during their tenure of office which helps them in creating a stable government. Other officers don't receive an extra amount of Census Points for their Current Office Service Points. Past Service Points are given to all officers for past offices.

III.A.2. Past Service Points are given per terms at the end of each term if the position has a fixed term. If the position is repeated by prorogation, or by confirmation in office by the next employer, each started prorogation or confirmation counts as a new term. If only the title of the office changes but the duties do not, it does not count as a new term. Only a new appointment or a new prorogation counts as a new term. [1]

III.A.3. If the position has an indefinite term, or is linked to the superior's term, Past Service Points, if not regulated otherwise by law, are calculated cumulatively, and assigned, after each completed one year period (12 months): the first amount is given after starting the second year in office (the officer receives one amount of Current Office Service Points, and one amount of Past Service Points), the second amount is given after starting the third year (one amount of Current Office Service Points, and two amounts of Past Service Points) etc.

III.A.3.a. The term of apparitors and other officers appointed by higher officers, by the senate, or by other institutions, if not otherwise defined in the appointment, is considered to be the period of time between the appointment and the date when the appointing superior honorably discharges his or her lower officer, but their Past Service Points are calculated according to III.A.3, as if 12 months were the term of office that they were supposed to complete. If superiors, before the end of their term, do not explicitly remove their appointed officer, the term of office of the appointed officer is considered to end on the day when the appointing superior steps down, at which time the officer is automatically renewed for a new term unless explicitly removed by edict within one month from the new superior’s first day of term. This removal within one month shall have a retroactive effect and dates the removal to the last day of the term of the previous superior.

III.A.3.b. Governors and certain officers defined by law may not receive additional Census Points for a longer than 12 month service unless appointed or prorogued for a new term.

III.A.4. If an officer serves only part of the term of office, only partial Past Service Points shall be given. The amount of Past Service Points shall be proportional to the amount of time spent in office from the full term, and the exact method of calculation shall be defined in edict by the curator rei informaticae on the basis of practical considerations regarding the information technology aspects of the system, but each officer shall receive at least one quarter (rounded up) of the Past Service Points total just for entering office, calculated from the full length of term of their office, which is added to whatever partial amount past officers would have based on the time spent in office, so that they should have the total of what is due for 12 months after commencing the fourth quarter of their 12 month period. The curator rei informaticae is authorized to issue rules of counting partial Past Service Points in edict that are different from the one set forth by this law if there are technical problems with the program of the censorial database.

III.A.4.a. In case of officers with indefinite term of office, the basis of calculation of partial term Past Service Points shall be the one year (12 months) as described in III.A.3 (for example, such an officer serving for 2 years and 4 months will receive 2 and 1/3rd times the Past Service Point amount, plus 1/4th which is due upon entering office, after stepping down from office; while in office, partial term points will not be given: the same officer would hold only two amounts of Past Service Points for the two full years, plus the Current Office Service Points).

III.A.4.b. The Past Service Points of governors and certain officers defined by law shall be calculated the same way as described in III.A.4.a, i.e. partial points shall be calculated from a fictive 12 month full term, but they shall not receive Past Service Points for more than 12 months if their term is longer. Each appointment or prorogation is considered a term. (Example: a governor serving for 8 months would receive the Past Service Points what is due for serving the 2/3rd of a term, but a governor serving a term of 1 year and 8 months would receive only what is due for 12 months.)

III.A.4.c. If any law would penalize resignations or removal from office, mere resignation, when it is a traditional stepping down from office due to custom, does not count as a resignation: the resignation of extraordinary magistrates, the dictator, magister equitum, or of other extraordinary officers appointed for a task with a term but having finished the task sooner, or the resignation of a censor after the death or resignation of his or her colleague do not count as resignations but complete terms. Honorable discharge is also not considered removal from office, but as completion of the term.

III.A.5. In case of positions for life, priesthoods (except provincial priest), senate membership etc., Status Points are given instead of Service Points, see section III.B.

III.A.6. The senate and comitia shall have the authority to issue points for special positions, for new offices, or other positions not included in this lex, as well as for special services performed on behalf of the State.

III.A.7. The following amounts of Census Points shall allocated as Service Points:

III.A.7.a. SERVICE POINTS FOR MAGISTRATUS ORDINARII

The following amounts of Census Points are allocated for ordinary magistracies:

Censor:

1000 CP Current Office Service Point

100 CP Past Service Point

Consul:

1200 CP Current Office Service Point

120 CP Past Service Point

Praetor:

600 CP Current Office Service Point

60 CP Past Service Point

Aedilis Curulis:

200 CP Current Office Service Point

20 CP Past Service Point

Aedilis Plebis:

150 CP Current Office Service Point

15 CP Past Service Point

Tribunus Plebis:

150 CP Current Office Service Point

15 CP Past Service Point

Quaestor:

100 CP Current Office Service Point

10 CP Past Service Point

Vigintisexvir:

50 CP Current Office Service Point

10 CP Past Service Point

III.A.7.b. SERVICE POINTS FOR MAGISTRATUS EXTRAORDINARII

The following amounts of Census Points are allocated for extraordinary magistracies:

Dictator:

2400 CP Current Office Service Point

240 CP Past Service Point

Magister Equitum:

600 CP Current Office Service Point

60 CP Past Service Point

Interrex:

1200 CP Current Office Service Point

12 CP Past Service Point

III.A.7.c. SERVICE POINTS FOR LESSER OFFICES

III.A.7.c.i. State Ministers. The senate and the magistrates, directed by law, may appoint various minor state officers (similar to secretaries or ministers of a modern government), such as the curator rei informaticae, the curator aerarii, the praefectus rei publicae administrandae, or the magister aranearius (when it was moved out of the Vigintisexviri), or a Legatus when it serves in the central government etc. They shall receive the following Census Points, unless the laws otherwise state:

Curator, Praefectus, Legatus etc.: ministers of state appointed by the senate or the government:

20 CP Current Office Service Point

20 CP Past Service Point

III.A.7.c.ii. Subordinate Officers. Magistrates or other institutions authorized by law may appoint subordinate officers, higher ranking prefects, legates, provosts etc., or lower ranking apparitors. The ranks and titles of officials included in each rank are defined by each appointing magistrate or officer, unless a law regulates it otherwise. Citizens may hold more than one position in a magistrate's staff, but get points for the highest one only. The following amounts of Census Points are allocated for subordinate offices:

1st rank Official (one per magistrate): Chief Of Staff, Praefectus:

11 CP Current Office Service Point

11 CP Past Service Point

2nd rank Official: Chief Apparitor, Office Manager, Chief Of Staff, Praefectus:

9 CP Current Office Service Point

9 CP Past Service Point

3rd rank Official: Senior Apparitor, Department Manager, Praefectus:

7 CP Current Office Service Point

7 CP Past Service Point

4th rank Official: Apparitor (accensus, scriba, praeco, lictor etc):

5 CP Current Office Service Point

5 CP Past Service Point

III.A.7.d. SERVICE POINTS FOR PROMAGISTRATES AND PROVINCIAL OFFICES

III.A.7.d.i. Promagistrates. Provincial governors or specially appointed military commanders or promagistrates with imperium receive the following amount of Census Points:

Governor:

50 CP Current Office Service Point

25 CP Past Service Point

III.A.7.d.ii. Provincial Government Subordinate Officers. The system of minor provincial officials is identical to the system of the central Subordinate Officers at III.A.7.c.ii., but the titles of offices are different. Citizens may hold more than one provincial position, but get points for the highest one only. The ranks and titles of officials included in each rank are defined by each governor, unless a law regulates it otherwise:

1st rank Official (one per provincia): Vice-Governor:

11 CP Current Office Service Point

11 CP Past Service Point

2nd rank Official: Lieutenant-Governor, Province Minister, Legatus-Praefectus:

9 CP Current Office Service Point

9 CP Past Service Point

3rd rank Official: Office Manager, Chief Apparitor, Praefectus:

7 CP Current Office Service Point

7 CP Past Service Point

4th rank Official: Apparitor:

5 CP Current Office Service Point

5 CP Past Service Point

Provincial Sacerdos (this is an office rather than a for-life priesthood):

10 CP Current Office Service Point

1 CP Past Service Point

III.A.7.e. SERVICE POINTS FOR MUNICIPAL OFFICES

III.A.7.e.i. The following amounts of Census Points are allocated for municipal magistracies:

Municipal Mayor:

60 CP Current Office Service Point

12 CP Past Service Point

Municipal 2nd Rank Magistrate:

20 CP Current Office Service Point

10 CP Past Service Point

Municipal Lesser Magistrate:

10 CP Current Office Service Point

5 CP Past Service Point

III.A.7.e.ii. Municipal Subordinate Officers. Municipal magistrates or other institutions authorized by law may appoint subordinate officers, higher ranking prefects, curators etc., or lower ranking apparitors. The ranks and titles of officials included in each rank are defined by the municipal laws or the laws of the republic, or by each appointing magistrate or officer, unless a law regulates it otherwise. Citizens may hold more than one position in a magistrate's staff. Municipal Subordinate Officers may hold various titles, can be of various seniority, but they can only receive the Census Points of a 4th rank Official: 5 CP for both Current Office and Past Service Points.

III.A.7.f. SERVICE POINTS FOR OFFICERS OF RECOGNIZED CORPORATIONS

Officers of officially recognized or state sponsored sodalitates or corporations within Nova Roma shall receive Census Points. Citizens may hold more than one sodalitas position, but get points for the highest one only. The positions and titles of officials included in each rank are defined by the charters and officers of the corporations:

President:

6 CP Current Office Service Points

6 CP Past Service Points

Senior Officer:

4 CP Current Office Service Points

4 CP Past Service Points

Minor Officer:

2 CP Current Office Service Points

2 CP Past Service Points

III.B Status Points

Status Points are a category of Census Points which are not given for the time spent in service, for terms of office, or for the service per se, because they are meant to be given once and for all, for life. These include Census Points for priesthood, because they are theoretically appointments for life, and these also include various ranks, memberships in orders and types of nobility.

III.B.1. STATUS POINTS FOR PRIESTHOODS

The following amounts of Census Points are allocated for priests of the republic, of the municipalities and for altar servants and priestly assistants:

Pontifex Maximus, Rex and Regina Sacrorum, Flamen Maior, Vestalis Maxima:

50 CP Status Points

Pontifex, Flamen Minor, Augur, Vestal:

40 CP Status Points

Other Sacerdos:

20 CP Status Points

Municipal Pontifex, Flamen, Augur:

16 CP Status Points

Municipal Other Sacerdos:

8 CP Status Points

Sacerdotal Assistant (such as camillus, popa, pullarius, victimarius, pontifex minor etc.):

4 CP Status Points

III.B.2. STATUS POINTS FOR GENUS

III.B.2.a. In recognition of the founding dynasties of Nova Roma, and in consideration of their religious responsibilities towards the sacra publica, patrician citizens shall receive a small amount of Census Points for their status:

Patriciatus:

5 CP Status Points

III.B.2.b. In recognition of their sacred duty of reviving and attending the family cultus of the noble dynasties they are restoring to life, citizens of nobilis consular family names (nomen and cognomen combination) shall receive one Census Point for their status. Nobilis consular family names shall be considered those which were borne by at least one consul of the old republic and empire, or of the new republic (title starting with the offspring):

Nobilitas Consularis:

1 CP Status Point

III.B.2.c. In recognition of their personal achievement, citizens who reach the consular dignity as first of their name (nomen and cognomen combination), not bearing a nobilis consular family name as defined in (III.B.2.b. ), shall receive one Census Point for their status as Homo Novus, new entry to the nobilitas consularis:

Homo Novus:

1 CP Status Point

III.B.3. STATUS POINTS FOR ORDERS

III.B.3.a. Membership in the Equestrian Order of Nova Roma and membership in the senate of the republic or in the ordo decurionum of municipalities shall be recognized by the following Status Points:

Equestrian Order:

4 CP Status Points

Senatorial Order:

10 CP Status Points

Municipal Decurionate Order:

5 CP Status Points

III.B.3.b. The status of the first knight of the Equestrian Order of Nova Roma, designated so by the censors during census and the recognitio equitum, shall be recognized by the following Status Points:

Princeps Iuventutis

400 CP Status Points

III.B.3.c. The status of the first senator of the senate of Nova Roma, designated so by the censors during census, shall be recognized by the following Status Points:

Princeps Senatus:

1000 CP Status Points

III.C. Treasury Points

Treasury Points are given as a reward for special contributions to the Nova Roman treasury during taxation periods and serve to help establish a proper restoration of the equestrian order in Nova Roma.

III.C.1. Smaller donations (5 times the basic tax) are recognized as preliminary membership in the equestrian order, and recognized with the title “tribunus aerarius equestris”, and an advancement by one class upwards; large donations (15 times the basic tax) are rewarded with full membership in the private equestrian order:

Citizens paying 5 times the basic tax (3 times the basic tax for Roman reenactors and officially certified Latinists):

25 CP Treasury Points plus the title tribunus aerarius equestris

Citizens paying 15 times the basic tax (9 times the basic tax for Roman reenactors and officially certified Latinists):

400 CP Treasury Points plus the title eques equo privato

III.C.2. Reenactors and certified Latinists shall receive the same amounts of Treasury Points and honors for a slightly smaller amount of donation (for 3 and 9 times the basic tax). The reasoning for the reduction in case of reenactors is that reenactors might more pressingly need the authorization to wear equestrian insignia at events where they also promote and represent Nova Roma. The reduction in the required donation is therefore justified by the service they do for Nova Roma in the field, and by the fact that they are more likely than non-reenactors to buy the equestrian clothing and insignia which imposes upon them additional costs above the donation. The reasoning for the reduction in case of Latinists is that they are vital and integral in the mission of Nova Roma to restore the Roman people, because without the Roman language, there is no Roman people, and accordingly Nova Roma wishes to raise the status of accomplished Latinists within the society.

III.C.2.a. Reenactors can be recognized as such by presenting photographic evidence to the censors and registering the name of the reenactment group where they belong (if there’s any). Reenactors applying for this reduction agree that the presented photographs can be used in publications of the websites and internet pages of Nova Roma.

III.C.2.b. Latinists can be recognized as such by presenting the censors a certification, obtained through a Latin examination by a Nova Roman educational institution, or outside Nova Roma, which proves Latin fluency in writing. In the absence of such a document, the censors can assign the task of examination to a Nova Roman committee of Latin teachers, described at III.D.1.b.ii., who shall decide if the applicant for the status of Latinist may be qualified as having Latin fluency in writing.

III.D. Cultural Points

Cultural Points are given in recognition of knowledge and expertise within the subjects of Romanitas; used as a motivation and prize for studying, researching, and utilizing all the theoretical and practical knowledge that can help Nova Roma to revive and promote Roman culture.

III.D.1. CULTURAL POINTS FOR ACADEMIC DEGREES, EXPERTISE, KNOWLEDGE AND STUDIES RELATED TO ROMAN CULTURE

III.D.1.a.i. Academic Degrees. In order to receive Cultural Points for academic degrees, the MA or PhD, a digitalized copy of the certifications must be presented to the censors, and upon examination of the copy of the certificates, the censors shall issue Census Points according to the following proportions:

Citizen has MA from a Romanitas subject:

10 CP Cultural Points

Citizen has PhD from Romanitas subject:

20 CP Cultural Points

III.D.1.a.ii. Nova Roman Courses.Completing a course on Roman or Nova Roman studies held by Nova Roman educational institutions or educational institutions recognized by Nova Roma (such as the Academia Thules) are also awarded Cultural Points if sufficient evidence is given to the censors (certificate, testimony of the institution or teachers). Participation in itself, except in case of Latin (see III.D.1.b), doesn’t count, only a successful completion, absolution with a non-failure grade.

Completing a Nova Roman course::

5 CP Cultural Points

III.D.1.b. Latin Proficiency. The following amounts of Cultural Points can be given for participation in a Latin course recognized or conducted by Nova Roma, or held by an appointed censorial board of Latin examiners as described in III.D.1.b.ii., and for certified knowledge of Latin in various levels evidenced by official certificates or by an examination conducted by the aforementioned committee:

Participation in Latin course:

3 CP Cultural Points

Elementary knowledge of Latin:

5 CP Cultural Points

Intermediate knowledge of Latin:

10 CP Cultural Points

Latin speaker or writer, fluency (Latinist, same as under III.C.2.b.):

20 CP Cultural Points

III.D.1.b.i. If the description of the certification of Latin knowledge is not clear regarding the three levels of proficiency, a censorial committee of Nova Roman Latin teachers shall determine what degree of proficiency the document testifies.

III.D.1.b.ii. Censorial Board of Latin Examiners. The censorial board of Latin examiners shall consist of two Latin teachers at least with Nova Roman citizenship, who shall be appointed to this committee by the censors and shall prove their qualification to the censors with a document of MA degree from Latin studies. The censors can appoint more than one censorial board of Latin examiners at the same time.

III.D.2. CULTURAL POINT PRIZES FOR COMPETITIONS

Cultural Points must be given to the first three best places in contests and competitions held or officially recognized by the central Nova Roman magistrates, normally the aediles, or the praetors or consuls. Other magistrates and officers and even private citizens may also award Cultural Point prizes on competitions they hold but only with a special permission given by an edict of the aediles, praetors or consuls. The following amounts of Census Points shall be given to the three best places:

Contest Winner:

3 CP Cultural Points

Contest 2nd place:

2 CP Cultural Points

Contest 3rd place:

1 CP Cultural Points

III.D.2.a. If there is only one contestant, he shall receive the 3 CP, if there are two contestants, the winner shall receive 3 CP, the second 2 CP, if there are three contestants, the 3rd place has to receive the 1 CP for third place: these instructions shall be followed regardless of the quality of the work produced by the contestants. No ties are permitted, there must be a decision about 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each competition. At retroactive allocation of these Cultural Points, however, ties can be recognized and points allocated accordingly.

III.D.2.b. In case of a more serious and more difficult contest, where the work involved suggests an extraordinary achievement, the senate may decide about extraordinary Census Point prizes. The senate shall fix the amounts given to the recognized places, which can include as many as the senate deems fit (not only the first three). The upper limit of Cultural Census Point prize shall be 400 CP, the equivalent of equestrian census. Participants without a ranked place may receive no more than 3 CP.

Extraordinary Contest Prizes for Ranked Places:

1-400 CP Cultural Points

Extraordinary Contest Participants:

1-3 CP Cultural Points

III.E. Activity Points

Activity points work and involvement in Roman activities, and may be awarded independently from holding any office or title, solely for the work or activity produced by the citizen. The censors may grant Activity Points to any citizen, but only if there is sufficient evidence proving the case.

III.E.1. ACTIVITY POINTS FOR REENACTMENT

A reenactor can be registered by the censors according to the process described at III.C.2.a., and be given Activity Points. The military rank of the reenactor, or the leader of any other type of Roman reenactment group, can be recognized, and accounted, only and only if the reenactor serves in a fully Nova Roman military reenactment unit, or in an allied military reenactmant unit, as defined by the lex Aurelia de legionibus, or in a fully Nova Roman or allied gladiatorial reenactment group, as defined by the lex Aurelia de familiis gladiatoriis et ludis gladiatoriis:

Reenactor (both military, gladiatorial or civilian):

10 CP Activity Points

Roman military junior officer reenactor: from Decanus to Optio or equivalents:

15 CP Activity Points

Roman military senior officer reenactor (or group leader, even if civilian): from Centurio to Tribunus or equivalents:

20 CP Activity Points

III.E.2. ACTIVITY POINTS FOR EVENT ORGANIZATION FOR NOVA ROMA

Organizers and participants of a Nova Roman real life event, meeting, convention, festival, held fully or partly by and in the name of Nova Roma, can receive Activity Points if they demonstrate it sufficiently at the satisfaction of the censors. Photographic evidence about the citizen present at the event must be provided and uploaded to the Nova Roma website. In the absence of a visual evidence, Activity Points cannot be allocated. One, or more than one, organizer can be rewarded by the censors, at the request and testimony of the applicants for these Activity Points.

Organizer of a Nova Roman Event:

4 CP Activity Points

Participant in a Nova Roman Event:

2 CP Activity Points

III.E.3. ACTIVITY POINTS FOR WORK FOR NOVA ROMA

Any private citizen or officer may apply, or any superior who wants to reward the work of his or her subordinate may apply, for a bonus reward of one Activity Point for a project completed for Nova Roma which required at least 24 hours of work. The petition for the work bonus Activity Point shall summarize the activity, the product of work, and how it was a work for Nova Roma in one or two sentences, and shall be submitted for decision to the panel of the quaestors. An officer cannot reward the work of his or her own subordinate officer this way, they can only refer the case to the quaestorial panel for decision: in the case none of the quaestors object, the Activity Point can be issued. All bonus Activity Points granted this way shall be listed on a special page of the Nova Roma website with the name of the rewarded citizen, if there was one, the name of the magistrate requesting the higher magistrate to make the reward, and the description of the activity for which the Activity Points were given.

Significant Completed Work Project:

1 CP Activity Point

III.E.4. ACTIVITY POINTS FOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS INCREASING THE REPUTATION OF NOVA ROMA

Any citizen may petition the censors for the recognition of a major and particularly significant achievement in the field of Romanitas, or the censors may on their own initiative or by recommendation recognize such a citizen, for example, a publisher of a high quality website on Roman studies, an author of book, film, renown blog, high quality production, or program. This recognition shall be given to citizens whose association to Nova Roma can make Nova Roma more famous and more respected. Such recognition shall be entirely within the judgement of the censors collegiately, subject to potential rejection by the quaestorial panel of Census Point jury. The censorial decision must be made in edict, in which the censors must explain the significance of the achievement and why the citizen in question deserves special treatment and advancement in status. Alternatively, the senate can make such a recognition. Activity Points for a serious accomplishment can be awarded more than once for more accomplishments.

