Talk:Lex Equitia de constitutione corrigenda (Nova Roma)

General commentary

This lex was advertised as a tidying-up exercise and was said to make no substantive changes to the text, changing only spelling, grammar, and other minor details. This description was largely correct, but in fact a number of minor mistakes remained and on the other hand a change was made (probably unintentionally) to the substance of chapter IV.A.

Also, in spite of its billing as a tidying-up exercise, this was arguably the first occasion on which the text universally accepted as the authentic constitution had actually been enacted by a lawful procedure. It had previously been ratified by the senate but never by the comitia; it had probably therefore never been formally enacted into law (see the argument in full), meaning that the previous constitution remained in force throughout. The lex Equitia, however, being approved by the comitia and by two thirds of the senate, satisfied the procedure under both the old constitution and the new, and was therefore unarguably valid regardless of the situation before its enactment.