A serious accomplishment in Romanitas:

30 CP Activity Points

III.F. Award Points

Award Points are Census Points given for excellence in public activity, for exemplary service, for singular accomplishments, for heroism, for eminence in productive, positive and exemplary public behavior, and virtues and contributions.

III.F.1. In cases where there is no objection, the four aediles may collectively award citizens who excel in public activity, in public service, in the forums with exemplary conduct, productivity, and usefulness to the commonwealth within a given month. These awards will demonstrate these citizens as examples to follow:

Award for excellence in the month:

1 CP Award Point

III.F.2. All magistrates and officers with the ius edicendi may award members of their staff, once in a year, for excellent service. This award may only be granted on the last day of the term of office of a magistrate or officer, or if the term of office does not have fixed term, on the last day of the year:

Award for excellent service in the year:

2 CP Award Points

III.F.3. Magistrates or promagistrates, with imperium, and the senate may grant awards for significant achievements, strictly within the frames of Nova Roma, that advance the cause and the mission of Nova Roma, or for extraordinarily exemplary actions, inside or outside the frames of Nova Roma, that may inspire other citizens and may increase the reputation of Nova Roma in the world. These awards may be issued only during legally defined and obligatorily observed national holidays of Nova Roma, and shall be presented as “given from the occasion and in honor of the holiday.” (At the time of the enactment of this lex, these are the New Year’s Holiday, Concordialia, Ludi Novi Romani, Anna Perenna Holiday, Megalesia, Parilia, Cerealia, Apollinaria, Volturnalia, Ludi Romani, October Horse Holiday, Ludi Plebeii, Saturnalia, Civilia). These awards may be issued under various titles decided by the awarding authority, and by future senatus consulta or leges. Governors may issue only the lowest grade of this award, 3 CP:

Award for a Nova Roman achievement:

3 CP Award Points

Major award for a Nova Roman achievement:

6 CP Award Points

Highest award for a Nova Roman achievement:

9 CP Award Points

III.F.4. The censores, jointly, may grant the censorial award for major Nova Roman achievements or extraordinary excellence in virtue, morality and civic life between two censuses, only to be awarded upon the conclusion of the census, after the lectio senatus and the recognitio equitum, as an alternative to reward those who have already been admitted to the public knighthood or to the senate, or those who should not yet receive the highest distinction of being elevated to the knighthood, but whom the censores would like to honor with a distinction:

Censorial award for most excellent citizenship and achievements in a lustrum (period between censuses):

12 CP Award Points

III.F.5. Only the senate can grant the following extraordinary awards for actions and achievements that merit extraordinary prize. These awards may have various titles decided by the awarding authority, and by future senatus consulta or leges:

Extraordinary award, amount decided by the senate depending on the merit:

13-399 CP Award Points

Major extraordinary award, equal to equestrian census:

400 CP Award Points

Highest possible extraordinary award, equal to senatorial census:

1000 CP Award Points”

III.F.6. This variant of the highest possible award can be given only at the request of a fully Nova Roman reenactment unit under the imperium of the recipient. The prerequisite of this award is the salutatio imperatoria, an exclamation after a victorious reenactment battle, which a representative of the army messages to the senate, for only the senate can recognize and grant this award for extraordinary leadership achievements in Roman military reenactment, or for major heroic leadership actions saving or advancing Nova Roma while holding imperium and command of a Nova Roman reenactment army:

Imperator:

1000 CP Award Points

III.F.7. As a variant of the highest possible awards, the title Pater Patriae can be awarded for the founding or re-founding of Nova Roma, for saving Nova Roma from ultimate peril, or for many years of taking care of most of the public affairs with an extraordinary dedication and perfection. If the recipient declines the honor, the Award Points shall still be accounted but instead of the title a note shall be added to the citizen’s public records “Declined the title Pater Pateriae awarded by the senate”:

Pater Patriae:

1000 CP Award Points

IV. Census Point Deductions

Census points can be deducted from citizens as measures defined by law in order to discourage certain behaviors and in order that the Census Points may not only accumulate but also decrease in justified cases, which creates a more balanced pattern determined by the sense of duty and commitment of the citizens.

IV.A. Deduction for non-payment of taxes: After each year that tax is not paid, the citizen shall receive a 100 CP deduction, until the census of the citizen reaches 0 CP. This deduction shall be calculated only when the citizen makes the first new payment after the hiatus. The citizen receives this deduction for the first new payment. When the citizen consecutively pays their tax again in the next year, they will start receiving back +25 CP for each new year of taxes paid, eventually reverting all the deductions for non-payment. When, after any payment hiatus, the citizen has paid continuously for five consecutive years (in the 5th year after the hiatus), they will receive back all remaining deducted CP at once.

Examples:

Citizen “A” has 64 CP, and misses paying taxes for a 6 year period from 2015-2020. He pays taxes in the year of 2021, and as is required, he is deducted -600 CP for missing the previous 6 years. CP can’t be lower than 0, so he now has 0 CP for 2021. The next year he pays for 2022 and receives back the first +25 CP. He will now have 25 CP in total in 2022, If he pays again in 2023, he will have received back 50 CP. A fourth consecutive payment in 2024 will result in the receipt of only 14 more CP, because he cannot receive more than the amount which he lost by deductions (64). Citizen “A” will have received all 64 CP back by 2024.

Citizen “B” has 135 CP, and misses paying taxes for a 2 year period from 2019-2020. He pays taxes in the year of 2021, and as is required, is deducted -200 CP. Citizen “B” will now have 0 CP in 2021. Then he pays his taxes for 2022 and then receives back his first +25 CP. He will now have 25 CP in total in 2022. If he pays again in 2023, he will have received back 50 CP. A fourth consecutive payment in 2024 will result in the accumulation of 75 CP. Paying taxes again in 2025, however, he will receive back the remaining CP to the original 135 CP. All deducted CP is reimbursed at the time of the 5th uninterrupted year of tax payment.

IV.B. Renouncing citizenship or failing to answer the census: Citizens who renounce their citizenship or who fails to register on the census loses all CP. They can regain all CP back in the same manner as described above regarding the deduction for non-payment of taxes (in a maximum 5 year process).

V. Final Provisions

As the applicability of this law depends on the technical realization and programming of the of Census Points system in the infrastructure of the Album Civium (citizen database) website, this lex will take force only after the curator rei informaticae determines that the provisions of this law have been built into the Album Civium. At that time, an edict will be promulgated by the curator rei informaticae putting this law into effect.

Learn more ...

CXLVI: Lex Hortensia de legibus scribundis

The purpose of this law is to make the Nova Roman legal system more Roman, more authentic and in harmony with with mos maiorum the restoration and celebration of which is the mission of Nova Roma.

I. The Roman names of leges

All leges of the Nova Roman people, the Quirites, past and future, shall be named after the magistrate who put them to vote and presided over their enactment. Even if the actual author who wrote the lex was a different person, regarding the auspices of the law and according to the Roman principles of formality, the legal author is always the convening and presiding magistrate and all leges shall be named after that magistrate. The name of the law shall derive from the nomen gentile of the magistrate.

I.A. It is possible for a lex to bear two names of the two magistrates if the convening magistrate wants to recognize the authorship of his or her colleague. The following options shall be permitted: a lex can be named after the two consules, after two praetores or after two of tribuni plebis. No other combination of magistrates is permitted. If the authoring officer was is a special officer, for example a dictator, consular tribune or other kind of officer with the power to legislate, the lex shall be named after the authoring officer, but with a maximum of two authoring officers of the same rank and title.

I.B. It shall be possible for a presiding magistrate of a legislative comitia to have a co-chairman who is a colleague in the same office for the session and to name the lex after the co-chairing colleague. Alternatively it also shall be possible to hold two comitia sessions at the same time, in complete concert regarding the schedules of the sessions, jointly with another magistrate and to name the lex after the magistrate convening the joint session. However, a lex can bear the name of the colleague of a single chairman presiding magistrate, too, if the presiding magistrate decides so, as described in section I.A.

II. Latin descriptive titles for all laws

The names of leges, including the Constitution and the Constitutional Amendments, which shall also be considered a special lex, of senatus consulta, decreta pontificum, edicta and all kind of legal documents shall be in Latin, formulated according to Roman customs. Incorrect names (whether they are incorrect in grammar or vocabulary only, or in the traditional way of phrasing certain Roman ideas and expressions) shall be corrected under the supervision of the praetores as described in section IV.

III. The Roman format of laws

All laws of Nova Roma shall be phrased and written according to ancient Roman formal requirements. These requirements shall be investigated and described by a committee consisting of at least two officially recognized Latinists and Classical Philologists, appointed to this task by the praetores. In order to be appointed to this position, an MA degree university diploma from Latin language and literature or from Classical Philology shall be presented to the appointing praetor. This committee shall revise and correct all legal documents, past and future, to ancient Roman format. The enactment of the correction shall be done under the supervision of the praetores according to the method described in section IV.

IV. Correction of laws

All existing and former laws (legal documents) and their names shall be revised and corrected the way as it is regulated in this law to meet the Roman standards described in this law, and to meet the standards of the grammar and orthography of the language in which they are written.

IV.A. The fixing of unauthentic and un-Roman elements, the addition of the missing Roman features shall be enacted in a form of edict by a praetor with the approval of the committee mentioned in section III. The members of the committee shall be mentioned in the edict.

IV.B.1. The correction of English or Latin (or any language) grammatical and idiomatic mistakes in the laws (all types of legal documents) corrected by the curator rei informaticae under praetorian supervision, described by the lex Equitia de corrigendis legum erratis, shall be likewise published in a form of edict by a praetor.

IV.B.2. The correction of simple mistakes of orthography and typology need not be enacted and published in an edict, but changes which alter words and phrases other than orthography or typography done according to the lex Equitia de corrigendis legum erratis shall only be made and shall only take force if these changes are listed and published in an edict by a praetor. It shall not be enough to publish only the corrected text of the law in the edict, the changes made to the text or to the name must be listed point by point, item by item.

IV.C. In the process of correcting the names of the leges, the name of the legislator of a lex after whom the lex was named may not be changed if the person was a consul or praetor (if the lex was made in a comitia centuriata or comitia populi tributa) or a tribunus plebis (if it was made by the plebeian assembly) at the time the lex was enacted, even if the person wasn't involved in the convening or presiding of the comitia which enacted the lex.

IV.D. It shall not be possible to change anything in any legal text in any other way than as described in this law.

V. Modification of laws

If a law is modified by another law, the modified law shall contain the original, unmodified text, and the new, modified text, too. The modifying laws and the modified sections shall be noted in the publication of the modified law. Each modified version of a law shall be displayed in full text separately but in the same page (or available from the same page, the matrix page of that law) in the tabularium. The current version of a law shall always be the first and most prominent, most easily available text of the law in question. The praetores shall decide in edict about the interpretations whether a certain law modifies, supersedes or repeals another law or not when it is not clearly stated in the law itself.

Learn more ...

CXLVIII: Lex Arria Tullia de ordine equestri

Preamble

Based on the decree of the senate, following the principles of the senatus consultum de classibus et centuriis et tribubus, the Nova Roman people enacts this law with the intention to regulate the equestrian order of Nova Roma in the most Roman manner possible to the extant that it is practically capable of implementation in Nova Roma.

I. Membership in the equestrian order

The equestrian order consists of two actual grades of knighthood, the equites equo publico, the equites equo privato, and of a preliminary grade attached to the equites equo privato, termed tribuni aerarii equestres. Assignment to the ordo equester is either automatic (when done on the basis of census points) or made by a censorial decision. Thus citizens cannot decline this title, however the actual use of the title in civic life is left to each individual.

I.A. Equites equo publico

The equites equo publico or equites publici, the public equestrians, are the equestrians proper, knights who receive their dignity as an awarded title of distinction, granted by the collegial decision of the censores. The censores may, at their discretion, award this distinction to those assiduus citizens whom they consider the best of Nova Roma, who, in the censores’ judgment, greatly excelled in their service to Nova Roma or in service to the study and revival of Romanitas in general. Capite censi may not be enrolled by the censores into the equestrian order. The status of eques publicus can only be obtained as an award, and they are the only full members of the equestrian order.

I.A.1. Equites publici shall be assigned to the classes according to their census points. Equites publici with 400 or more CP shall be placed into the 6 equestrian centuries, but equestrian centuries must not have more members than the largest regular century of the First Class. Inclusion into the 6 equestrian centuries of Nova Roma shall be considered the highest honor among the equites equo publico and the censores shall select those equites publici who are the most meritorious and senior members of the equestrian order. The criterion of how many public equestrians must be allocated into each equestrian century will depend on the population density of the other centuries of First Class: no equestrian century may contain more citizens than any century in the First Class. If there are more equites publici than can be placed in the equestrian centuries, the censores shall decide which ones will remain in the regular First Class, and which ones will be allocated into the 6 equestrian centuries "supra classem,” as a special honor in addition to their distinction as equites equo publico.

I.A.2. If equites publici lose their assiduus status, they lose their knighthood immediately and automatically, which may be restored by the censores at their discretion upon subsequent return to assiduus status. If such a former public equestrian requests the restoration of his or her membership in the equestrian order, the censores may refuse the request only if they publish their reasoning for the refusal in an edictum, and the justification for the refusal must be a reason different from non-payment of taxes.

I.B. Equites equo privato

The equites equo privato or equites privati, the private equestrians, hold a status given automatically to those assidui who obtain 400 census points. Citizens can reach the status of eques privatus by accumulating census points either for their service and merit, or by contributing financially to the treasury of Nova Roma according to the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando. Because this title is automatically granted, citizens cannot decline it. However, the actual use of the title in civic life is left up to the individual.

I.B.1. Those citizens who are Equites privati belong to the First Class as any assidui having a census of 100 CP or more would.

I.B.2. The status of an eques privatus depends on maintaining the balance of 400 CP and assiduus status. Equites privati are “private” members of the equestrian order; their knighthood is officially incomplete: although they are considered full members of the private equestrian order (the private section of the order), they are only “candidates” for full knighthood.

I.C. Tribuni aerarii equestres

Tribuni aerarii equestres or treasury tribune equestrians are only preliminary members of the private equestrian order, they are not knights, they are merely entitled to use some of the insignia of the knights: they are merely “candidates” for private knighthood. The status of tribunus aerarius equestris may be obtained automatically only by a donation according to the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando.

I.C.1. Equites publici belong to the class where they belong according to their census points.

I.C.2. The status of a tribunus aerarius equestris depends on maintaining assiduus status and repeating the same special equestrian donation annually.

II. The privileges of equestrians

II.A. Equestrians are entitled to use the title "eques", or "eques Novus Romanus" (Nova Roman knight or equestrian), or more specifically "eques equo publico", "eques publicus" or "eques equo privato", "eques privatus", to receive distingished seats and take precedence over regular citizens within the same category at public events (an equestrian takes precedence over a non-equestrian ordinary citizen, but a senator or magistrate takes precedence over an equestrian, whereas an equestrian senator takes precedence over an ordinary senator and so on). As their insignia, public equestrians are entitled to wear the tunica angusticlavia, the equestrian trabea, the equestrian (golden) ring and equestrian shoes. Private equestrians are entitled only to wear the tunica angusticlavia and the equestrian ring. Those private equestrians who obtain their status by a donation for which they receive an extra 400 CP are entitled to keep these census points as long as they maintain their yearly donation. The censores may select, based on the merits of the individual, a first equestrian among the members of the equites equo publico who shall receive the title princeps iuventutis, and who shall always be included among the equites publici supra classem.

II.B. Direct descendants and wives or husbands of living knights of Nova Roma are entitled to wear the tunica angusticlavia, and they are considered to be subsidiary members of the ordo equester, although they are not considered knights/equestrians themselves. The legal definition of descendants is "equestri ordine nati" ("from the equestrian order by birth"), that of the wives or husbands is "equestri ordine matrimonio" ("from the equestrian order by marriage"). If the equestrian citizen who is the source of the family members’ association to the order, loses the knighthood, dies, or gets divorced, the association of the descendants or spouses to the equestrian order ends automatically, and they are no longer entitled to wear the tunica angusticlavia.

II.C. Tribuni aerarii equestres are entitled to use the title "tribunus aerarius equestris" (treasury tribune equestrian), and to wear a tunica angusticlavia. They keep the extra 25 census points for their equestrian donation to the treasury as long as they maintain it annually. Their family does not receive any privilege.

II.D. Other laws may grant other rights and privileges to the all and any grades of the equestrians.

III. Implementation of the law

When there are no censores in office, and public knighthoods may not be awarded, those equites publici who lost their status by non-payment of taxes and apply for restoration to their knighthood upon completing the missing payment, receive their dignity back from the praefectus rei publicae administrandae, who directs the Censorial Office, and who shall grant it without right of refusal; this restoration to knighthood does not count as an awarding of the knighthood. The grant of the private knighthood and the treasury tribune equestrian status is automatic, and, even if there are no censores in office, these can be administered by the Censorial Office.

Learn more ...

CXLIX: Lex Arria Tullia de classibus et centuriis et de tribubus novis

Preamble

The senate decrees and the Nova Roman people enacts this law with the intention to make the social order of Nova Roma as Roman as possible under our modern circumstances, returning to the best and most classical practices of our ancestors, and regulating the centuries and tribes of the Nova Roman people in a manner that is most practical and most traditional at the same time. The present law replaces and annuls the lex Cornelia de punctis censualibus and the lex Cornelia de classibus et ordine equestri.

I. The tribes

Besides the old tribes of the Ramnes, Tities and Luceres, which are retained for ceremonial reasons only, all Nova Roman citizens are distributed among a number of newer tribes, formed a few centuries after the founding of ancient Rome. All taxpayer (assiduus) citizens are distributed among the so-called rural tribes, and all non-paying (proletarius or capite census) citizens are distributed among the so-called urban tribes. There shall be no other requirement and no other way to be placed into the rural tribes. As a disciplinary action, inflicted by the censores, an assiduus citizen may be re-allocated into an urban tribe.

I.A. The four urban tribes, which are reserved for capite censi, are named tribus I. Suburana, II. Palatina, III. Esquilina and IV. Collina. The fifteen rural tribes of Nova Roma shall be only the fifteen oldest Roman rural tribes, tribus V. Romilia, VI. Voltinia, VII. Voturia, VIII. Aemilia, IX. Horatia, X. Lemonia, XI. Papiria, XII. Pupinia, XIII. Menenia, XIV. Cornelia, XV. Camilia, , XVI. Fabia, XVII. Pollia, XVIII. Sergia and XIX. Galeria.

I.B. The tribe of a citizen shall be permanent. Assidui in the rural tribes shall not be moved to another tribe, except at the request of a citizen, depending on censorial approval. In case of loss of assiduus status, the name of the original tribe of the citizen must be recorded, and if the citizen restores assiduus status, the citizen’s original tribe should also be restored. If there is no record of the previous rural tribe of a citizen currently in an urban tribe, the censores have freedom to allocate this citizen to any rural type.

I.C. When distributing citizens into rural tribes, the censores must ensure that rural tribes contain an equal number of citizens, but they should not move citizens between rural tribes to equate the number of citizens in the tribes: the only method to balance the number of citizens in the rural tribes shall be the addition of new assidui to the less populated tribes.

I.D. The officers of the tribes

Each tribe shall have a varying number of officers: one or more tribuni aerarii, which office is automatically given to all citizens within the tribe who bear the rank of tribunus aerarius equestris; and one curator tribus, who shall be elected by a vote of the equites and the tribuni aerarii of the tribe, from among the equites and tribuni aerarii equestres of the tribe.

I.D.1. The duty of the tribuni aerarii is to encourage citizens to pay the Nova Roman taxes and potentially to help those who cannot pay by donating to them or finding another donor who would help them. Donating or finding a donor is not a mandatory duty, but only an encouraged activity. The term of the office of a tribunus aerarius depends on the maintenance of their status as tribunus aerarius equestris. The census points given to the tribuni aerarii for the status as tribuni aerarii equestres shall be the reward for their work.

I.D.2. The duty of the curator tribus is to direct, review, encourage, support, and in case of need, to substitute, the work of the tribuni aerarii, and to help the citizens within the tribe who need representation or help getting in touch with the officials of the republic. The term of office of the curatores tribuum is not limited to time, but their work is monitored and reviewed by the three tribuni of the old tribes, the Ramnes, Tities and Luceres: by a majority decision, the tribuni of the old, ceremonial tribes are empowered to remove any curator tribus from office if they find his or her work or behavior unsatisfactory. The curatores lose their position in case of losing their equestrian, treasury tribune equestrian or their assiduus status. Regarding their service points, the curatores tribuum shall belong under III.A.7.f of the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando, “officers of recognized corporations”, falling in the “president” category, receiving 6 CP, but they shall not receive Past Service Points for more than one year, and these Past Service Points shall be given only if they no longer hold the office.

II. The classes and centuries

There shall be twenty-three centuries, numbered from 1-23, the first being one of the equestrian centuries, then the serial numbers of the centuries increase downwards the classes from Ist-Vth Class, and ending with the century of the capite censi as the 23rd century. All taxpayer (assiduus) citizens are distributed among the five assiduus classes and their centuries, and all non-paying (proletarius) citizens are collected into one proletarius century as capite censi "infra classem" ("under the class system"), technically part of the Vth Class. Among the assidui, a selected few public equestrians with 400 or more census points are given six centuries "supra classem" ("above the class system,") but technically within the Ist Class, as described by the lex Arria Tullia de ordine equestri. There shall be no other requirement and no other way to be placed into the five classes of assiduus centuries.

II.A. The classification of the citizens

While the proletarii shall be grouped into one single century, assidui shall be classified by the amount of the census points before each election or comitia voting, according to the following scheme:

• 0-24 census points: Vth Class, distributed into 3 centuries, 1 of which is reserved for the Proletarii Capite Censi, Infra Classem

• 25-49 census points: IVth Class, distributed into 2 centuries,

• 50-74 census points: IIIrd Class, distributed into 2 centuries,

• 75-99 census points: IInd Class, distributed into 2 centuries,

• 100- census points: Ist Class, distributed into 8 regular centuries, where also Equites Privati with 400 or more census points shall be allocated without any difference, and 6 equestrian centuries where a selected group of the most distinguished Equites Publici with 400 CP or more census points shall be allocated, Supra Classem, technically within the Ist Class.

II.B. Before each comitia voting, the censores shall ensure that the following requirements are met:

II.B.1. Each century within a class must contain an equal number of citizens, with a maximum difference of one citizen in only one (or in as many as mathematically necessary) of the centuries of the class.

II.B.2. No century in a higher class may contain more citizens than any century in a lower class.

II.B.2.a. Resolving problems regarding the criteria of centurial allocations

II.B.2.a.i. If it is impossible to satisfy this requirement because there are more citizens in a certain class than the number which can be distributed according to II.A resulting in a lower number of citizens in each of its centuries than in all of the centuries of the classes which are lower than the class in question, then, if (and only if) the largest century in the higher class would contain 2 more citizens than any century in any lower class under the class in question contains, the censores are ordered to add exactly as many centuries (and no more) to the class in question which will be enough to satisfy this requirement. The censores may add only 8 extra centuries in total to Classes I-V (they can add all 8 to one class, or to several classes, but the total number of extra centuries in the entire system of all classes must not exceed 8, and the total number of centuries must not exceed 31. An extra century is defined as any century in excess to the normal number of centuries in a class). The number of equestrian centuries and of the century of the capite censi must never be increased. The extra centuries shall be numbered starting from 24, increasing the serial number downwards from Ist to Vth Class.

II.B.2.a.ii. If it is impossible to satisfy this requirement because there are not enough citizens in a certain class to form the required number of centuries with the required number of citizens, that is, more citizens than the centuries of the higher classes contain, the censores are ordered to empty as many centuries in the class in question, merging the citizens of the class into fewer, but larger centuries, as are mathematically needed, so that the centuries of the lower class in question contain more citizens than the classes above it. The emptied centuries should be reserved for future re-filling and their serial number should not be reused by other centuries. Emptying a century does not allow the number of extra centuries to be more than 8, and the total number of centuries must never be higher than 31. Class V must always contain at least one century for the capite censi and one century for the Vth Class assidui, and these two cannot be merged.

II.B.2.a.iii. If satisfying the requirement at II.B.2 by the processes described at II.B.2.a.i-ii is still not possible in a certain class, the censores are allowed to add extra centuries or to disband existing ones in any of the classes under or above the class in question, not just in the class in question, in order to establish a decreasing (or at least equal) century size in each higher class in comparison to the class immediately below it. The number of extra centuries added in total is limited to 8, as described in II.B.2.a.i.

II.B.2.a.iv. If adding or merging centuries in other classes, besides the class in question, still does not solve the problem, and if only one century remains in two classes that are next to each other in the hierarchy, the censores shall merge those two classes the merger of which can solve the problem. The censores can merge only two classes. The censores cannot merge the Ist Class with any other class.

II.B.2.a.v. If not even the merger of classes solves the problem, then the censores shall not attempt any further adjustment to the number of centuries within the classes, but they shall publish an edict calling the senate to address the problem of the unsatisfactory design of the class division system, and the comitia shall start even if the censores could not completely satisfy the requirement at II.B.2.

II.B.2.b. Procedural rules for the centurial allocations

During the process of adjusting incorrect century sizes to satisfy the requirement at II.B.2, the censores are allowed only to make the most necessary interventions and they shall not deviate from the regular number of centuries in each class as described in II.A, except to the absolutely necessary extent. They shall adhere to the prescribed number of centuries in each class as closely as possible. The following process must be observed:

II.B.2.b.i. The censores must first determine the “maximum size of an equestrian century”. In order to do this, the number of assidui having a census of 100 CP or more shall be divided by 14 (the number of all Ist Class centuries, the 8 regular and the 6 equestrian centuries). The resulting number is the “maximum size of an equestrian century”. Then the censores shall fill the 6 equestrian centuries with as many public equestrians in the Ist Class who possess at least 400 CP as fit in, using the “maximum size of an equestrian century” as the upper limit. If all public equites with at least 400 CP do not fit into the equestrian centuries, the censores must select those who will be placed into the equestrian centuries as a special honor, the rest of them must be placed into the regular Ist Class centuries. If there are not enough public equestrians with 400 CP to fill the 6 equestrian centuries, at least one person to fill one equestrian century, then the unfilled centuries shall remain empty (but they shall be reserved and their serial number shall not be reused).

II.B.2.b.ii. Next the censores shall determine the “minimum size of century”: the number of the remaining Ist Class citizens who weren’t included in the equestrian centuries shall be divided by 8 (the number of the regular Ist Class centuries), and the resulting number shall be the “minimum size of a century”. All centuries of the other classes shall contain more citizens than this minimum number, but if it’s mathematically unavoidable, a shortage of 2 citizens is allowed in a lower class century in comparison to the population of the centuries of the class above it, and similarly, an excess of 2 citizens is allowed in higher class centuries when compared with any lower class centuries , as explained in II.D.2.a.i. It is forbidden for a high-class century to contain more than 2 citizens than a century in any of all the lower classes under the class in question.

II.B.2.b.iii. Only then shall the censores fill the centuries of the rest of the classes, and add extra centuries, disband centuries or merge classes if needed, starting from the IInd Class, and going downwards to the IIIrd, and only after that to the IVth, and after that to Vth Class as the last step. In this, the following strict order of operations must be followed: First the censores must always try to solve the problem by adding extra centuries to the problematic class if it is too large, then shall they resort to emptying centuries in other classes to compensate for the excessive size of the class in question. If centuries in a class are too small, first the censores must always try to solve the problem by merging the centuries within the class, and then, if needed, by adding extra centuries to other classes. If (and only if) the previous operations did not solve the problem, are the censores allowed merge two neighboring classes.

The following detailed example demonstrates the process described in points II.B.2.a.i-v:

"There are 50 citizens in the Ist Class, among whom there are 10 public equestrians with 400 CP, to be distributed among 8 pedestrian centuries and 6 equestrian centuries. The censores devide 50 by 14, resulting in 3.57, thus the “maximum size of an equestrian century” will 4. This means that none of the 6 public equestrian centuries may contain more citizens than 4. There are 10 public equestrians with at least 400 CP, so the censores must place all of them into the 6 public equestrian centuries as equally as possible, which is mathematically possible the following way: 4 equestrian centuries contain 2-2-2-2 citizens, and 2 equestrian centuries contain 1-1 citizens (satisfying requirement II.B.1).

The other 40 Ist Class citizens shall be divided by 8, which is 5: this will be the “minimum size of a century”. They will be allocated into 8 centuries: there will be 5 citizens in each of the 8 pedestrian centuries. The censores can now turn to the IInd Class, then go downwards the classes.

The IInd Class contains 4 citizens for 2 centuries, that is, 2 citizens in each. This is not allowed according to II.B.2, because the number of citizens in Class II centuries must not be smaller than the number of citizens in the Ist Class centuries, which is 5: a difference of 2 citizens would be allowed according to II.B.2.a.i and II.B.2.b.ii, but the difference here is 3. The censores can merge the 2 centuries of Class II (as per II.B.2.a.ii), resulting in 4 citizens in 1 century, which is still not ideal, but according to II.B.2.a.ii it is allowed if there is no way to avoid it.

The censores now examine the IIIrd Class: it contains 80 citizens for 2 centuries which will result in 40-40 citizens in each century.

The IVth Class contains 26 citizens for 2 centuries that would result in 13 citizens in each, but this is not acceptable according to II.B.2., this number must be equal or higher than 40 (based on the 40 citizens in both centuries of the IIIrd Class). First the censores shall merge the two IVth Class centuries, according to the order of procedures at II.B.2.b.iii, and then Class IV will have only one century with 26 citizens, which is still far from satisfactory. Then the censores do not have another choice but to add one extra century to the IIIrd Class (according to II.B.2.a.iii), so IIIrd Class will have 3 centuries with 27, 27 and 26 citizens in them. This adds 1 surplus citizen to two of the centuries in Class III, but this is within the acceptable deviation.

Finally the censores take care of the Vth Class. There are 2 assiduus centuries in the Vth Class (the 3rd century is proletarius so it does not belong to this process), and the Vth Class contains 20 citizens for 2 centuries, so 10 citizens in each. This is against II.B.2, so the censores first have to merge them, resulting in 1 century with 20 citizens. It’s still unacceptable, because the century size in IVth Class is 26, and in the IIIrd class it is 26-27, so the censores need to add more extra centuries to the IVth and IIIrd Classes to make them have centuries that are bigger with no more than a maximum of 2 citizens. They have to re-add the one emptied century to Class IV, so it will have again 2 centuries with 13 citizens in each, and they will have to add 1 more century to IIIrd Class so it will have 4 centuries now with 20 citizens in each which is acceptable according to the rules.

The final set up the classes and centuries will thus be the following: in the Ist Class, the 6 equestrian centuries will have 4 centuries containing 2-2-2-2 citizens, and 2 centuries containing 1-1 citizens, the 8 pedestrian centuries will each contain 5 citizens. The IInd Class will have 1 century with 4 citizens. The IIIrd Class will have 4 centuries with 20 citizens in each. The IVth Class will have 2 centuries with 13 in each. The Vth Class will have 1 assiduus century with 20 citizens besides the century of the capite censi. The censores added 2 extra centuries in total, and emptied 2 in total: the final number of the centuries remains the same, but there will be a Century 24 and a Century 25 in Class III, because the extra centuries shall have their own serial number. When voting, 23 centuries will be counted, not 25, because the serial number of the extra centuries does not influence the calculation of the total number of centuries when calculating the results of voting.

If there had been 221 citizens in the IIIrd Class, the censores would have been compelled to merge Class V and IV: since the censores can introduce a maximum of 8 extra centuries, they could not increase the number of centuries in Class III beyond 10 (2 original and 8 extra). 221 divided by 10 would result in 9 centuries with 22 citizens and 1 century with 23 citizens, which would be against the rule that the largest surplus in a higher class century in comparison with a lower class century may not be more than 2 citizens: Class IV has two 13-strong centuries, V has a 20-strong century, so the highest number a IIIrd class century can have is 15. Due to this one century containing 23 in Class III, and because there are no more centuries to merge in Class V to increase that number, Class V and VI shall be merged. They have together 46 citizens. This means that the united Class IV-V can have 2 centuries, 23 citizens in each. In this set up, the Ist Class would have the 6 equestrian centuries 1-2 citizens in them, the 8 pedestrian centuries with, the IInd Class 1 century with 4, the IIIrd Class 10 centuries with 22-23, the united IVth-Vth 2 centuries with 23 in each.”

III. No comitia voting may start if the requirements in this law are not met, and the correct tribe, class and century allocations of the citizens are not updated.

Learn more ...

CL: Lex Arria de veteribus tribubus et curiis

Preamble

The curiae of early ancient Rome formed a vital aspect of community life; they stood at the center of the spontaneous civilian organization of festivals, celebrations, public and private religious experience, serving as an intermediate layer between the acts of state religion, and the acts of domestic practice of the Roman religion. Since Nova Roma is also in its early stages, and because the civic and religious community life of Nova Roma needs cohesive drive, incentive and all kinds of positive stimuli, the Nova Roman people, after having completed all the Founding Ceremonies and re-established the Palladium and the Pignora Imperii, according to the instructions of the lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda, is hereby re-establishing the three old tribes and the thirty curiae of the Roman people for the aforementioned ceremonial and social purposes.

I. The old ceremonial tribes

The censores shall distribute all citizens by gentes into the three original tribes of the Roman people, the tribus I. Ramnes, II. Tities and III. Luceres, by gentes. All members of the same Nova Roman gens shall belong to one tribe. The censores shall distribute the gentes of Latin origin into the curiae of the Ramnes tribe, the gentes of Sabine origin into the Tities, the gentes of Etruscan origin into the Luceres. The rest of the gentes shall be allocated according to their establishment in Nova Roma: those which were established in the first year of Nova Roma shall be distributed into the Ramnes, those which were established until the Completion of the Founding of Nova Roma into the Tities, and those of the third decade or later into the Luceres.

II. The curiae

II.A. Within each ceremonial tribus, the censores shall divide the gentes into ten curiae; all members of the same gens within one ceremonial tribe gens shall belong to the same curia. Each curiae shall celebrate the sacra of the curia together and the primary role of all curiae shall be the fostering of community and helping the social practice of the religio Romana and the cultus of the Roman gods.

II.B. The ancient Roman names of the curiae were lost, excepting the following which shall be used in Nova Roma as well: curia Acculeia, curia Faucia, curia Foriensis, curia Hersilia, curia Rapta, curia Tifata, curia Titia, curia Veliensis, curia Velitia. In these original Roman curiae only gentes originally founded during the Roman Kingdom can be allocated. The rest of the curiae shall receive reconstructed hypothetical names based on the research of Robert E. A. Palmer, published in his book “The Archaic Roman Community” (Cambridge, 1970), with some orthographic modifications and omissions of the least likely names. The following distribution of the curiae into the three ceremonial tribes is just a convention introduced by this present law (it is from the book of Robert E. A. Palmer, except Solonia which is suggested to belong to the Luceres tribe):

II.B.1. The Ramnes shall contain the following curiae: I. Foriensis , II. Veliensis, III. Velitia, IV. Palatina, V. Cermalensis, VI. Caelia, VII. Cispia, VIII. Oppia, IX. Martia, X. Volturna

II.B.2. The Tities shall contain the following curiae: I. Titia, II. Faucia, III. Acculeia, IV. Hersilia, V. Quinctia, VI. Fabia, VII. Septima, VIII. Octava, IX. Nona, X. Decima

II.B.3. The Luceres shall contain the following curiae: I. Rapta, II. Tifata, III. Semuria, IV. Solonia, V. Taracia, VI. Lateria, VII. Latia, VIII. Gabina, IX. Crustumina, X. Querquetulana

III. The officers of the old tribes and the curiae

The officers of the curiae, the curio maximus, the curio, the flamen curialis and the lictor curiatus, shall be responsible to motivate, assist and aid the cultic practice of the individual citizens and gentes belonging to them. They shall organize programs and celebrations to engage the citizens within the curia and to celebrate Romanitas, the sacra privata and sacra publica of Nova Roma. The curio maximus is entitled to convene the Comitia Curiata in lieu of the pontifex maximus. The curio maximus and the officers of the ceremonial tribes, the tribuni tribuum, shall oversee the work of the curial officers. The Collegium Pontificum shall regulate and assist in discovering what the sacra are that each curia shall uphold and what the religious duties of the curial officers are.

III.A. Each curia shall elect a curio (head of the curia), and the ten curiones within the same tribe shall elect the tribunus (chief) of the tribe from among the curiones of the tribe, and the thirty curiones shall elect a curio maximus from among the curiones. The position of the curio maximus can also be filled by one of the three tribuni if so elected by the curiones. The Comitia Curiata shall confirm the election of the curio maximus and the tribuni of the tribes.

III.A.1. Curiones are forbidden to hold a magistracy or governorship, because their primary focus within Nova Roma should be nothing else than the promotion of the social and religious community life of the curiales (members of the curia) in their curiae, however the Collegium Pontificum may grant exceptions from under this rule to individuals in justified cases.

III.A.2. The three tribuni are responsible to monitor and review the work of the curiones within their respective tribes, and, by a majority decision, the tribuni are empowered to remove any curio, except the curio maximus, from office if they find his or her work or behavior unsatisfactory. The tenure of these offices is not limited to time, but the Collegium Pontificum may remove any of these officers (curio, curio maximus, tribunus) if the performance or behavior of any of them is unsatisfactory, and instruct the curiae or the curiones to elect new ones in place of those who were removed, who died or who resigned from office.

III.B. Each curia shall nominate candidates for a flamen curialis whom the Collegium Pontificum shall appoint or refuse based on the evaluation of the candidate. The Comitia Curiata shall witness the appointment of a flamen curalis. The priesthood of the flamen curialis is for life, but the Collegium Pontificum may remove any of them if the performance or behavior of any of them is unsatisfactory, and instruct the curia to nominate new ones in place of those who were removed, who died or who resigned from the priesthood.

III.C. The curio and the flamen curialis, jointly, may nominate candidates for a lictor curiatus from among the members of the curia to the Collegium Pontificum for appointment whom the Collegium Pontificum shall appoint or refuse based on the evaluation of the candidate. The Collegium Pontificum may select any member of the curia for appointment as lictor curiatus at any time, independently from the nomination by the curio and flamen. The tenure of this office is not limited to time, but the Collegium Pontificum may remove them if their performance or behavior is unsatisfactory, and may instruct the curio and the flamen to nominate new candidates, or may appoint new ones in place of those who were removed, who died or who resigned from office, on its own initiative. The curio and the flamen curialis may also remove the lictor curiatus from office by unanimous decision, unless the Collegium Pontificum intervenes and forbids the removal of a certain lictor curiatus.

III.D. Only a member of the curia can be an officer of the curia, and each officer shall hold only one office, but the Collegium Pontificum may allow for individuals to hold two or all three offices of the curia if there are no candidates for the office. If a candidate appears later and requests the Collegium Pontificum to be considered for a curial office, the Collegium shall order the curia to arrange the election or nomination.

III.E. All of the aforementioned officers shall be of assiduus status. Regarding their service points, the curio maximus, the tribuni tribuum and the curiones shall belong under III.A.7.f of the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando, “officers of recognized corporations”, falling under the “president” category. They shall receive 6 CP for each position they hold, but they shall not receive Past Service Points for more than one year, and these Past Service Points shall be given only if they no longer hold the office. The flamen curialis falls in the category of “other sacerdos”, III.B.1 of said lex Arria, receiving 20 CP.

IV. Voluntary association with a curia and change in membership within curiae

Since the curiae are meant to become community fostering institutions, it is important that the gentes can feel a connection to their curia. It is encouraged that members of a gens discuss their association to a curia, and if the majority of the adult sui iuris members in a gens petition the censores for re-allocation of the gens to another curia, the censores shall complete the request if it would not infringe on the regulations at Sections I-II of this law. Requests for re-allocation that would infringe on the rules set forth in this law shall not be completed.

Learn more ...

CLI: Lex Tullia de comitiis habendis

Preamble

The senate and the people of Nova Roma enact this law for the regulation of the holding of comitia in the most practical way which is needed at the current period and according to the current needs of the republic. The lex Octavia de convocatione tribunicia comitiorum, the lex Salvia de convocatione tribunicia comitiorum, the lex Cornelia de ratione comitiorum centuriatorum, the lex Cornelia de ratione comitiorum tributorum and the lex Pompeia de ratione comitiorum plebis tributorum are hereby superseded by this lex. Magistrates or officers who are granted the right to call the Comitia Centuriata, Comitia Populi Tributa (Comitia Tributa) or the Comitia Plebis Tributa (Concilium Plebis) (hereinafter all of these will be referred to as the “comitia”) by the lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda or by other laws, normally a consul, or a praetor, or, in the case of the Concilium Plebis, a tribunus plebis (hereinafter all of them referred to as presiding magistrate or president) may call any of these comitia in order to hold two types of meetings, either a contio (a gathering for a hearing or a discussion) or a full session of the comitia to vote on rogationes to be enacted as lex or plebiscitum, to hold elections, or to conduct a legal proceeding (internal conflict resolution or disciplinary procedure of Nova Roma). The Comitia Curiata is a special type of comitia which is regulated by decrees of the Collegium Pontificum.

I. Contio

“Contio” is the term for a meeting of the comitia without the purpose of voting. Before the comitia would meet for a vote, at least one contio shall be held about the rogationes, the candidates or the legal case to be voted on.

I.A. Convening of the contio

I.A.1. A contio may be summoned by an edictum of the presiding magistrate by making a public declaration announcing the summons in the official forum of Nova Roma. The official summons shall be entitled as “Summons of the Contio of the Comitia Centuriata (Tributa etc.),” and the text of the announcement must include:

(1) the reporting of the opening ritual, who performed or is going to perform it, when it was or will be performed;

(2) the dates and time when the contio shall begin and end (if it has a scheduled end date);

(3) the agenda and the items to discuss;

(4) the topics of consultation, the intended rogationes, or if there are drafts already, the texts of the drafts;

(5) names of the candidates and the offices they are seeking;

(6) names of the petitioners and defendants, the charges specified.

I.A.1.a. Contiones do not necessarily have to have a predetermined closing date published in the summons. It is permitted that the presiding magistrate choose the closing date during the session.

I.A.1.b. If the summons included a scheduled closing date, the presiding magistrate is allowed to deviate from that date, but changes must be announced.

I.A.2. Opening of the contio

After having announced the summons of the comitia to hold a contio, the presiding magistrate, or a representative of the presiding magistrate, shall perform the opening ritual, and the presiding magistrate shall, personally, open the session with a speech. If it’s technically not possible to offer the sacrifice at that time, the ritual should be held at least on the first day of the contio. If the ritual had been performed after the summons had been posted, the report about the completion of the opening ritual shall be posted separately.

I.B. Duration of the contio

A contio may not last longer than a trinundinum, i.e. three nundina (three 8-day periods, 24 days or 576 hours): if the same agenda still requires more debate, a new contio shall be called. If the presiding magistrate does not dissolve the contio before the expiration of this maximum time frame, the contio is considered as automatically dissolved and any parts held after the maximum duration shall be deemed illegal and unlawful. The measuring of the length of the contio for the purpose of determining whether it satisfied the instructions in this law shall be done the following way: the start date shall be either the one announced in the official schedule or the moment of the opening statement by the presiding magistrate, whichever is earlier; the end date shall be the moment when the presiding magistrate issued the closing statement. The president of the session may specify the date of the taking of effect of the opening statement and the closing statement to make them match the official schedule even if they are published sooner. If the presiding magistrate does not dissolve the contio within 72 hours of the scheduled end date, the contio is disbanded automatically after the 72 hours have passed.

I.B.1. In case of legislation, between the presentation of the first version of the proposal and the last day of the comitia voting on the proposal, at least a period of a trinundinum (three 8-day periods, that is, 24 days or 576 hours, henceforth “trinundinum”) shall be observed. Both the initial draft and the final draft (the result of the debates) shall be presented in a contio (in the same or in different contiones). Between the presentation of the final draft of the rogatio and the first day of the comitia voting, at least three days (72 hours) shall be observed.

I.B.1.a. If the colleagues, the superiors or the tribunes of the plebs find that the changes between the initial draft and the final draft put to vote are too significant and they warrant more discussion, they have the right to issue an intercessio against the summons of the comitia to vote; in this case, the presiding magistrate shall convene the contio again, and allot a time for more discussion until a nundinum (8 days, 192 hours, henceforth “nundinum”) is completed between the presentation of the final draft and the convening of the comitia to vote, after which nundinum no veto against the calling of the voting comitia shall be possible.

I.B.1.b. If the vetoing magistrates will be satisfied with a shorter period of additional discussion, the contio can be dissolved, and the comitia to vote called, sooner than the required nundinum.

I.B.2. In case of litigation, between the official presentation of the case to the people in contio and the last day of the comitia voting deciding the case, at least a period of a nundinum shall be observed. The legal case shall be presented, and the legal proceedings shall be conducted, in a contio (one or more).

I.B.3. In case of elections, between the presentation of the list of the candidates (the one presented after the time allotted to answer the last call for candidates) to the people in contio and the last day of the comitia voting on the candidates, at least a period of one nundinum shall be observed. If there is a change in the list of candidates (for example, a candidacy is withdrawn), the required nundinum does not have to be restarted. The list of candidates shall be presented to the people in a contio, and one or more contiones shall be held to discuss the candidates and to hear public endorsement for candidates.

I.B.4. In case of a consultative session held merely to exchange ideas, hear speeches, reports, or held for ceremonial reasons, there is no required minimum duration.

I.C. Dissolution of the contio

The presiding magistrate shall close the contio and dissolve the meeting by a speech to the contio, in which the presiding magistrate shall present the results of the debates, the current (or final) form of the draft, the status of the trial or the list of the candidates. The presiding magistrate shall mention if a follow up contio is planned, or if the comitia are planned to be convened for vote. Since the contio never produces a decision, there is no need for closing ritual to sanction the decisions. The presiding magistrate can dissolve the contio at any point during the contio if he or she deems it necessary, even if the required duration was not completed, in which case, however, the number of days required for the topic must be supplemented in another contio.

II. Voting session of the comitia

The comitia proper are always a session where voting is held, this is the full form of the comitia.

II.A. Convening of the comitia to vote

II.A.1. If auspices were taken and pronounced favorable, a voting session of the comitia may be summoned by an edictum of the presiding magistrate by making a public declaration announcing the summons in the official forum of Nova Roma. The official summons shall be entitled as “Summons of the Comitia Centuriata (Tributa etc.)”, and its text of the announcement must include:

(1) the reporting of the favorable auspices obtained for the holding of the comitia;

(2) the reporting of the opening ritual, who performed or is going to perform it, when it was or will be performed;

(3) the dates and time when the comitia shall begin and end, and when the voting shall begin and end, and any additional special instructions necessary that pertain to the mechanics of the vote;

(4) the names of the rogatores, diribitores and custodes appointed earlier or by this edict;

(5) the agenda and the items to vote on;

(6) the texts of the rogationes;

(7) names of the candidates and the office they are seeking;

(8) names of the petitioners and defendants, the charges specified.

II.A.1.a. After the start of the voting period, the presiding magistrate shall not change anything on the agenda and the items to vote on, nothing can be added or removed.

II.A.1.b. The presiding magistrate may change the scheduled dates of the session by issuing an edict on the modification of the official time schedule of the comitia, subject to intercessio. These modifications must remain within the time frames auspicated for the session.

II.A.1.c. Importance of the observation of the scheduled and the inaugurated days

II.A.1.c.i. The presiding magistrate shall not purposefully deviate from the scheduled day dates that were announced in edict; deviation from the hours and minutes shall be acceptable, but the change in the schedule must be announced. The closing day of the comitia, however, shall be considered a mobile day: depending on how long it takes for the diribitores to deliver the result and for the president to perform the closing rites, to close the session and to report the results, the closing day can be earlier or later than announced in the convoking edict, but it shall never be later than the last day allowed for the comitia by this law and than the last day auspicated for the session.

II.A.1.c.ii. If the scheduled or auspicated day dates (excepting the closing day, unless if it falls outside the auspicated period for the session) are not followed during the session, the augures shall decide if it was in violation of the auspices, and if they find that the change in the schedule caused a vitium, they may declare the session and its results invalid. Deviation from the legally required minimum or maximum duration of a session, a voting, or from other deadlines is not considered a mere “change in the schedule” but a breaking of the law.

II.A.2. Opening of the comitia

Before the announcement of the opening speech of the session of the comitia, the presiding magistrate, or the representative of the presiding magistrate, shall perform the opening ritual. After the issuance of the summons and the performance of the opening ritual, the presiding magistrate shall, personally, open the session with a speech and a call to vote. The opening sacrifice may be postponed, if it is technically impossible to be performed before the opening speech is posted, to after the opening, but it must be performed before the voting would start. If the ritual was performed after the summons have been posted, the report about the completion of the opening ritual shall be posted separately. The first day of the comitia is legally the day on which the opening sacrifice was performed, and everything shall be counted from that day; even if the presiding magistrate opened the session by a statement, the comitia cannot be considered to have begun without the opening sacrifice.

II.A.3. The voting comitia may have an initial part during which voting has not yet started, but the presiding magistrates and others hold their last speeches before the start of the voting. It is up to the presiding magistrate to decide whether the session has such a part, and how long it should be, but it may not take up more than three days (72 hours) of the comitia.

II.B. Duration of the voting comitia

The full session of the comitia with voting included shall not last longer than a nundinum (192 hours). If the presiding magistrate does not dissolve the comitia before the expiration of the maximum legal time frame, the session is considered as automatically terminated and any parts held after the maximum duration shall be deemed illegal and unlawful. Such an automatically terminated session, and its results, may still be considered valid if its president performs, and reports, the closing ceremony, and publishes the results of the session within three days (72 hours) after the automatic end, inasmuch as the augures do not declare such a session of the comitia invalid. An invalidated session may be reconvened at another date according to procedure. For the measuring of the length of the comitia for the purpose of determining whether it satisfied the instructions in this law, the same rules apply as for the contio, at Section I.B.

II.C. Voting procedures

The voting period of the comitia shall last for a minimum of five days (120 hours). Voting can start after a call to vote has been published, and it terminates only when the closing of the voting period has been issued. Votes cast before or after these announcements but still within the officially scheduled voting period determined by the presiding magistrate must also be accepted and counted as valid. The measuring of the length of the voting period for the purpose of determining whether it satisfied the instructions in this law shall be done the following way: the start date shall be either the one announced in the official schedule or the moment of the call to vote by the presiding magistrate, whichever is earlier; the end date shall be either the one in the official schedule or the moment when the presiding magistrate issued the closing of the cista, whichever is later. The president of the session may specify the date of the taking of effect of the call to vote and the announcement closing the voting period to make them match the official schedule even if they are published sooner. If the presiding magistrate does not close the voting within 12 hours of the scheduled end date, the voting is closed automatically after the 12 hours have passed.

II.C.1. Election officials

The officials administering the voting procedure are the rogatores, diribitores and the custodes, appointed by the presiding officer shortly before the comitia, or by the edict of summons, for the duration of the comitia. Their term of office ends automatically when the comitia for which they have been appointed are dissolved, however, if they are renewed for another comitia within a month, their new appointment shall be considered the continuation of their previous appointment, and it shall be accounted as one term. Any additional appointments to these offices that happen within a month after the previous shall be counted as one term, and this method of accounting their term of office shall be applied retroactively for past election officials that were appointed by magistrates, as well. They shall uniformly receive service points according to the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando III.A.7.c.ii, as “4th rank Officials: Apparitor (accensus, scriba, praeco, lictor etc)”. Only assidui can be appointed, and the presiding magistrate is not allowed to occupy these offices.

II.C.1.a. The duties of the rogatores are to ask the citizens to vote by advertising the voting in any and all venues of communication, to assist citizens in the voting procedure, to answer their questions in connection to the technical and procedural aspects ongoing voting, to identify and to register the voters by centuries or tribes, and to pass the anonymous list of votes by centuries and tribes to the diribitores for counting. For the sake of tiebreaking, the rogatores shall provide the citizenship date and the birthdate of all candidates to the diribitores. The rogatores shall have access both to the cista and Censorial Database of the Album Civium in order to fulfil their duties. Because the rogatores work with sensitive private data of the citizens, only officers of the Censorial Office may be appointed to this position. One of the rogatores can be appointed as custos. There shall be at least one rogator. Candidates for censorship, consulship, praetorship and plebeian tribuneship may not serve as rogatores.

II.C.1.b. The duties of the diribitores are to count the votes within the tribes and centuries, to calculate the total result of the votes of tribes and centuries and to resolve the ties which do not involve the drawing of lots. Procedural questions among the election officials shall be decided by a majority decision of the diribitores. One of the diribitores can also be appointed as custos. There shall be at least two diribitores.

II.C.1.c. The duties of the custodes is to guard, supervise and certify the entire voting process, and to resolve ties which require a drawing of lots. The custodes shall have access to the cista in order to fulfil their duties. A diribitor or a rogator can be appointed as custos, but no election official shall fill all three offices, and there shall be at least one custos who is not a rogator. Candidates in the election are not allowed to serve as custodes.

II.C.2. Casting of the ballots

II.C.2.a. The method of voting shall be clarified in the edict which contains the summons of the comitia to vote, and its organization is the responsibility of the presiding magistrate. Anonymity of the voters shall be maintained in the voting process, but the rogatores, the custodes, and, by decision of the rogatores, the diribitores, shall have access to the cista, the online voting urn, in order to fulfil their duties.

II.C.2.b. In the case of a magisterial election, all voters shall have the option to select their preferred candidates. Citizens may vote for one candidate per office vacancy. In the case of legislation, for each proposed law, each voter shall have to option to vote “UR” or UTI ROGAS (yes) and “A” or ANTIQUO (no). In the case of a legal proceeding each voter shall have the option to vote “C” or CONDEMNO (guilty), “A” or ABSOLVO (not guilty), or “NL” or “NON LIQUET” (unclear).

II.C.2.c. If a voter casts more than one votes, only the last one shall be counted.

II.C.2.d. The president of the session may suspend the voting for various reasons (e. g. obnutiatio, technical problems, interruptions etc.), and the time during which voting was halted shall not be counted toward the time total of the voting period but it shall be subtracted from it, and the voting period shall be extended, if necessary, in an announcement by the president.

II.C.3. Counting of the votes

The participation quorum of tribes or centuries for a valid and legal decision or outcome of elections shall be at least two-thirds of all tribes or centuries (rounded up): at least two-thirds of all tribes or centuries shall submit a vote in order to constitute a valid decision of comitia. In case of a vote on laws that require a two-third majority to be passed, the quorum shall be four-fifths of all centuries and tribes (rounded up) voting in the session: at least four-fifths of all tribes or centuries shall vote in order to constitute a valid session.

II.C.3.a. Under the duration of the voting period, the rogatores shall identify the centuries and tribes of the individual voters, group the votes by centuries and tribes, and shall, no later than within 3 hours after the end of the voting period, report the votes by centuries or tribes, without the name of the voters, to the diribitores who have to count the votes and determine the result no later than 6 hours after the end of the voting period. If the diribitores need help in the counting, the rogatores and the custodes are allowed to assist. If the rogatores need help in the distribution of votes according to centuries and tribes, the diribitores and custodes are allowed to assist: in such case, the rogatores may invite one or more diribitores to access the cista, and to be privy to the names of the voters; but those diribitores who are not involved shall still not receive the names for the counting. Candidates for censorship, consulship, praetorship and plebeian tribuneship serving as diribitores may not be granted access to the cista.

II.C.3.b. The diribitores shall count the votes by centuries in the comitia centuriata and by tribes in the two forms of comitia tributa. The decision of the majority of the centuries or tribes shall be the result of the voting comitia. If the result is a tie, the rogatio shall be considered failed, or the result of the litigation shall be acquittal. Ties are broken only in case of elections.

II.C.3.c. When calculating the majority, the centuries or tribes which did not submit any vote shall not be counted toward the total. If a century or tribe has no members enrolled, the diribitores shall not count them toward the total.

II.C.3.d. In the case of an election, the votes of each century or tribe shall be calculated as follows. For each century or tribe, the candidates shall be ranked in order by the number of votes they receive. The candidate who receives the most votes wins the century or tribe and becomes the designated candidate of the century or tribe for the first vacancy of that office. This process is continued until the century or tribe will have designated candidates for all vacancies of the office. Ties shall not be decided between the winning candidates who were designed by the century or tribe, but only between those candidates whose designation for office depends on the breaking of the tie.

II.C.3.e. In the case of a vote on a rogatio, a century or tribe shall vote in favor of the rogatio if the majority of votes within that century are marked “UTI ROGAS”. If the century or tribe is tied, it shall be counted as against.

II.C.3.f. In the case of a vote on a legal proceeding, each century or tribe shall vote for conviction if a majority of the votes received from the members of that century are marked “CONDEMNO”. If the century or tribe is tied, it shall be counted as a vote for acquittal.

II.C.3.g. The breaking of ties in elections

In case of elections, ties shall be broken and the fact that century or tribe was tied shall be be reported together with the result of the tie breaking. The following procedure shall be utilized to determine the results of ties, for both ties in individual centuries or tribes and in the sum total of the comitia:

II.C.3.g.i. The tie is resolved giving the highest position to the candidate who has been a citizen of Nova Roma the longest.

II.C.3.g.ii. If the previous step failed to break the tie, the result shall be determined between the ages of the tied candidates. The oldest candidate will be declared the winner of the tie.

II.C.3.g.iii. If both steps failed to break the tie, the result shall be decided by lot, conducted by the custodes.

II.C.3.h. The centuria praerogativa and the principium tribe

II.C.3.h.i. Before the start of the voting, the diribitores shall select, by lot, a centuria praerogativa (“century asked first”) from among the centuries of the First Class (including the six equestrian centuries) or a principium (“starter”) from among the rural tribes. As part of the lottery, they shall draw the order of First Class centuries or rural tribes in which order they are entitled to vote as centuria praerogativa or principium.

II.C.3.h.ii. The diribitores shall communicate the result of the drawing of the lot to the presiding magistrate who shall include this information in the call to vote, the list of the order of the tribes or centuries, and the selected centuria praerogativa and principium.

II.C.3.h.iii. During the voting period, the diribitores shall announce the current (incomplete) standing of the vote in the centuria praerogativa or in the principium (without disclising the number of votes) to the people after the first third of the time allotted to the voting period has passed, but no later than the middle of the voting period. (Example: If the voting period lasts 120 hours, the diribitores shall report the current result of the centuria praerogativa or the principium after 40 hours but no later than 60 hours.)

II.C.3.h.iv. If there are no votes in the centuria praerogativa or in the principium, the diribitores shall announce the next century or tribe in the order of tribes or centuries, or if that one did not vote, either, the first one from the list which has voted, which becomes the new centuria praerogativa or principium, and the diribitores shall announce the new the centuria praerogativa or principium and its current result to the people, as described above.

II.C.3.i. When the diribitores have completed the calculation of the final results, they shall add the name of the first voter of the centuria praerogativa or principium tribe to their report. The custodes, who are privy to the entire process, shall review the report, shall break the ties, and shall send the report of the diribitores with the certified results to the presiding magistrate. Only the aggregate number of the votes of centuries or tribes shall be delivered to the presiding magistrate; the votes of individual citizens and the proportion of votes within the tribes or centuries shall remain secret.

II.C.4. Certification of the results of the voting

II.C.4.a. The custodes have the responsibility to supervise and control the regularity and lawfulness of the voting and vote counting process, and to investigate any verifiable concern regarding the vote, during the voting period of the comitia. The custodes shall have the ability to review all actions taken by the rogatores and diribitores to ensure accuracy and impartiality. The custodes shall send the certified results of the comitia to the presiding magistrate within a day (24 hours) after the conclusion of the vote. If the custodes need additional time, they may seek an extension of time from the presiding magistrate who has the discretion to approve an extension or not.

II.C.4.b. The custodes shall certify the results of the voting by sending a notification to the presiding magistrate that they certify the voting results as authentic and lawful. If there are more than one custos in office, all of them shall sign the certification of the voting. If they are in disagreement, this counts as a refusal of certification, and those disputing the validity of the voting shall send their report on the irregularities to the presiding magistrate. If any of the custodes is missing in action, the reporting colleague shall note the absence of the colleague in the communication about the certification, and in such case the absent custos shall be considered to consent. If all the custodes fail either to certify or to invalidate the results within the 24 hour timeframe, they are deemed to have consented, and the comitia results shall be considered certified by the diribitores, unless the diribitores or the rogatores make a public objection against the validity of the results, in which case the procedure at II.C.4.c shall be continued, as if the diribitores or rogatores were the custodes.

II.C.4.c. If the custodes refuse to certify the results, they are required to send a report to the presiding magistrate including their rationale about the illegalities that they have discovered. In this case, the presiding magistrate shall convene an emergency session of the senate for the sole purpose of addressing this issue and to promulgate a senatus consultum judging and resolving the situation. If the senate decides to override the custodes’ decision, the results of the comitia are certified by this decision of the senate. If the senate determines that the issues raised by the custodes are valid, the senate can issue a senatus consultum to fix the problems if these are considered minor problems that do not substantially influence the results of voting, and the elections are thus certified and validated by the senate. If the problems are deemed to discredit the results fundamentally, the results of the comitia are declared null and void by the senate, and a new session of the comitia shall be convoked.

II.C.4.d. After the presiding magistrate has received the certified results, the presiding magistrate shall close the comitia.

II.D. Closing of the comitia

II.D.1. The presiding magistrate shall close the voting in the comitia with an announcement, and then the presiding magistrate shall wait for the results from the diribitores, certified by the custodes. After having received the certified results, the presiding magistrate, or their representative, shall perform the closing ritual. After and only after the ritual, the presiding magistrate may and shall close the session of the comitia by a speech to the people, in which the presiding magistrate shall present the results of the voting and shall report the closing ritual. The closing announcement shall include a full report of the session with the same information that was present in the summons but now with the actual dates and hours, the enacted decisions and results, the name of the centuria praerogativa and the principium tribe, and the name of the first voter in each.

II.D.2. The presiding magistrate can dissolve the comitia at any time before its official end, but in this case the comitia cannot produce any valid decisions: even if the voting has concluded, but the comitia was closed before the last acts of presenting the results and performing the closing ritual, the decisions of the session remain invalid.

II.D.3. A comitia are closed legally only if the closing sacrifice has been performed; even if the presiding magistrate closed the session by a statement, the comitia cannot be considered completed or valid without the closing sacrifice. The session can end with a valid result only with the reporting of the completion of the closing ceremony.

II.D.3.a. The period between the end of the voting and the announcement of the closing ceremony shall not be longer than two days (48 hours).

II.D.3.b. If the session would run over the allowed period of a nundinum, or over the period of the days auspicated for the session, due to a delay (for example, of the vote count), the closing ritual shall be performed on the last lawful day of the comitia, even if the report of results and the official closing statement are still to be expected. The augures may rule on whether a session with an irregular timing was acceptable or in breach of auspices, as described in II.A.1.c, and may invalidate the session.

II.D.3.c. If a session runs over the term of office of its presiding magistrate, the session is immediately and automatically dissolved. If the voting has already been concluded, and the presiding magistrate is able to perform the closing ritual before the expiration of their office, the diribitores shall complete the counting and report the results. The augures may rule on whether such a session was acceptable or in breach of auspices, as described in II.A.1.c, and may invalidate the session. If the voting is not closed before the end of the term of the presiding magistrate, or if the closing ritual is performed only after the term of office of the session president ended, the session is invalid.

III. Concurrent sessions

The lex Hortensia de legibus scribundis allows different magistrates to hold sessions of the comitia at the same time, whether entirely in parallel or overlapping in time. This section clarifies the regulations on holding concurrent sessions.

III.A. Two or more contiones or voting comitia may be held at the same time, either convened by the same magistrate, or by different magistrates. The same magistrate can hold more than one session of the comitia, as well. Concurrent sessions may be completely synchronized regarding their schedules and method of conducting if mentioned in the convening edict. The presiding magistrate who convened one type of the comitia first shall have the right to veto the convening of the same type of comitia concurrently by a colleague or by magistrate of lesser authority.

III.B. The president of one of the concurrent sessions may delegate the role of presiding officer to the president of the other concurrent session in the edict of the summons, in which case the delegating president still remains the presiding magistrate of his or her session formally, but he or she resigns from practicing the rights of session president. The delegation of session presidency may happen only between magistrates who are both entitled to preside over the specific type of the comitia. There are two announcements which the delegating president may not delegate but must do personally: the issuing of the summons and the closing announcement with the results.

III.C. One or more colleagues of the presiding magistrate, or a consul by a praetor, a praetor by a consul, may be taken as an honorary co-chairman of the session, and their rogationes may be included as if they were the convening magistrates of the session: this method can eliminate the need for a concurrent session. Such honorary co-chairmen shall not have the rights of a presiding magistrates, the rights of the position are exhausted by the addition of their proposals. If a rogatio on the name of a colleague (or a collega minor or maior) is included in the agenda to vote on, that magistrate is automatically deemed as an honorary co-chairman of the session.

III.D. Decisions regarding procedural questions, the method of conducting the debates, disciplinary actions and forum regulations in case of concurrent sessions are made according to the usual method how magistrates decide prevalence between each other in case of conflicting intentions. Presiding magistrates who delegated their presidential role to the president of the other session lose all rights to make their own decisions in these questions, but they remain still entitled to dissolve their own session if they deem it necessary.

IV. Conducting of the debates, forum regulations during comitia

IV.A. During contiones or voting comitia, the normal forum regulations remain in force, but in addition to those, the president of the session may restrict the ability of sending letters with speeches and comments to the electronic forum of Nova Roma where the session is being held. If, in the view of the presiding magistrate, a citizen has repeatedly expressed the same opinion about the same issue, and further repetition would not serve the debate any longer, the president may issue a public warning to the citizen to discontinue repeating an opinion. After three such public warnings have been issued, the presiding magistrate may put that citizen on moderation for the duration of the contio or voting comitia. The president may not restrict the speaking right of a magistrate of equal or higher potestas and authority, or that of a tribune of the plebs.

IV.B. Regarding harsh language, insults and disrespectful behavior, the presiding magistrate may apply stricter, but never lighter, criteria than what are defined by the aediles and by the normal regulations of public speech and behavior on the Forum Novum Romanum, and may warn and put citizens on moderation based on those criteria. If the session president deviates from the normal regulations in such a stricter manner, he or she shall publish a “Rule of Session” in which the president clarifies what he or she considers the behavioral norms during the session, and disciplinary action may be taken only after the “Rule of Session” has been published. If the presiding magistrate wanted to exercise not stricter lighter criteria than the aedilician forum regulations on what is considered disruptive behavior, he or she should have to issue an edict, if it is within his or her power, overriding or replacing the forum regulations. The “Rule of Session” expires with the end of the session.

IV.C. Presidents of concurrent sessions and honorary co-chaimen may not be put on moderation or restricted in their rights to communicate in the forum by any presiding magistrate.

V. Religious checks of the comitial procedures

V.A. The augures may exercise their powers of obnuntiatio during the sessions of the comitia. In addition, this present law clarifies that all magistrates having the ius auspicii within the central government may also pronounce obnuntiatio during sessions of the comitia, because the sacred right of obnuntiatio lies within the right of auspices. Private citizens can also report or announce ill omens to the presiding magistrate which the presiding magistrate must report to the comitia during session with an interpretation and a decision attached whether it is accepted or dismissed. If accepted, the president shall adjourn the session as in any case of valid obnuntiatio.

V.A.1. Among the magistrates, the strength of the validity of an obnuntiatio depends on the grade of the ius auspicii a magistrate holds (auspicia maxima, maiora or minora): the obnuntiatio of magistrates with auspicia minora can be annulled by the issuance of a positive interpretation of the evil omen by a magistrate with auspicia maiora, and interpretations published by magistrates with auspicia maxima may annul the obnuntiatio issued by a magistrate of auspicia maiora.

V.A.2. While augures do not have the ius auspicii, their obnuntiatio, as coming from religious experts, is the most powerful which no magistrate can annul.

V.A.3. Magistrates with equal degree of auspicia, or augures, cannot annul each other’s obnuntiatio.

V.B. The exercise of obnuntiatio shall suspend the contio and the voting comitia for the day on which it was issued, according to the local time of the issuer. If a vote is in progress, votes issued after the date of the obnuntiatio shall not be valid, and shall later be recast, after the suspension of the session has ended. The comtia resume automatically after midnight, according to the local time of the issuer of the obnuntiatio. If adverse omens continue to be received on the following days, new obnuntiationes may be issued as long as the adverse omens remain. This might cause the comitia to deviate from schedule and to run out of the time allowed to be used for the session, thus effectively cancelling the session. A new session may be convened for the same purpose on any next day that is available.

V.C. A valid obnuntiatio can be made only before the end of a voting, and it shall be published on the day of its observation (according to the local time of the obnuntiator) in an announcement with full description and all details of the ill omen, the circumstances of its observation, place, time, number of occurrence, with the name of at least one witness (except if the omen is a widely documented public phenomenon), and with an argumentation why the obnuntiator believes that the sign should be interpreted against the holding of the comitia. An obnuntiatio published in this format may not be disregarded, but an obnuntiatio which does not follow these requirements may be ignored by the presiding magistrate.

V.D. Within the next 6 hours after the original obnuntiatio, a session president with higher degree of ius auspicii than the obnuntiator, other magistrates with higher degree of ius auspicii than the obnuntiator but who do not preside the session, and augures, can re-interpret the signs as not unfavorable, according to V.A.1, if they are possible to be re-interpreted, and can dismiss the obnuntiatio. A re-interpretation can similarly be contested in a counter re-interpretation by someone with an even higher grade of ius auspicii or by an augur. Interpretations of the same grade or ius auspicii, however, shall not be added up as votes: the higher-ranking interpretation trumps the lower-ranking, and among interpretations within the same rank only the first has compelling force. After this period of time, no re-interpretation can be issued, and the obnuntiatio remains in force.

V.E. The ability to vote during the voting period may be impacted due to calendar issues as enacted by decreta of the Collegium Pontificum. Any impact must be announced by the presiding magistrate.

V.F. All deviations from the ritual prescriptions, auspices, the handling of the reported signs and obnuntiationes, the correctness of the opening and closing ceremonies, their timing, reporting etc. shall be a matter for review by any of the augures who, if they detect a serious vitium, may invalidate the session by a declaration. If the various participants in these processes cannot come to a consensus due to controversial interpretations of signs, laws, procedures, the Collegium Pontificum has the power to give the final ruling on the case.

V.G. All ritual and religious regulations apply to accelerated and emergency sessions of the comitia, as well.

VI. Intercessiones during the comitial procedures

Except when otherwise stated in this or in other laws, the convening of a session of the comitia, the time schedule of the comitia, the opening, the call to vote, the closing of the vote, the closing of the session, the results of a session may not be obstructed by a tribunician intercessio or by a collegial veto, however, a higher magistrate may veto the convening of the comitia by a lower magistrate. According to the lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda, rogationes, may be vetoed “before their enactment”, which, for the purposes of this law, shall be interpreted as “before the closing of the voting period”. Although a lex will take effect only after the announcement of the results of the vote, the vote is the decisive factor in its enactment, and allowing the tribunes of the plebs to use the time while the diribitores count and the presiding magistrate is performing the closing ceremony for last minute vetoes, after the entire people has already made their decision, would cause an instability in the process.

VII. Accelerated procedure for the comitia

If the presiding magistrate deems it necessary, a contio or voting comitia may be held according to the accelerated procedure. The holding of a session with the accelerated procedure is subject to collegial veto, the veto of a superior magistrate, and to tribunician intercessio. If such a session is vetoed, but it is already in process, the session president shall re-issue the schedule and hold the rest of the session according to the normal procedure, compensating to any time difference that was cut off. A change in the Constitution or the Articles of Incorporation may not be enacted by an accelerated session of the comitia.

VII.A. The use of accelerated procedure, and the reasoning for it, shall be mentioned in the summoning edict together with the accelerated time schedule for the session.

VII.B. According to the accelerated procedure, between the presentation of the first version of the rogatio, the legal case, or the list of candidates, and the last day of the comitia voting, at least a period of a five days (120 hours) shall be observed. The minimum duration of the contio, according to the accelerated procedure, shall be one day (24 hours). The minimum duration of the voting comitia, according to the accelerated procedure, shall be three days (72 hours). The minimum duration of the voting period within the comitia shall also be three days.

VII.C. If the comitia are held according to the accelerated procedure, at least four-fifths of all centuries or tribes (rounded up) shall vote in order to constitute a valid quorum for the session and to produce valid and lawful results.

VIII. Emergency session of the comitia

In case of an emergency, an emergency session of the comitia may be held for elections or for enacting a law; legal proceedings may not be conducted in an emergency session. The requirement of holding a contio in emergency is waived, the procedure can be started with the voting comitia. The holding of an emergency session of the comitia is subject to collegial veto, the veto of a superior magistrate, and to tribunician intercessio. If the emergency session is vetoed, but it is already in process, the session president shall re-issue the schedule and hold the rest of the session according to the normal procedure, compensating to any time difference that was cut off. A change in the Constitution or the Articles of Incorporation may not be enacted by an emergency session of the comitia.

VIII.A. The summoning edict shall clarify and explain the need for the emergency session, together with the emergency schedule for the session.

VIII.B. According to the emergency procedure, between the presentation of the first version of the rogatio or the list of candidates, and the last day of the comitia voting, at least a period of one day (24 hours) shall be observed. The minimum duration of the emergency comitia shall be one day. The minimum duration of the voting period within the comitia shall also be one day.

VIII.C. In an emergency session of the comitia, at least four-fifths of all centuries or tribes (rounded up) shall vote in order to constitute a valid quorum for the session and to produce valid and lawful results.

IX. Date of the taking of effect of the results of the comitia

IX.A. A rogatio is considered enacted and candidates become elected on the last day of the voting period, after the conclusion of voting: the exact hour is the announcement of results, but if the announcements are not made on the same day, the moment of enactment and election is the end of the voting period. The presiding magistrate is permitted to proclaim, in edict, another day and hour between the conclusion of the voting and the announcement of the results if a certain date of enactment or election is needed for ceremonial reasons (e.g. voting concludes on pridie Kal. Ian. i.e. on 31 Dec., but the vote counting results could be announced only the next year, magistrates should be considered elected still before New Year).

IX.B. If otherwise not stated in the decision passed by the comitia, or in another relevant law, an enacted lex takes effect, and a legal case or verdict is officially decided, in the moment of the announcement of the results of comitia by the presiding magistrate. If this announcement is outside the scheduled time frames of the comitia, or outside the auspicated time frames, the augures may invalidate the results as described in section II.A.1.c.

Learn more ...

CLII: Lex Arria de edictis

I. All edicta currently in force shall remain in force until revoked by a new edictum. Magistrates, governors or any officer with the ius edicendi cannot issue any valid edictum unless their first promulgated edictum confirms or revokes any edicta of their predecessors.

II. Edicta of a magistrate (or any officer) that are issued before the confirmation or revocation of the predecessors’ edicta would have been published are legally null and void until the failure is corrected.

III. The lex Arminia de ratione edictorum and the lex Arminia de ministris provincialibus are hereby rescinded.

Learn more ...

CLIII: Lex Tullia annalis

Preamble

This Nova Roman people enacts this lex is on the model of the ancient lex Villia annalis which regulated the age and other requirements for eligibility to magistracies. The purpose of this law is to regulate the cursus honorum within Nova Roma in a manner that is as authentic as possibly while also practical and capable of implementation under our particular circumstances and in the current period of the development of Roman reconstructionism. This lex supersedes the lex Cornelia de cursu honorum and the lex Pompeia de cursu honorum.

I. Each candidate for any administrative office or priesthood shall be an adult assiduus (taxpayer) citizen of 18 years of age at least, against whom there is no judicial proceeding conducted at the time of the candidacy. If the judicial proceeding would be initiated after the announcement of candidacy, it shall be kept on hold until the end of elections, or if elected, until the end of the term of office, after which this citizen may not run for office until the conclusion of all judicial proceedings against him or her. Higher age shall be normally required for higher office, but this requirement of 18 years of age shall not be waived even under the most dire crisis or most special circumstances.

II. For filling the high offices of magistrates, the following requirements shall be observed:

II.A. No person may assume the office of quaestor or vigintisexvir who has not reached the age of 21 years.

II.B. No person may assume the office of aedilis curulis, aedilis plebis or tribunus plebis who has not reached the age of 25 years, and who has not served previously as quaestor or vigintisexvir.

II.C. No person may assume the office of praetor who has not reached the age of 30 years, and who has not served previously as both aedilis and quaestor, or both tribunus plebis and quaestor, or both quaestor and vigintisexvir.

II.D. No person may assume the office of consul who has not reached the age of 40 years, and who has not served previously as praetor, or both aedilis and quaestor, or both tribunus plebis and quaestor.

II.E. No person may assume the office of censor who has not reached the age of 40 years, and who has not served previously as consul.

III. A provincial governor shall be at least 25 years old, and shall have previously held the office of quaestor.

IV. The presiding magistrate conducting the election may waive some of the requirements specified in this law according to regulations defined by laws.

V. The people passing a lex in any comitia may grant an exception from under any of these rules, or the senate can pass a senatus consultum authorizing someone to be exempted from under the rules of this law.

Learn more ...

CLX: Lex Petronia de libertate eligendorum apparitorum tribuniciorum

I. The tribunes of the plebs are free to appoint citizens as their apparitores regardless of their gentilician genus, whether patrician or plebeian.

II. The special powers of the tribuni plebis are not transferable to their appointed assistants. Apparitors or any assistants of the tribunes may be mandated to execute the administrative orders of the tribunes, within the tribunicia potestas.

III. The lex Arminia de ministris tribunorum is hereby rescinded.

Learn more ...

CLXI: Lex Petronia de novis civibus

I. Sons and daughters of any existing, full citizen, civis Novus Romanus optimo iure, shall be granted citizenship in Nova Roma without any requirement of probationary period and citizenship test.

II. When an entire community joins Nova Roma, as part of the process of incorporation within Nova Roma as a municipality, its members shall not be submitted to the probationary period and the citizenship test, but shall be granted the civil right status of civitas Latina, civitas Nova Romana sine suffragio, or the status of socius and amicus, en masse. In clarification of the lex Fabia de oppidis municipiisque, members of a municipality of Nova Roma, whether it be of civitas Nova Romana optimo iure, civitas Nova Romana sine suffragio, civitas Latina, or of socius and amicus status, have the right of iura publica within their municipality according to the degree of citizenship they have: cives optimo iure may have local iura publica in all types of municipalities; cives sine suffragio may have iura publica in all types of municipalities except in a civitas Nova Romana optimo iure; cives Latini may exercise iura publica only in municipalities of the Latin or allied status; socii or amici may exercise iura publica in the community of allied status where they belong.

III. Full citizenship, civitas optimo iure, may be granted only on an individual basis, upon request by the person, but citizenship test and probationary period may not be imposed on such applicants of full Nova Roman citizenship who have obtained a lesser civil right status (civitas sine suffragio, Latin rights, or ally and friend status) already either individually, or as part of a grant en masse to their community.

IV. When legions, gladiatorial schools, other reenactment groups, religious societies or other non-governmental Roman communities join Nova Roma, whether with their entire membership, the Censorial Office shall apply the procedure described at Sections II-III.

V. When individual Roman reenactors, Latinists, Classicists, Roman archaeologists, scholars of Roman studies are applying for full citizenship, if they demonstrate their status, they should not be subjected to the citizenship test, except if the Censorial Office deems it absolutely necessary according to the discretion of the decision makers (the censors, or, in the absence of censors, the officer in charge of the Censorial Office).

VI. The Censorial Office shall have the unconditional right to waive the requirement of probationary period and citizenship test for any applicant of citizenship.

VII. The Censorial Office is obliged to provide material (links, short descriptions or summaries) to educate applicants of citizenship, even those who receive waiver from under the test and probationary period, about the basics of the internal rules, mission and function of Nova Roma.

VIII. Sections II and II.A of the lex Equitia de tirocinio civium novorum shall be modified to read as:

“II. Beginning Kalendis Ianuarias, MMDCCLVIII, all new citizens of Nova Roma shall be subject to a probationary period, during which they will not be allowed the 'iura publica', the right to vote and to stand for any public office.

III.A. The probationary period will end when the new citizen has taken and passed a simple examination covering elementary matters of Nova Roman citizenship and basic Roman history, religion, language, and social practices.”

Learn more ...

CLXII: Lex Lucilia de censu

Preamble

The lustrum and the accompanying census was the cyclic renewal of the ancient Roman people, spiritually and materially. The Nova Roman people enacts the following law to regulate this vital and most Roman institution in Nova Roma according to the current needs of the republic, rescinding the lex Fabia de censu.

I. Conducting the census

A. The census of the Nova Roman People shall last for at least three months. The start and end of the census period shall be announced by the censors on the website and all official and public forums of Nova Roma. Once announced, the provincial governors shall publish the same announcements on all of their provincial websites and forums.

B. The census shall consist of the following: (1) the re-registration of all existing citizens, (2) classification and evaluation of citizens, and (3) the ceremony of lustrum

II. Definitions

A. Citizens who register themselves on the census are called cives censi (registered citizens, i.e. citizens registered on the actual census):

1. The following individuals are automatically registered for the census:

a. Citizens who obtained citizenship after the conclusion of the last census.

b. Citizens who have paid taxes for the current calendar year.

c. Magistrates of the current calendar year and any current officers or priests of Nova Roma, excepting senators.

2. All other individuals have to register for the census personally or by an official or by a personal representative:

a. Official representatives can ex officio assess the availability, responsiveness and attendance of a citizen regarding the census, and they can ex officio report the registration of a citizen. The following persons qualify as an official representative: the pater familias (or mater familias) of the individual, the provincial governor of the individual, or an officer of the Censorial Office.

b. Personal representatives are personally entrusted by the citizens. If a citizen knows of an extended period of unavailability that will coincide with the census, the citizen can entrust a personal representative to register him or her on the census: this type of personal representative is distinct from the official representative at II.A.2.a. The personal representative can be anyone the citizen selects, but this type of representative must produce evidence (for example an email) of being chosen as a citizen's representative for the census.

B. Citizens who fail to register for the census are called cives incensi (unregistered citizens, disappeared citizens). Failure to register on the census is considered a dereliction of the one and only obligatory civic duty, and it involves loss of certain rights and other consequences.

1. If a citizen fails to respond to the contact attempts within the defined period of the census, that person will be classified as a "civis incensus" (unregistered/disappeared citizen). They will formally retain their type of citizenship (civitas optimo iure, civitas sine suffragio, civitas Latina) or the type of their allied status (socius or amicus), but their exercise of the rights attendant thereto will be suspended, and they will not be counted among the active citizens or allies. Disappeared citizens may not exercise any of their rights in Nova Roma until they register themselves at the Censorial Office.

2. It shall be possible for disappeared citizens to register themselves between two censuses, at which time their rights shall be reinstated immediately, but this act will not constitute a "registration on the census", but only an extraordinary reinstatement to civic rights.

III. Registration of all existing citizens

A. At the beginning of the census, the censors shall publish their edictum de legibus censui censendo in which they set the all and any rules for the current census, deadlines and mechanisms of registration.

B. After the edictum is published, the censors shall advertise the census across all websites and forums of Nova Roma. They shall contact all citizens of Nova Roma with the call to registration on the census via email at least once.

C. The censors shall instruct the governors to repeat the announcements on the provincial level and to contact all provincial citizens by e-mail, traditional postal mail, or by telephone, regardless of any other contact from the central Census Office. Provincial governors can register those provincial citizens in their name on the census who answered their census call. In all procedures and matters of the census, the governors shall obey the orders of the censors.

D. All communicated information pertaining to the census (changes of home address, telephone number, e-mail address etc.) shall be updated and noted in the Censorial Database of the Album Civium.

E. Registration of allies

At the time of the census of Nova Roman citizens, the census of the cives Latini, socii and friends of Nova Roma shall also be conducted.

1. The censors shall contact the leaders of those communities where such associate citizens and partners of Nova Roma are registered and ask the leaders of those communities to report about the actual roll of members.

2. In case of those Latin or allied citizens, friends and allies who do not belong to a community which integrated into Nova Roma, the censors shall contact them individually, as part of the general process of the census of Nova Roman citizens.

F. Failure to register on the census will lead to the consequences discussed under II.B.

IV. Classification and evaluation of all citizens

As part of the census, the censors shall classify the citizens distributing them across the classes, they shall arrange the tribes, shall perform the recognitio et probatio equitum (the revision of the membership of the official, public Equestrian Order) and the lectio senatus (the revision of the membership of the senate), and shall publicly praise and reprimand citizens and current customs according to their function as guardians of public morals, good traditions and Roman virtues. Censorial awards shall be distributed at this time.

V. Lustrum

Upon the conclusion of the registration of the citizens, the recognitio equitum and the lectio senatus, the censors shall perform the lustrum to purify the Nova Roman people and Nova Roma. Only after the performance of the lustrum is the census completed.

Learn more ...

CLXIII: Lex Lucilia Tullia de rebus publicis ordinandis

The following tributes and adjustments are to be made before our New Roman Nation enters its 25^th Anniversary Year:

I. Tributes in honor of the 25^th Anniversary of the Founding of Nova Roma

At the beginning of the Year of the 25 Anniversary of Nova Roma, the Sacred Year of Concordia, celebrating a quarter of a century of the revival of the populus Romanus and its mos maiorum, sacra and res publica, the Nova Roman People of the Quirites are hereby awarding 25 Census Points, as Award Points with the title “25th Anniversary Award,” to those citizens who have been loyal citizens of Nova Roma since our first year, one Award Point for each year, effective on the 25^th Birthday of Nova Roma, on the next Kalends of March.

A. This includes citizens whose date of citizenship is anytime between the Kalends of March of Fl. Vedio M. Cassio cos. (2751/1998) and the Kalends of March of L. Equitio D. Iunio cos. (2752/1999).

B. The awarded citizens who are cives censi, active citizens of Nova Roma on the day of the 25^th Anniversary of Nova Roma, will receive the award on these Kalends of March. Those citizens who did not register on the census will receive the award upon their registration at the Censorial Office.

C. In this happy moment of our 25^th Anniversary, as a part of the celebration of the existence and survival of Nova Roma, the Nova Roman People recognizes all citizens who contributed to the saving of Nova Roma from the years of turmoil and, by doing so, filled an important role in the current growth and expansion of our res publica. Citizens who participated in the efforts of defending Nova Roma as members of one of the legiones et cohortes liberatoriae, as defined by the relevant decrees of the Senate, shall receive 25 Census Points as Award Points with the title “Victory Award,” as a tribute to our 25^th Anniversary.

D. It is the order of the Nova Roman People of the Quirites that the magistrates, the senate and our priesthood shall take care that the entire year starting from the next Kalends of January shall be spent with prayer, celebrations, festivals, games and programs in honor of, and in gratitude for, the completion of this quarter of a century in the history of Nova Roma.

II. Adjustments to make our Tabularium orderly for the Sacred Year

As part of the festive preparations, the Nova Roman People wishes to put a few old laws in order and up to date for this new era of Nova Roma.

A. Adjustments to the lex Apula Popillia de nominibus approbationibusque

1. In section I.A.1, the praenomen “Vibius”/”Vibia” shall be removed from the list.

2. In section I.A.3, the three sentence part starting with the words “Honorary cognomina” and ending with “application stage” shall be changed to read as follows:

“Honorary cognomina are conferred upon a citizen by special dispensation. They can be awarded by a vote of the Senate in recognition of service to Nova Roma. They are not available to be chosen at the application stage.”

3. Section I.B.2.c shall be changed to read as follows:

“The adopted party will be able to retain his/her praenomen and cognomina should he/she wish to, so long as the adopting parent agrees.”

4. The new paragraph I.B.4 shall be added, as follows:

“There exists the possibility of administrative name correction, permitted only in very limited cases upon the request of the citizen, at the discretion of the Censorial Office. In the case of administrative name correction, citizens who made a mistake in choosing their praenomen, nomen, cognomen, or cognomina, at the time of their application for citizenship may be allowed to correct their names, even their nomen gentilicium. If a citizen corrects his name by administrative name correction process, any connection to his or her original gens is eliminated, and all public records shall show only the new name of the citizen (only the Censorial Database must archive the previous version of the name), and the citizen has to be regarded as if he or she had always had this name. The censores are especially encouraged to allow all such name corrections when incorrect or unhistorical names are being corrected to authentic ones, but they shall compel the citizens to change as few parts, and to change as little in their name, as possible. As a general guideline to the Censorial Office, citizens who are unknown to the wide public of Nova Roma always should be allowed to correct their names. Well-known citizens should not take up a completely new name, but additions of new cognomina may be tolerated.”

B. Adjustments to the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando

In section III.A.4., the phrase “rounded down” shall be changed to “rounded up,” and at the end of the section, the following sentence shall be added:

“The curator rei informaticae is authorized to issue rules of counting partial Past Service Points in edict that are different from the one set forth by this law if there are technical problems with the program of the censorial database.”

C. Adjustments to the lex Tullia de comitiis habendis

Paragraph II.C.1 shall be changed to read as follows:

“The officials administering the voting procedure are the rogatores, diribitores and the custodes, appointed by the presiding officer shortly before the comitia, or by the edict of summons, for the duration of the comitia. Their term of office ends automatically when the comitia for which they have been appointed are dissolved, however, if they are renewed for another comitia within a month, their new appointment shall be considered the continuation of their previous appointment, and it shall be accounted as one term. Any additional appointments to these offices that happen within a month after the previous shall be counted as one term, and this method of accounting their term of office shall be applied retroactively for past election officials that were appointed by magistrates, as well. They shall uniformly receive service points according to the lex Arria de censu civium aestimando III.A.7.c.ii, as “4th rank Officials: Apparitor (accensus, scriba, praeco, lictor etc)”. Only assidui can be appointed, and the presiding magistrate is not allowed to occupy these offices.”

Learn more ...

CLXIV: Lex Lucilia de vigintiviris

The lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda stipulates how the offices of the vigintisexviri shall be defined, and on the basis of their number, their actual collective name shall be determined. This law hereby determines that the collective term for these minor magistrates shall be vigintiviri, the magistracies of the vigintiviratus. The Comitia Populi Tributa shall elect the following magistracies of the vigintiviratus who all shall enter office on the Kalends of January, and shall serve until the next Kalends of January. Their election shall be conducted before the end of the year, even if the required number of candidates did not apply for office, and even if there was only one call for candidates (depending on the decision of the presiding magistrate of the election), but if the necessary number of people were not elected, at least one supplemental election must be held after all the higher magistrates have been elected so that all candidates who failed to obtain a higher magistracy may be able to run for vigintivir. Each magistracy of the vigintiviratus shall be considered fully set and functional if at least on position is filled in them.

I. DECEMVIR STLITIBUS IUDICANDIS

Ten decemviri stlitibus iudicandis (or less formally: decemviri litibus iudicandis) shall be elected by the Comitia Populi Tributa to serve a term lasting one year. They shall be judicial magistrates serving as an administrative and constitutional court, appeal court for certain cases, and as assistants of the praetors and the Officium Praetorium, and they shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

A. To hold lower potestas, incomplete iurisdictio (the right to interpret and administer the law and to administer justice, limited to cases within their duties as defined by law), incomplete ius coercitionis limited to be used within their duties, the ius intercessionis and the ius edicendi, all of which rights and powers are restricted only to be exercised within their scope of authority, that is, to administer justice and serve in judicial procedures, or to administer any additional tasks assigned to them by law;

B. To issue those edicta necessary to fulfill their judicial duties;

C. To pronounce collegial intercessio against another decemvir stlitibus iudicandis;

D. To employ apparitors from among the existing ones, based on mutual agreement between decemvir, or the collective collegium of the decemviri, and apparitor, as assistants in administrative and other tasks, as they shall see fit. This assignment of an apparitor to a decemvir, or the decemviratus, shall be made by an edictum of the praefectus rei publicae administrandae (who shall have the ius edicendi) at the order of the decemvir, or in absence of such praefectus, or by any officer with the ius edicendi at their discretion.

E. To assist the praetor, and to be members of the Officium Praetorium:

1. By serving as judges in the tribunal of the praetor: If the number of iudices could not be completed from volunteers in a tribunal when it is being appointed according to the lex Salvia iudiciaria, the praetors can order the decemviri to fill the missing places who may not refuse this order. A decemvir stlitibus iudicandis, regardless of their social status, may be selected as iudex, and may serve in the tribunal among the equites, tribuni aerarii equestres and senatores.

2. By serving as substituting magistrates for the praetors in judicial proceedings, only on a case by case basis, if the praetors decide so in an edictum: A praetor can delegate a judicial case to the collegium of the decemviri, and the decemviri shall collectively conduct the trial, filling the role of praetor in the lex Salvia iudiciaria. In such cases the praetor must designate a decemvir as the responsible chairman for the decemviral panel who is the primary co-president of the panel and who can be called to account about any failures in the procedure.

F. To serve as the administrative court and constitutional court of Nova Roma in procedures and trials about complaints against administrative measures, disputes within the administration, debates between administrative officers and in disputes about constitutional law, the interpretation of law;

G. To serve as the default administrative law court for controversies about forum moderation issues of any official public forum of Nova Roma;

H. To serve as appeals court in certain cases defined by law.

II. TRIUMVIR CAPITALIS

Three triumviri capitales or tresviri capitales shall be elected by the Comitia Populi Tributa to serve a term lasting one year. They shall be magistrates responsible for public order and enforcing the public policies of Nova Roma, captains general of the Nova Roman police, law enforcement magistrates, public prosecutors and guardians of the Nova Roman legal system, administrative court for simpler forum moderation issues, lesser colleagues and inferiors of the aediles in forum management and maintenance of public order and members of the Officium Aedilicium, and they shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

A. To hold lower potestas, incomplete iurisdictio (the right to interpret and administer the law and to administer justice, limited to cases within their duties), incomplete ius coercitionis limited to be used within their duties, the ius intercessionis and the ius edicendi, all of which rights and powers are restricted only to be exercised within their scope of authority, that is, to enforce the law, to administer the law, or to administer any additional tasks assigned to them by law;

B. To issue those edicta necessary in their law enforcement duties;

C. To pronounce collegial intercessio against another triumvir capitalis;

D. To employ apparitors from among the existing ones, based on mutual agreement between triumvir, or the collective collegium of the triumviri, and the apparitor, as assistants in administrative and other tasks, as they shall see fit. This assignment of an apparitor shall be made by an edictum of the praefectus rei publicae administrandae (who shall have the ius edicendi) at the order of the triumvir, or in absence of such praefectus, or by any officer with the ius edicendi at their discretion.

E. To serve in the capacity of the chief of police of Nova Roma as captains general of the cohortes vigilum, both of their reenactment units and their forum moderation administrative servicemen.

1. They shall appoint, remove and command the vigiles as moderators and administrators of the official public forums of Nova Roma. In order to execute their duties of policing and moderating all central forums of Nova Roma, it is mandatory for the tresviri capitales to be subscribed to all central forums of Nova Roma that are under the supervision of the aediles.

a. The tresviri can impose any of the disciplinary moderation actions and they can overturn the decision of any forum administrator and moderator (excepting the decisions of the aediles or higher magistrates).

b. Besides the usual measures of forum moderation, the tresviri capitales shall have the right to various lesser poenae as a disciplinary action for citizens who offend the policies and laws of Nova Roma, as regulated by other laws.

2. As the chiefs of the police, they have the duty to ensure that the forum policies of the aediles are enforced, that all laws regarding public order, public forum behavior are observed, and to direct the vigiles to enforce all related policies and laws. They supervise and police all state approved sodalitas, and other civilian corporations, with the exception of sodalitates and other corporations dealing with Roman numismatics and military.

3. As the chiefs of the police of Nova Roma, they have the duty to notice, identify, investigate and prosecute crimes, offenses, breaches of the laws and regulations of Nova Roma and anything that violates the letter or spirit of Nova Roman law. In order to perform these duties, they shall employ the cohortes vigilum of Nova Roma which they command.

a. When discovering a crimen or a culpa, the tresviri have the duty to start a petio actionis before the court where the case belongs to. In their role of checking and enforcing the observation of law by the citizens, and especially by the other magistrates and the entire Nova Roman government, they shall cooperate and share this duty with the quaestors and with the praefectus rei publicae administrandae.

b. To guaranee that the aediles do not overstep their powers and do not enforce overly rigorous or oppressive forum policies. The tresviri have the duties to turn to the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis if they notice aedilician actions that they deem to be against the letter or spirit of the law or harming ther rights and well being of the citizens.

4. The tresviri also serve as judges in forum moderation controversies according to summary judgment procedure in the lex Lucilia iudiciaria.

5. If there is a complaint or concern against an excessive management style of the tresviri capitales, the aediles, praetores or consules may order them in edict to follow certain guidelines or may forbid them to do certain actions; such directive instructions are always is within the natural power of the higher magistrates as a possible method to handle transgressions of lower officers. Uncooperative tresviri maybe recalled altogether from the supervision of forums by an edict of a higher magistrate.

F. The tresviri shall function as lesser colleagues of the aediles in their duties of the maintenance of public order and the public forums of Nova Roma, and as such, shall be members in the Officium Aedilicium. The aediles may share any of these tasks and duties with the triumviri. If the aediles are unavailable, the tresviri shall substitute them in the duties of maintaining public order and management of public forums. The aediles may designate any or all triumviri capitales to deputize them for any period of time in matters of forum supervision.

III. TRIUMVIR MONETALIS

Three tresviri monetales or triumviri monetales or, with their longer, more ceremonial name, tresviri aere argento auro flando feriundo shall be elected by the Comitia Populi Tributa to serve a term lasting one year. They shall be magistrates responsible for the design, development, production, issuance and distribution of the coinage of Nova Roma, and to assist the quaestors, the curator aerarii and the Officium Aerarii in their job regarding the finances of Nova Roma, and they shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

A. To hold lower potestas, incomplete ius coercitionis limited to be used within their duties, and ius intercessionis, all of which rights and powers are restricted only to be exercised within their scope of authority, that is, to oversee and manage the public infrastructure, public works, the official and public websites, to supervise, manage or execute tasks, duties and projects assigned to them by law or order by a higher ranking officer, the Senate or the Comitia;

B. To pronounce collegial intercessio against another triumvir monetalis;

C. To be members of the Officium Aerarii and to have the right and duty to propose ideas for the financial administration of Nova Roma therein.

D. To provide the citizens of NR with educational programs and knowledge about Roman numismatics, history of Roman economy and commerce.

E. To supervise all state approved central sodalitates, societies and other civilian corporations which are dealing with Roman numismatics, history of Roman economy and commerce or fundraising for officially supported causes of Nova Roma; or if they are not functioning actively and adequately, to restore them to proper function; or if Nova Roma does not have any society focused in these topics, to create them.

1. The tresviri monetales shall serve as law enforcement officers in the forums of central official Roman numismatics, history of Roman economy societies, or Nova Roman fundraising societies.

2. The tresviri shall work under the supervision, regulatory direction and authority of the aediles in this capacity.

IV. QUATTUORVIR RERUM CURANDARUM

Four quattuorviri rerum curandarum shall be elected by the Comitia Populi Tributa to serve a term lasting one year. They shall be magistrates responsible for the maintaining and updating of the infrastructures of Nova Roma, they also shall assist all other magistrates that need help in any task, but primarily the aediles and the duties of the Officium Operum Publicorum , Officium Administrationis Publicae, Officium Rei Informaticae and Officium Aedilicium, and they shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

A. To hold lower potestas, incomplete ius coercitionis limited to be used within their duties, and ius intercessionis, all of which rights and powers are restricted only to be exercised within their scope of authority, that is, to oversee and manage the public infrastructure, public works the official and public websites, to supervise, manage or execute tasks, duties and projects assigned to them by law or order by a higher ranking officer, the Senate or the Comitia;

B. To pronounce collegial intercessio against another quattuorvir rerum curandarum;

C. To be members of the Officium Operum Publicorum, Officium Administrationis Publicae, Officium Rei Informaticae and Officium Aedilicium, and to have the right and duty to propose ideas for the relevant administrative tasks therein.

D. To be responsible for the promotion of knowledge, education and information about all aspects of Romanitas, except numismatics and military, and for the promotion of Roman civilian reenactment in Nova Roma.

E. To be responsible for the quality assurance of the public and official websites of Nova Roma: to notice mistakes, problems, errors, outdated information, missing information, and take care of their correction and solution.

F. To be in charge of the Nova Roma Wiki editorial community and of the Nova Roma Wiki Project, under the guidance and authority of the aediles and the curator rei informaticae.

G. To supervise all state approved central sodalitates, societies and other civilian corporations except those supervised by the tresviri monetales and tribuni militum comitiati; or if they are not functioning actively and adequately, to restore them to proper function; or if there is an important subject of Roman studies about which Nova Roma does not have any society, to organize them.

1. The quattuorviri rerum curandarum monetales shall serve as law enforcement officers in the forums of central official societies of Nova Roma that are not under the guardianship of the tresviri monetales and tribuni militum comitiati.

2. The tresviri shall work under the supervision, regulatory direction and authority of the aediles in this capacity.

V. PAST VIGINTISEXVIRI OF NOVA ROMA

A. The past vigintisexviri of Nova Roma and the current vigintiviri shall be considered the same group of magistracies, and all laws referring to vigintiviri or vigintisexviri shall be understood to refer to the same category, to both the current vigintiviratus and the past vigintisexviratus.

B. For the purposes of annals, historical reference, and record keeping in the official documents, websites and in the album civium of Nova Roma, the name of the office of the curator sermonis held until M. Octavio L. Sulla II cos.; the office of the magister aranearius (curator aranei) held until Fr. Apulo C. Laenate cos.; and the offices of the rogator, diribitor, custos and editor commentariorum (curator differendi) held until L. Sulla III cos. sine collega; that is, only when they were classified as vigintisexviri and not as an other class of officers, shall be considered, recorded and displayed as “vigintisexvir curator sermonis;” “vigintisexvir magister aranearius” (“vigintisexvir curator aranei”); and “vigintisexvir rogator,” “vigintisexvir diribitor,” “vigintisexvir custos,” “vigintisexvir editor commentariorum” (“vigintisexvir curator differendi”). When these offices were or are not classified as vigintisexviri, their name shall be displayed without the prefex “vigintisexvir.”

1. The curator differendi was called as “curator differum,” the curator aranei as “curator araneum” in the Vulgar Latin of early Nova Roma, which shall now be retroactively corrected.

2. There was a variation between “curator sermonis” and “curator sermonum”, among which the official records shall show the “curator sermonis” variant.

VI.

The female version of the title of the offices which have the “–vir” ending, not only the ones listed in this lex but also those established by any other law of Nova Roma, is “–vira.”

Learn more ...

CLXV: Lex Lucilia de tribunis militum comitiatis

I. The lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda mandates that a number of political military tribunes (also called tribuni militum a populo) shall be elected to fulfill functions related to the ceremonial and reenacting military of Nova Roma, which are distinct from the military tribunes as a military rank proper (tribuni militum rufuli), who promoted by commanding officers of reenactment legions.

II. Four tribuni militum comitiati a populo shall be elected by the Comitia Populi Tributa to serve a term lasting one year. They shall be magistrates responsible for promoting Roman military culture and traditions in Nova Roma, to serve and assist the autonomous or allied reenectment legions and units of Nova Roma, and to assist the higher magistrates about Roman military issues and military reenactment, especially the consuls and praetors, and the Officium Consulare, and they shall have the following honors, powers, and obligations:

A. To hold incomplete ius coercitionis limited to be used within their duties, all of which rights and powers are restricted only to be exercised within their scope of authority, that is, to supervise, manage or execute tasks, duties and projects regarding Roman military culture and the reenactment legions of Nova Roma assigned to them by law or order by a higher ranking officer, the Senate or the Comitia;

B. To be members of the Officium Consulare, and to have the right and duty to propose ideas for the relevant administrative tasks therein.

C. To be responsible for the promotion of knowledge, education and information about all aspects of Roman military culture and history, and for the promotion of Roman military reenactment in Nova Roma.

D. To supervise all state approved central sodalitates, societies and other civilian corporations except those supervised by the tresviri monetales and tribuni militum comitiati; or if they are not functioning actively and adequately, to restore them to proper function; or if there is an important subject of Roman studies about which Nova Roma does not have any society, to organize them.

E. To supervise all state approved central sodalitates, societies and other civilian corporations which are dealing with Roman military, history of Roman army and warfare; or if they are not functioning actively and adequately, to restore them to proper function; or if Nova Roma does not have any society focused in these topics, to create them.

1. The tribuni militum comitiati shall serve as law enforcement officers in the forums of central official societies focusing on Roman military.

2. The tribuni militum comitiati shall work under the supervision, regulatory direction and authority of the consules and praetores in this capacity.

F. The tribuni militum comitiati are under the direct military command and imperium of the consuls of Nova Roma, but they can be appointed to serve in any reenactment legion of Nova Roma at the same time, representing the consuls therein.

III. Candidates for the office of tribunus militum comitiatus shall be 18 years of age at least.

IV. The tribuni shall enter office on the Kalends of January, and shall serve until the next Kalends of January.

V. The election of the tribunes shall be conducted before the end of the year, even if the required number of candidates did not apply for office, and even if there was only one call for candidates (depending on the decision of the presiding magistrate of the election).

A. If the necessary number of people were not elected, at least one supplemental election must be held after all the higher magistrates have been elected so that all candidates who failed to obtain a higher magistracy may be able to run for military tribune.

B. The tribunatus militum shall be considered fully set and functional if at least on position is filled.

Learn more ...

CLXV: Lex Lucilia iudiciaria

Preamble

This lex offers the possibility to handle disagreements in a more formal, slower, better discussed and better thought out way: this is what the administrative and constitutional court system is designed for. While, for example, a consul or praetor can, as they wish, impose rules, procedures and decisions on an aedilis or triumvir capitalis, if the consul or praetor will decide to manage the disagreement within the frames of an administrative court, longer lasting, precedential, better disputed, more public and better recorded solutions may be worked out that are pleasant for more parties than an imposed decision of a superior. This lex thus also provides an alternative to the intercessio, and it gives a possibility for lower magistrates and citizens to question, affect or challenge the decisions of the higher magistrates which was practically impossible in Nova Roma before the enactment of this lex.

Jurisdiction in Nova Roma shall be divided into three systems: the judiciary court system, the administrative court system, and the constitutional court system.

I. THE JUDICIARY COURT SYSTEM

The judiciary court system is currently regulated by the lex Salvia iudiciaria, and this present law will only add some specifications to it.

A. Changes to the leges Salviae

1. Section IV of the lex Salvia iudiciaria shall be replaced by the following:

“IV. If the claim is approved by a praetor, the reus shall be informed of the nature of the claim presented against him and of the identity of the actor at the same time when the praetor announces the decision on the acceptance of the petition to the actor. Within forty-eight (48) hours after the claim's approval, the praetor shall offer all litigant parties an summary judgment as an attempt for reconciliation with a mutually satisfactory solution within another.

A. If all litigant parties accept the summary judgment, the case is closed immediately with the summary judgment enacted as the official decision.

B. If the reus does not answer to the summary judgment offered by the praetor within a trinundinum, the praetor shall judge the case in favor of the actor.

C. If the actor does not answer to the summary judgment offered by the praetor within a trinundinum, the praetor shall dismiss the case.

D. If all litigant parties answer, but one of the litigant parties refuses the administrative verdic, the case shall be presented to a judiciary court of justice defined according to this law within a trinundinum (24 days) after the claim's approval, and the proper judicial process shall be started.”

2. Section VII of the lex Salvia iudiciaria shall be changed as follows:

“Once the formula is ready, iudices (judges) shall be appointed from the album iudicum, a list of all the citizens that can legally judge a case. The album iudicum shall include the names of all equestrians (public and private knights, as well), tribuni aerarii equestres, senators (adlected full senators and unadlected quasi-senators with the ius sententiae dicendae, as well) and the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis.”

3. Section VIII.B of the lex Salvia iudiciaria shall be changed as follows:

“In all other occasions, the tribunal shall be composed of a single iudex when serving as a court of first instance, and between two to five iudices (number decided by the praetor) when serving as an appellate court in these cases, granted that the same iudex cannot serve in both the court of first instance and court of appeal in the same case.”

4. Section XV.C of the lex Salvia iudiciaria shall be replaced by the following:

“C. NON LIQUET: meaning “it is not clear, abstaining”. These sentences shall be counted toward ABSOLVO.

D. Should there be a draw in the tribunal's votes (sentences of CONDEMNO being equal to the sum of ABSOLVO and NON LIQUET combined), the reus shall be acquitted.”

5. A new section XVII.A shall be inserted into the lex Salvia iudiciaria, the previous section XVII.A should be renumbered as B, then the sections after it renumbered as C-E:

“A. MULTA CENSUALIS: a deduction of the Census Points of the reus. The album civium page of the reus shall not detail the cause of deduction just display the words “multa censualis”.

6. The new sections 13.2-3. shall be added to the lex Salvia poenalis:

“13.2. Every sententia that is condemning shall include the poena of MULTA CENSUALIS, and the amount of Census Points deducted shall be determined by the praetor in the formula, but they can only be numbers divisible by 10 or 5. The praetors may issue edicts setting the exact system of the MULTAE CENSUALES as used in Nova Roma, but until they do not regulate it in edict, the following grades shall be used:

13.2.1. For offenses that the praetor deems minor, the MULTA CENSUALIS shall be a 10 CP deduction.

13.2.2. For offenses that the praetor deems serious, the MULTA CENSUALIS shall be a 100 CP deduction.

13.2.3. For offenses that the praetor deems very serious the MULTA CENSUALIS shall be a 400 CP deduction.

13.2.4. For offenses that the praetor the gravest possible the MULTA CENSUALIS shall be a deduction of 1000 CP.

13.3. If the result of the MULTA CENSUALIS is a negative CP balance, the negative balance shall be recorded and all new acquisition of CP shall be used for equating the MULTA PECUNIARIA before any positive amount can appear in the album civium CP account of the citizen.”

7. Both in the lex Salvia iudiciaria and the lex Salvia poenalis the term “EXACTIO” shall be changed to “EXILIUM”.

B. Judiciary court proceedings

1. The rules for judiciary court proceedings are described by the lex Salvia iudiciaria. The addition to the rules therein is that the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis can also act as a minor judiciary court in cases described in section II.A.1.e, and in such cases, the decemviri shall conduct the proceedings according to the rules of the two leges Salviae.

2. If a case cannot be identified as any of the crimina defined by the lex Salvia poenalis, or as falling under any other regulation, the praetor, or any presiding officer of the trial, shall classify it in the formula under the crimen which is most similar to the current case in question.

C. Appeals to the comitia as part of judicial proceedings

1. The lex Salvia poenalis guarantees the right of appeal for the citizen against a sententia of the Nova Roman praetorian court to the Comitia Centuriata in cases where a sententia implies a loss of citizenship. This present law specifies that in all other cases of sententiae made within the frames of the lex Salvia iudiciaria and lex Salvia poenalis, the citizen shall appeal to the Comitia Populi Tributa.

2. Appeals against a sententia made by a praetorian court according to the two leges Salviae shall be accepted by the praetor under whose presidency the trial was conducted, without the right of refusal. It shall be possible for the praetor who presided over the trial to pass the conducting of the appeal court proceedings to another praetor or to a consul if they are willing to accept the task.

3. The appeal against the sententia shall be made within three days (72 hours) to the praetor who presided over the trial. The appeal must be personally made by the actor or the reus, or by their advocatus appointed according to the lex Salvia iudiciaria.

4. The praetor shall call the contio to be in session for the trial within a trinundinum after the appeal was made.

II. THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND CONSTITUTIONAL COURT SYSTEMS

The administrative and constitutional court systems, though closely related and sometimes also referred to as “judicial”, do not belong to the judicial system of Nova Roma as referenced in the lex constitutiva by judicial proceedings, procedures or processes: the administrative and constitutional court proceedings, procedures and processes are not defined judiciary, but they are defined as executive and legislative decisions of jurisdiction, or otherwise termed administrative or constitutional court proceedings, procedures or processes, the subject or litigant parties of which sitting magistrates and candidates can be, as well. Only recent actions, decisions, controversies and disputes may be brought to trial by an administrative or constitutional court: if more than 6 months have elapsed after the disputed action or decision that is brought to an administrative or constitutional court, the case shall be automatically dismissed, and no jurisdictional trial may be held about such a petition.

A. Administrative court system

Administrative court proceedings serve to decide debates and complaints between magistrates and other officers about correct procedure, and lawfulness of an action or decision, and complaints of citizens against magistrates and other officers about correct procedure and lawfulness of their action or decision. Examples include a complaint of citizen against an action or decision of a magistrate or other officer which the citizen deems illegal, mistaken or unjust, or to to have been made according to an incorrect or unlawful procedure. The administrative court may not be used to decide administrative debates in which one of the parties is the Comitia, the Senate, the Collegium Pontificum or Collegium Augurum.

1. Decemviral administrative court cases

a. The default administrative court of Nova Roma is the magistracy of the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis, they shall be the judges of administrative trials if the case is not within a special category defined by this or other laws. The decemviri stlitibus iudicandis shall be the administrative court of first instance, for original jurisdiction in all administrative controversy cases which involve only internal debates between officers and magistrates, or if a controversy case cannot be classified either as a forum moderation administrative case or as an aedilician administrative case, or if an administrative controversy case cannot be identified as belonging under any category of this law, the lex Salvia poenalis, or any law of Nova Roma.

b. Cases about a culpa, defined in chapter II.D.2.a, also shall be brought to the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis as the administrative court of first instance, for original jurisdiction. If the accusation of culpa is raised against one or more decemviri, it shall be brought to the praetor.

c. Appeals against the ruling of the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis shall be made to a praetor (court of second instance).

d. Appeals against the ruling of the praetor shall be made to the Comitia Centuriata (court of third instance). Once a verdict is made by the comitia, it shall be considered final.

e. The decemviral court as a judiciary court

i. Cases that cannot be identified whether they are administrative, constitutional or judiciary, whether they belonging under any category of this law, or of the lex Salvia poenalis, or of any law of Nova Roma, shall be classified as judiciary court cases, and the judiciary court of first instance, for original jurisdiction, shall be the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis. Consequently, such cases may not be initiated against sitting magistrates who are immune from judicial proceedings that are proper judiciary court cases.

ii. The decemviri may not try a judiciary court case the formula of which includes the poena of EXILIUM. If the severity of the case compels the decemviri to include EXILIUM in the formula, they shall pass the case to the praetores immediately.

2. Forum moderation administrative court cases

a. Triumviral administrative court cases

In controversies about the forum management decisions and disciplinary measures of the moderators and administrators of all official public forums of Nova Roma, the administrative court of first instance, for original jurisdiction, shall be the tresviri capitales. Appeals against the ruling of the tresviri capitales shall be made to the aediles (court of second instance), and against the ruling of the aediles to the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis (court of third instance).

b. The various appellate courts and their competence

i. In controversies about the forum management decisions and disciplinary measures made personally by the tresviri capitales regarding actions in any official public forums of Nova Roma, the administrative court of first instance, for original jurisdiction, shall be the aediles, the court of second instance shall be the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis.

ii. In controversies about the forum management decisions and disciplinary measures made personally by the aediles, praetores, consules or any other magistrate or officer regarding with that power actions in any official public forums of Nova Roma, the administrative court of first instance, for original jurisdiction, shall be the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis.

iii. If a controversy or complaint is not about a specific action of a specific moderator, but about other issues not regulated by the lex Salvia poenalis or other relevant laws, the court of first instance, for original jurisdiction, also have to be the aediles, and the court of second instance shall be the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis.

iv. Once a verdict is made by the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis, it shall be considered final.

c. Appealing a forum administrative court case to the praetorian judiciary court

If, in the opinion of the litigant parties, a forum moderation controversy case transcends simple forum management and moderation debate and is being interpreted as belonging to one of the offenses and cases defined by the lex Salvia poenalis, or to one of the cases which are assigned to the praetorian court in other laws, an additional appeal may be made to the praetor (court of fourth/third/second instance, depending on where the procedure started), but the praetor has the right to refuse such appeals based on his or her insight and interpretation of the case. If the praetor has accepted the case, after the sententia of the praetorian court, as in all cases of praetorian sententiae, an appeal may be made to the comitia (court of fifth/fourth/third instance). Once a verdict is made by the comitia, it shall be considered final.

3. Aedilician administrative court cases

a. In all other subjects that belong to the domain of the aediles, the tresviri capitales shall not be involved, but the aediles shall be the administrative court of first instance, for original jurisdiction. These include:

i. Market regulation administrative court cases: controversies about management decisions and disciplinary measures of the market, of marketing and commercial activities within Nova Roma, market and commerce related disputes between users of the market that do not belong under any paragraph of the lex Salvia poenalis, or to one of the cases which are assigned to the praetorian court in other laws.

ii. Website management administrative court cases: controversies about management decisions regarding the content and the rights and interests of the editors and users of the official websites of Nova Roma, website related disputes between editors and users of these websites that do not belong under any paragraph of the lex Salvia poenalis, or to one of the cases which are assigned to the praetorian court in other laws.

iii. Media management administrative court cases: controversies about management decisions regarding the content and the rights and interests of the editors and users of the official media outlets and services of Nova Roma, disputes between editors and users of these media that do not belong under any paragraph of the lex Salvia poenalis, or to one of the cases which are assigned to the praetorian court in other laws.

iv. Cultural and festival management administrative court cases: controversies regarding the official autonomous or allied gladiatorial reenactment groups and similar official circensic societies of Nova Roma, management decisions regarding the content and the rights and interests of the organizers and participants of the cultural programs and festivals of Nova Roma, disputes between organizers and participants of these programs that do not belong under any paragraph of the lex Salvia poenalis, or to one of the cases which are assigned to the praetorian court in other laws.

b. Appeals against the ruling of the aediles shall be made to the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis (court of second instance), and against the ruling of the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis appeals shall be made to the praetor (court of third instance).

c. Appealing an aedilician administrative court case as to the praetorian judiciary court

If, in the opinion of the litigant parties, any of these controversy cases transcends simple management debate and is being interpreted as belonging to one of the offenses and cases defined by the lex Salvia poenalis, or to one of the cases which are assigned to the praetorian court in other laws, an additional appeal may be made to the praetor (court of fourth instance), but the praetor has the right to refuse such appeals based on his or her insight and interpretation of the case. If the praetor has accepted the case, after the sententia of the praetorian court, as in all cases of praetorian sententiae, an appeal may be made to the comitia (court of fifth instance). Once a verdict is made by the comitia, it shall be considered final.

B. Constitutional court system

Constitutional court proceedings serve to decide debates and uncertainties about the interpretation of law between various magistrates and officers or other debates between the comitia, the senate, the priestly colleges, the magistrates and other officers about their jurisdiction, competence, power and authority. Examples include a debate between two magistrates about who has the authority and competence to make a decision or to issue an edict in a specific question, or a debate about which comitia have the right to make a decision about a specific question.

1. The constitutional court of first instance, for original jurisdiction, shall be the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis.

2. Appeals against the ruling of the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis shall be made to a praetor (court of second instance).

3. Appeals against the ruling of the praetor shall be made to the Comitia Centuriata (court of third instance). Once a verdict is made by the comitia, it shall be considered final.

C. Controversy about deciding which court to petition

If the involved parties are uncertain about which type of court they should petition with their complaint or case, they shall ask for a general directional ruling from the Praetorian Office, and they shall turn to the jurisdiction of the court as directed.

1. Challenges made about the correctness of this general directional ruling shall be addressed to the praetors who shall handle any controversy about the selection of the appropriate court in a form of an administrative court trial, as the court of first instance, for original jurisdiction.

2. Appeals against the ruling of the praetor shall be made to the comitia (court of second instance). Once a verdict is made by the comitia, it shall be considered final.

D. Administrative court and constitutional court proceedings

Both the lex Salvia iudiciaria and the lex Salvia poenalis shall serve as an overall framework for the administrative court and constitutional court proceedings, in varying degrees, and the principles and the spirit of the both leges Salviae should be applied in all of the various categories of proceedings described below:

1. The petitio actionis and the iudices

a. When the praetores or consules as as administrative court or constitutional court are hearing a case, the proceeding shall be conducted entirely according to the lex Salvia iudiciaria.

b. When the aediles, the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis or the tresviri capitales as administrative court or the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis as constitutional court are hearing a case, the proceeding shall be conducted according to the lex Salvia iudiciaria, but with the following modifications:

i. The magistrates receiving the petitio actionis may not reject it in an administrative or constitutional court.

ii. If the case is heard by the aediles, the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis or the tresviri capitales, the role of iudices shall be filled by themselves, their full collegium being the tribunal, but they shall agree among each other about the person of the chairman of the trial, who shall fill the role of the presiding praetor, and shall be responsible for conducting it according to the lex Salvia iudiciaria. They can change the person of the chairman during the trial upon collegial agreement.

2. The formula, the sententiae and poenae

If the case is heard by the aediles, the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis or the tresviri capitales, they shall issue the formula for the trial based on their collegial decision in place of the praetor.

a. In administrative court proceedings about culpae iuris publici

The term culpa means fault, neglect, or negligence, which was a term of civil law in ancient Rome. Culpae iuris publici in Nova Roma are defined any irregularities or breaches of the law committed out of inobservance of law, negligence, omission, failure, or due to circumstances or force majeure. Culpae normally lack evil intention, but they are simply the consequence or irresponsibility and carelessness. The difference between crimina and culpae is that trials about culpae can be conducted against sitting magistrates. The formula and the sententia shall be composed the same way as formulae and sententiae under judiciary court proceedings, as it is described by the lex Salvia iudiciaria, and the rest of the process, including the appellate proceedings in the comitia shall proceed exactly as in the case of judiciary proceedings of the comitia. The following culpae shall be prosecuted in Nova Roma:

i. CULPA LATA (Gross Negligence):

i.1. The omission of even the basic care about one’s public duties, disappearing from office without explanation, failing to act in mandatory tasks, failing to answer official orders, submit obligatory reports, disregarding important deadlines causing extreme delays, or any rules and procedures in such a way that it brought, or could have brought, severe harm to several citizens, to institutions or to Nova Roma as whole. Especially serious is the culpa lata if the culprit does not even try to correct the irregularities or to solve the problems caused by the negligence.

i.2. In case of culpa lata, the formula at the court may include the following poenae:

DECLARATIO PUBLICA: Public apology and explanation of the failure.

MULTA CENSUALIS: Deduction of 400 Census Points according to “very serious offense” category described by the lex Salvia iudiciaria, 13.2.3.

MULTA PECUNIARIA: Fine payable to the treasury of Nova Roma if financial damage is assessed by the court, proportional to the amount.

ii. CULPA LEVIS (Ordinary Neglect):

ii.1. Ordinary neglect is a want of normal diligence, ordinary care. An occasional failure in an otherwise acceptable performance, tolerable delays and omissions of deadlines causing no harm, delay in performance of duties, in anwering of official orders, inquiries, sending of reports. Ordinary neglect causes inconvenient situations but no serious harm, and there is apparent intention to remedy the situation.

ii.2. In case of culpa levis, the formula at the court may include the following poenae:

DECLARATIO PUBLICA: Public apology and explanation of the failure.

MULTA CENSUALIS: Deduction of 100 Census Points according to “serious offense” category described by the lex Salvia iudiciaria, 13.2.2.

MULTA PECUNIARIA: Fine payable to the treasury of Nova Roma if financial damage is assessed by the court, proportional to the amount.

iii. CULPA LEVISSIMA (Slight Neglect):

iii.1. Slight neglect is a rarely occurring minor irregularity, mistake in formality and procedure, in an otherwise very dutiful performance. Small delays that cause no harm, quickly corrected errors, breaches that can be explained by external causes and force majeure.

iii.2. In case of culpa levis, the formula at the court may include the following poenae:

DECLARATIO PUBLICA: Public apology and explanation of the failure.

MULTA CENSUALIS: Deduction of 10 Census Points according to “minor offense” category described by the lex Salvia iudiciaria, 13.2.1.

b. In administrative court proceedings about controversies

Administrative court proceedings about controversies are proceedings about administrative complaints, requests for overturning decisions, disputes of competence, procedure and lawfulness. Sententiae in this process do not contain poenae, but they may uphold the administrative poenae of Chapter V.F imposed on the plaintiff earlier.

i. Before the magistrate

There is a difference in procedure between cases which are not forum moderation controversies and which are:

i.1 General administrative complaints, requests for overturning decisions, disputes of competence, procedure and lawfulness

In aedilician administrative court cases (defined at II.A.3), in the cases of complaints of citizens against decisions or actions of officers regarding correct procedure and lawfulness of their action or decision, petitions by citizens or officers for overturning official actions or decisions of officers, and in controversies between officers about competence, authority, correct procedure and lawfulness of an action or decision, the formula issued by the magistrates shall describe the complaint and the requested action or decision, or the requested overturn of an action or decision, for which the actor petitioned, in the form of a proposed decretum, and at the and of the trial, when the judges shall issue their sententiae, they issue their decision, whether they concede to the actor’s request, or reject the request.

i.1.1. If the magistrate concede to the request, they shall vote LITEM ACTORI ADIUDICO, if they reject it, they shall vote CAUSAM REPELLO, and they shall vote NON LIQUET if they cannot decide. If the request is accepted, the magistrate which presided the proceeding shall immediately, at the same time when the verdict is issued, publish the decretum overturning the action or decision as requested, or enacting the requested ruling according to the initial complaint.

LITEM ACTORI ADIUDICO: “I judge the case in favor of the plaintiff.”

CAUSAM REPELLO: “I reject the case.”

NON LIQUET: “It is not clear”, meaning “I cannot decide”.

i.1.2. Should the votes for NON LIQUET outnumber all of the other votes combined, none of the proposed decreta shall be enacted, and the case shall be dismissed, with the possibility of a new proceeding with different proposals of interpretation.

i.1.3. Should there be a draw in the sentences between LITEM ACTORI ADIUDICO and CAUSAM REPELLO, then the LITEM ACTORI ADIUDICO shall be considered to prevail.

i.2. Forum moderation controversies

Administrative court proceedings about forum moderation controversies are a special subcategory of administrative court proceedings about controversies, because they need to be addressed as quickly as possible, and they are usually minor issues, existing only in the context of the active community of the forums of Nova Roma. Generally the same rules shall be observed as with the general administrative complaints, requests for overturning decisions, disputes of competence, procedure and lawfulness at (II.D.2.b.i.1), with the following exceptions:

i.2.1. If the controversy involves a citizen making a complaint against an officer’s decision, or between officers contesting each other’s decision or action, they shall be conducted according to the general administrative complaints at II.D.2.b.i.1.

i.2.2. If the controversy is between two officers, but they debate about their competence, duties and rights, or about an interpretation of a law, the case should be handled within the frames of a constitutional court proceedings at II.D.2.c.

i.2.3. If the controversy is between two citizens, even if magistrates but having a controversy as private citizens, even if it is a forum related controversy, it shall be classified as a judiciary court case, and if the case can be classified under one of the litigation categories of the leges Salviae, it should be conducted according the them, if it cannot, then it shall be conducted as a judiciary case without existing category, as described, se Chapter II.C.

i.2.4. Summary judgment on forum controversies

Due to the time sensitive nature of forum controversies, such cases shall be first heard according to an expedited procedure, without trial, called summary judgment:

i.2.4.1. When someone presents a case to the tresviri capitales or to the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis, or when someone makes an appeal to the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis, about a forum moderation issue, they shall first form a summary judgment without any trial proceeding within one day (24 hours) after receiving the petition. Only those magistrates are entitled to participate in the making of the summary judgment who contribute to the decision within the deadline.

i.2.4.2. When 24 hours passed after the petition, the magistrates shall communicate the summary judgment to the involved litigant parties who may decide whether they accept it or not.

i.2.4.3. If the reus does not answer to the summary judgment offered by the magistrates within 24 hours after its communication, it shall stand.

i.2.4.4. If the actor does not answer to the summary judgment offered by the magistrates within 24 hours after its communication, the magistrates shall dismiss the case.

i.2.4.5. If all litigant parties answer, but one of the litigant parties refuses the summary judgment, the case shall be put on trial at the administrative court of the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis within 72 hours after the submission of the petition, and the proper administrative court proceedings shall be started.

ii. Before the comitia

When this proceeding is conducted before the comitia, the formula and the sententiae shall be composed the same way as in the case of constitutional court cases of the comitia at II.D.2.c.ii, but instead of multiple rogatio proposals, there shall be only one, which describes the requested instructions or annulment of actions. The rest of the process shall follow the procedure at II.D.2.c.ii.

c. In constitutional court proceedings about interpretation of law

In constitutional court proceedings there are no poenae, the sententia is only a decretum or lex clarifying the interpretation of a legal question. The formula and sententia shall be different when the case is tried before the magistrates’ court and when before the comitia.

i. Conducted before magistrates

In case of proccedings about a debate regarding the interpretation of the law that are heard by magistrates or other officers, the procedures of the lex Salvia iudiciaria shall be followed, with the exception of the following:

i.1. The formula issued by the magistrates shall describe the various possible interpretations, in the form of proposed decreta, each with a different title, and at the and of the trial, when the judges shall issue their sententiae, they shall add the title of the decretum proposal which contains their preferred interpretation after the word IUDICO, or they shall vote NON LIQUET on all decretum proposals. The prevailing decretum proposal shall be accepted as the official interpretation and shall be publicly issued as a decretum of the magistrate which presided the proceeding, immediately, at the same time when the verdict is issued.

IUDICO (Add the title of the preferred interpretation decretum here): “I judge the case in favor of”.

NON LIQUET: “It is not clear”, meaning “I cannot decide”.

i.2. Should the votes for NON LIQUET outnumber all of the different IUDICO votes combined, none of the proposed decretum shall be enacted, and the case shall be dismissed, with the possibility of a new proceeding with different proposals of interpretation.

i.3. Should there be a draw in the sentences (two or more decretum proposals winning the vote with equal number of votes), then the presiding magistrate shall select which proposal shall be considered enacted as a decretum.

ii. Conducted before the comitia

In case of proceedings about a debate regarding the interpretation of the law that are heard by the comitia, the procedures of the lex Salvia iudiciaria shall be followed, with the exception of the following:

ii.1. The formula presented to the comitia shall describe the various possible interpretations, in the form of proposed leges, each with a different title, and at the and of the trial, when the citizens shall issue their sententiae, the presiding magistrate shall present a ballot formula in which the texts, or links to the texts, of the rogationes which contain the offered possibilities of interpretation of law are contained, and the citizens shall vote UTI ROGAS to the rogatio of their preferred interpretation, or they shall vote ANTIQUO or NON LIQUET to all rogationes. The citizens may only vote UTI ROGAS to one of the offered rogationes, and they can only vote ANTIQUO or NON LIQUET on all rogationes combined. If there are votes that do not follow this rule (for example UTI ROGAS on more than one rogation, ANTIQUO or NON LIQUET on only one of the rogationes), the vote of the citizen shall be counted as NON LIQUET. The prevailing rogatio shall be accepted as the official interpretation and shall be take force as a lex ruling on the question.

UTI ROGAS: “As you ask”, or “As you wish”, meaning “yes”, “I support this”.

ANTIQUO: “I go with the old one”, “I want the things to remain as they are”, meaning “no”, “I reject this”.

NON LIQUET: “It is not clear”, meaning “I cannot decide”. These sentences shall be counted toward ANTIQUO.

ii.2. Should there be a draw in the votes of the tribes or centuries (the number of tribes or centuries voting UTI ROGAS on the prevailing rogatio being equal to the sum of ANTIQUO and NON LIQUET combined), none of the rogationes shall be enacted, and the case shall be dismissed, with the possibility of a new proceeding with different proposals of interpretation.

ii.3. Should there be a draw in the votes of the tribes or centuries with more than one rogatio wining the vote with equal numbers of tribes or centuries voting UTI ROGAS, then the presiding magistrate shall select which rogatio shall be considered enacted as a lex.

E. Appeals to the comitia as part of administrative and constitutional court proceedings

1. Appeals to the comitia against a sententia made by the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis shall be presented to any magistrate or officer (normally a praetor, alternatively a consul or a  tribune of the plebs) who has the right to convene any of the comitia. It shall be within the right of that magistrate to decide the validity and necessity of the appeal, and to accept or refuse the appeal.

a. If the appeal is refused, the petitioner may present the petition to another magistrate who has the right to conduct the proceedings.

b. If the appeal is accepted, the magistrate who accepted the appeal shall call the contio to be in session for the trial within a trinundinum after the appeal was made.

2. The verdict of the comitia in an administrative court proceeding shall be made in form of a lex which describes the order or procedural instruction to the magistrate, officer or other administrative institution of Nova Roma the actions of which were called into revision by the administrative court, that is, the administrative solution which was favored by the comitia.

3. The verdict of the comitia in a constitutional court proceeding shall be made in form of a lex describing the version of the interpretation of law which was favored by the comitia.

III. PROCEEDINGS OF LAW BEFORE THE COMITIA AS SUPREME COURT OF NOVA ROMA

Trials heard by the comitia shall be conducted as any other sessions of the comitia, according to the lex Tullia de comitiis habendis, but the presiding magistrate shall ensure that each side of the case has at least one advocatus who presents the arguments and evidences in the forum where the comitia are held, and the the call to vote in the session of the comitia and the ballot formula shall contain documents, or links to the documents, composed by the advocati demonstrating the arguments and evidences of their side of the case. Trials before the comitia that do not satisfy these requirements shall be considered illegal, invalid, null and void.

IV. THE PROCEDURE TO EXERCISE THE IUS PROVOCATIONIS

A. The lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda guarantees the ius provocationis, the citizen’s right of appealing a decision of a magistrate that has a direct negative impact upon that citizen to the Comitia Populi Tributa. The decision of a Nova Roman court, or judge, even if the judge is acting in their capacity as a magistrate, does not count as a decision of a magistrate for the purpose using the ius provocationis.

B. If a citizen wishes to exercise his or her ius provocationis, the citizen shall post a public appeal to the people in the main official forum of Nova Roma, which shall have the title “Provoco ad populum”, and in which the citizen shall ceremonially state the sentence “Provoco ad populum”, and shall describe which decision of which magistrate had a direct negative impact on him, and the direct negative impact itself. Nothing shall have validity as a provocatio that does not satisfy these formal requirements.

C. The provocatio must be personally issued by the citizen affected by the direct negative impact, or by a legal representative who can prove that he or she was entrusted by the affected citizen to initiate the procedure of provocatio in his or her name. If it is not possible to prove that the representative was really asked and entrusted by the citizen to make a call of provocatio in his or her name, the provocatio shall not be accepted as valid.

D. The direct negative impact cited in the provocatio shall satisfy these criteria in order to be accepted as valid either by the presiding magistrates of the Comitia Populi Tributa or by the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis:

1. It must be demonstrated to be a direct negative impact on one of the rights of the citizen guaranteed by one of the laws of Nova Roma: the text of provocatio must contain a reference to the law in which the negatively impacted right of the citizen is guaranteed.

2. The decision of a magistrate with direct negative impact cited by the citizen must be a reversible decision which can be overturned by another decision. If the decision of the comitia cannot overturn the effects of the decision of the magistrate, there is no reason to initiate the process

3. The contested decision of a magistrate must be a decision made within a nundinum at the time of the provocatio call

E. It shall be within the right of the magistrates who have the power to convene the Comitia Populi Tributa to decide if the complaint of the citizen qualifies as a direct negative impact.

F. If none of the magistrates entitled to call the Comitia Populi Tributa are willing to accept the provocatio as valid within a nundinum, after the nundinum has passed, the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis shall conduct a trial about the validity of the provocatio, according to the decemviral administrative court process, and if the decemviri judge the provocatio valid, the praetors shall be obliged to accept the provocatio as valid and to call the Comitia Populi Tributa to judge the case in the complaint within two nundina after the verdict of the decemviri. The decemviri shall not take over the case for this validity trial if the provocatio does not meet the criteria listed at chapters IV.B-D.

G. If a presiding magistrate of the Comitia Populi Tributa accepted the provocatio, he or she shall call the contio to be in session for the trial within a trinundinum after the call of provocatio was made.

V. LAW ENFORCEMENT

A. It is the duty of the praetores, quaestores, tresviri capitales to notice any breach of Nova Roman law, any irregularity, the inobservance of laws, the missing of deadlines, incorrect procedure, and any sort of irregularity among the magistrates, officers and the entire society of Nova Roma. These three magistracies are collectively responsible for the enforcement of law within Nova Roma, but it shall be the primary responsibility of the quaestores to admonish other officers about such irregularities, and if admonishment cannot help, to undertake the duty of reporting the irregularities to Nova Roman court and to fill the role of actor in court proceeding. This task can be performed by any dutiful citizen, but it shall be the official duty and obligation of the quaestors.

B. It is the duty of the tribuni plebis to protect the citizens and the laws from any abuse, unjust and unlawful action or violation. Their role is similar to that of the praetores, quaestores, tresviri capitales, but while the aforementioned magistrates shall protect the law from the side of law enforcement, in the interest of legal order and effective government, the trinuni plebis shall protect the law in the interest of the citizens, they guard the lawful rights of the citizens.

C. It shall be the duty of the tresviri capitales to enforce the laws and rules of behavior, forum guidelines in all public forums of Nova Roma, with the exception of the forums of official socities created for the study and cultivation of Roman military (meaning special interest groups, and not legionary units), numismatics, history of Roman economy, or official Nova Roman fundraising societies. Law enforcement on the forums of official Roman numismatics, history of Roman economy societies, or Nova Roman fundraising societies shall be the duty of the tresviri monetales. Law enforcement on the forums of Roman military societes shall be the duty of the tribuni militum comitiati. The tresviri monetales may not inflict poenae on citizens directly, but they only have the duty to report the cases to the aediles for decision. The tribuni militum comitiati may not inflict poenae on citizens directly, but they only have the duty to report the cases to the praetores or consules for decision. The tresviri capitales and tresviri monetales shall work under the supervision, regulatory direction and authority of the aediles. The tribuni militum shall work under the supervision, regulatory direction and authority of the praetores and consules.

D. The law enforcement officers, such as the vigiles (forum moderators appointed by the tresviri capitales and aediles), the praetoriani (forum moderators appointed by the officers with praetorian or consular imperium), and the milites forenses rei publicae ((forum moderators appointed by the tresviri capitales and aediles), shall be able to inflict different administrative poenae in the name of their superiors on their own decision in order to help their superiors fulfill their duties effectively and in a timely manner.

E. Self-examination as mitigating circumstance

If an officer or citizen realizes that he or she has committed a culpa or a crimen, they can mitigate the consequences and receive lesser poenae if they report their own mistake instead of hoping that others would not notice. The following possibilities exist in this case:

1. If the individual is a magistrate who committed a crimen, they shall report their crimen to the appropriate court which archives it and will be tried after the expiration of the magistracy, and with it, the immunity of the magistrate. The self-reporting shall be noted as a mitigating circumstance in the sententia, and all elements of the poena where decreasing is possible shall be decreased by 75%.

2. If the individual is a magistrate who committed a culpa and he or she has the right to issue administrative poenae, they shall issue a DECLARATIO PUBLICA about it, and shall impose on themselves a MULTA CENSUALIS. The relevant authorities will decide if they deem any further administrative trial necessary, but if they do, the self-reporting shall be noted as a mitigating circumstance in the sententia, and all elements of the poena where decreasing is possible shall be decreased by 75%, and the amount of the self-deducted CP shall be detracted from any additional MULTA CENSUALIS.

3. If the individual is a magistrate or other officer who committed a culpa and he or she does not have the right to issue administrative poenae, all details are the same as in the previous case at V.E.2, but they shall request another magistrate to issue a MULTA CENSUALIS for them.

4. If the individual committed a crimen or culpa, and he or she is a private citizen, they shall report their crimen or culpa to the appropriate court. The self-reporting shall be noted as a mitigating circumstance in the sententia, and all elements of the poena where decreasing is possible shall be decreased by 75%.

F. Administrative poenae

1. The comitia, the senate, the consules, praetores, officers with imperium within their provincia, censors, aediles, all officers with imperium, the triumviri capitales, and the quaestores if authorized by higher magistrates, may issue administrative poenae as disciplinary measures to maintain public order, to enforce the respect and observation of laws, rules, decent, honest and moral behavior, to curb irregularities, and to discourage deviations from what are beneficial, positive and productive activities for Nova Roma. Administrative poenae are not the same category as poenae issued as sentences by administive courts. Administrative poenae are administrative disciplinary decisions issued in edicts, and they can be vetoed by those who have the appropriate grade of ius intercessionis, or contested by regular appeal process to an administrative court.

2. The tribuni plebis may issue poenae for citizens who are impeding their work in defense of the interests of the plebs or the people. Such poenae shall serve as deterring force for anyone who would disrespect the sacrosanctitas of the tribunes of the plebs and would hinder the activity of the tribunes. Appeals against such administrative tribunician poenae shall be made according to normal procedure, but if the cause will get before the comitia for final ruling, this comitia shall be the Comitia Plebis Tributa, convened by one of the tribunes.

3. The following are the administrative poenae that may be used by the magistrates and their appointed law enforcement officers, as coercive and disciplinary measures in Nova Roma, with the clarification which may be issued by which one:

a. Administrative poenae that can be imposed by the comitia, the senate, and by all magistrates who have the ius coercitionis and ius edicendi combined (censores, consules, praetores, officers with imperium, aediles, tresviri capitales and the tribuni plebis; governors within their province, military reenactment commanders-in-chief within their imperium, municipal magistrates within their municipality), within their scope of authority:

i. DECLARATIO PUBLICA: Requiring a public statement on a forum or all forums with an apology or clatification about the vitiated action. It shall always be specified what other poena awaits the affected party if they are unwilling to comply with the DECLARATIO PUBLICA.

ii. MODERATIO FORENSIS: Forum moderation on a forum or all forums, restriction of posting abilities for any time deemed necessary or suspension of posting rights for a time limited to three months.

iii. EXACTIO FORENSIS: Removal from a forum or all forums for a time limited to one month.

iv. MULTA CENSUALIS: Census Point deduction. It shall be in grades of 5 CP for small offenses, 10 CP for major offenses or serious recidivism.

v. Appointed law enforcement officers of the magistrates and quaestores when entrusted to act in the name of the magistrate shall be able to impose these four poenae according to the extent and rules as set by the magistrates.

vi. Administrative poenae may be used for non-citizens, as well, as long as they make sense, according to the judgment of the magistrate. There is no time limit for moderatio and exactio forensis imposed on those who are not cives optimo iure of Nova Roma.

b. The collegium pontificum has disciplinary power over the public priesthood of Nova Roma, and as such, it can issue the following administrative poenae:

i. DECLARATIO PUBLICA: Requiring a public statement on a forum or all forums with an apology or clatification about the vitiated action. It shall always be specified what other poena awaits the affected party if they are unwilling to comply with the DECLARATIO PUBLICA.

ii. MULTA CENSUALIS: Census Point deduction. It shall be in grades of 5 CP for small offenses, 10 CP for major offenses or serious recidivism.

c. The following is an administrative poena that can be only imposed by the tribuni plebis according to the lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda:

PREHENSIO: Detainment, the suspension of all rights and offices of a citizen.

d. The following is an administrative poena that can be only imposed by the censors according to the lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda:

i. ANIMADVERSIO: Public chastisement of a citizen.

ii. NOTA: A collective name of one or a combination of more or all of these administrative poenae, issued at once:

ii.1. MOTIO EX TRIBU: Re-allocation of an assiduus citizen from a rural tribe to an urban tribe.

ii.2. MOTIO EX SENATU: Remove of a senator from the senate.

ii.3. ADEMPTIO EQUI: Remove of the rank of “eques equo publico” from an equestrian.

ii.4. RELATIO IN AERARIOS: remove the voting rights of citizens by exclusion from all tribes and centuries, simultaneously removing them from the Senate and the Equestrian Order, too.

e. Disciplinary supervision of the autonomous and allied gladiatorial or other circensic reenactment groups of Nova Roma shall be within the scope of the aediles in cases which are strictly about their behavior and performance in activities chaired, organized or supervised by the aediles.

f. Disciplinary supervision of the autonomous and allied military reenactment units of Nova Roma shall be within the scope of their direct commander-in-chief with imperium in cases which are strictly about their behavior and performance in activities attended, inspected, presided, organized or supervised by their commander with imperium.

g. Official societies, military reenactment units and gladiatorial groups of Nova Roma may have their own system of discipline and conflict management which shall be respected and accepted by the authorities of Nova Roma as long as they do not contradict the laws of Nova Roma. The disciplinary measures applied in such communities shall have no official effect in Nova Roma outside these communities, unless approved by a relevant authority of Nova Roma.

VI. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

A. The administrative rights of higher magistrates and the senate to give orders, to veto and to intervene into the decision of lower magistrates, if they wish so, as part of the procedures of governance and administration of the republic and the provinces is not disputed by this current lex, but after a sententia has been passed by a court, it cannot be vetoed or changed via an administrative edict by a higher magistrate, or rescinded by a senatus consultum, but only via another sententia by a higher court (in the form of decretum), or by a lex passed by the comitia.

1. Decretum de iudicio

The sententiae of the administrative and constitutional courts which are issued in a form of decretum shall bear the name and title “Decretum de iudicio (followed by the title of the case in genitive)”. As such decreta are judicial sentences of a court, they can be appealed to a higher court or overturned by a lex of a comitia (which themselves are the highest court).

a. Decreta de iudicio shall be considered second in the ranking of legal precedence after the decreta of the priestly colleges, because both are decreta, but the decretum pontificum has constitutional priority.

b. The decreta of the priestly colleges can overturn only those points and details in a sentence of the decretum de iudicio which affect the regulations of the Roman religion, and which is within the authority of the collegium pontificum, as defined in the lex Cornelia Domitia de re publica constituenda VI.B.1-1.c. and VI.B.2-2.b. For example, a priestly decree cannot annul a poena against a priest, but it can annul and modify a sentence about the interpretation of religious law, rules, institutions and ritual practices.

c. The decreta de iudicio shall be a permanent part of the legal system, occupying the rank in the legal precedence of Nova Roma as described above, and the entire government of Nova Roma, the executive magistracies and offices shall be bound by them until rescinded by a higher court or repealed by the comitia.

2. Praetorian supervision

Since the praetors are in charge of the administration of justice, and of the entire judicial and court system of Nova Roma, they shall have right to exercise their duty of supervision. If, and only if, the praetors find that the courts of lower magistrates and other officers function irregularly, in an unlawful, unjust or subverting manner, the praetors have the power to intervene as they deem fit, to suspend a procedure, dismiss a court.

B. Formulae can be vetoed by those entitled to veto the authority that issued the formula, but an enacted sententia cannot be subject to intercessio, only the process of appealing to a higher court can overturn it. The actor submitting the case to a higher court can be the magistrate who intended to overturn the sententia, but the presiding magistrate of the trial may not be identical with the actor or the reus of the trial: this means that if, for example, a praetor wishes to overturn the sententia of the decemviri, he as actor may submit an appelate petio actionis to his colleague only.

C. The cumulative steps of appeal, the degrees of the court instances, may not be skipped, for example, the case cannot be brought from the court of first instance to the court of third instance.

D. When cases are tried with possible poenae involved, mitigating aspects shall always be considered, and the poenae described by this law and other law should be decreased proportionally to the degree of mitigating effect of the mitigating circumstance.

E. As consuls and praetors are considered to be two different grades of the same magistracy, a praetor can always decide to defer the hearing and conducting of a case to the consuls. In the absence of praetors, or if all praetors are unavailable, the consuls shall automatically attend the duties normally assigned to the praetors, and not only in matters regulated in this present law, but in every matter regulated by any other law of Nova Roma. Unavailability is defined when three days (72 hours) have passed after the moment when the necessity of praetorian action arose. When the praetors are available, the consuls may not take over any case against the will of the praetors.

F. Sanctio

The sanctions for breaking any law of Nova Roma that does not specify what sanctions are imposed on those who break the law shall be the poenae defined in the lex Salvia poenalis and in this present lex. All such cases shall be tried on the model of the existing categories of crimina and culpae. The identification of which crimen or culpa, and which poena are to be applied is the duty of the praetor who shall do it in a praetorian edict upon request or on his own initiative. If the praetor does not do it upon request within two days (48 hours), the proceeding shall be started at the decemviral court, and the decemviri shall choose on the model of which crimen or culpa the case is tried according to the rules in Section II.

G. Municipal jurisdiction

Between citizens or officers of the same municipality, all types of court proceedings shall be conducted before the duoviri iure dicundo (or equivalents) according to a the same procedures as in the leges Salviae and in this present lex, but if they conduct the trial in person (not online), they shall be entitled to deviate from the procedural steps of these leges as long as all parties agree about the procedure. The sententia and the possible poenae shall be reported to the praetors who shall record them among the historical record of Nova Roman judicial proceedings. Appeal from the duumviral court may be made either to the provincial governor’s court or to the praetorian court in Nova Roma, in all types of cases, whichever is preferred by the involved parties. If the parties cannot agree in that, appeal shall be made to the governor.

H. Provincial and military jurisdiction

Provinces are a form of military administration, conducted under the imperium (military command) of the governor. Provincial and military jurisdiction thus belong together:

1. Between citizens or officers of the same province, all types of court proceedings shall be conducted before the provincial governor according to a the same procedures as in the leges Salviae and in this present lex, but if they conduct the trial in person (not online), they shall be entitled to deviate from the procedural steps of these leges as long as all parties agree about the procedure. The sententia and the possible poenae shall be reported to the praetors who shall record them among the historical record of Nova Roman judicial proceedings. Appeal from the governor’s court is to the praetorian court in Nova Roma, in all types of cases.

2. If the litigation is about a case that involves questions regarding the military (activities, hierarchy, structure, organization, rules and management) between reenactment soldiers of one or more Nova Roman military legions or other type of autonomous or allied reenactment units of Nova Roma that are under the same imperium (which is a form of provincia), all types of court proceedings shall be conducted before their direct commander-in-chief with imperium, and appeals may be made to any higher commander-in-chief with imperium, according to a the same procedures as in the leges Salviae and in this present lex, but if they conduct the trial in person (not online), they shall be entitled to deviate from the procedural steps of these leges as long as all parties agree about the procedure. The sententia and the possible poenae shall be reported to the praetors who shall record them among the historical record of Nova Roman judicial proceedings. Appeal from the governor’s court is to the praetorian court in Nova Roma, in all types of cases.

Learn more ...