Financial Penalties in the Roman Republic

Sofia Piacentin, PhD (2017), King’s College London, is Research Fellow at the ERC project PATRIMONIVM at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne.

"Piacentin does an excellent job of gathering what information we have about financial penalties in the Republic, and she examines them thoroughly within their historical contexts. Her arguments are compelling, and they demonstrate that the use of financial penalties was more nuanced and complex than is generally assumed; there were different types of financial penalties that served different political purposes at different times.(...) Piacentin’s book is certain to become a standard reference on financial penalties because of her careful attention to detail, her gathering and analysis of evidence, and the breadth of the period it studies. Many chapters are accompanied by chronological tables that pull together events and references that will prove invaluable to future scholars working on the subject." Fred K. Drogula in BMCR 2022.10.24

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesAbbreviationsIntroduction1 Aims and Significance of This Work2 Sources, Methodology, and Outline of the ChaptersPart 1 Early Confiscations and Fines in the Roman Republic1 Confiscation or Consecration of Property?1 P. Valerius Publicola2 Sp. Cassius and the leges sacratae3 The Decemvirate4 Sp. Maelius5 M. Manlius Capitolinus6 Vitruvius Vaccus7 Aspiring Tyrants and Tyrannicides8 Demolished Houses9 Conclusion2 Fines and Roman Public Finances1 Aedilician Fines in the Literary Sources2 The Monumentality of Aedilician Fines3 Literary and Epigraphic Parallels4 The Politics of Curule and Plebeian Dedications5 Conclusion3 Public Fines in Italy Outside Rome1 Distribution and Chronology2 The Variety of Objects and Contexts3 Sacred Context, Transhumance, and the Cult of Hercules4 ConclusionPart 2 Quantifying Confiscations and Fines in Roman Republic4 Confiscations of Property and Fines in the Military Sphere1 Military (and Civic) Disobedience2 Draft Dodging and Discharge of Soldiers3 Military Failures4 Conclusion5 The Use of Financial Penalties in the Political Arena1 Between Political Opportunities and Religious Duties2 Fines for Misuse of Booty and Embezzlement (peculatus)3 Fines and Compensations for Extortion (res repetundae)4 Conclusion: Quantifying the Figures for Confiscations, Fines and CompensationsPart 3 The Outbreak of Violence6 Confiscations of Property in Civil Conflicts1 Tiberius Gracchus: Tradition and Novelty in Punishment2 The Confiscation of the Property of C. Sempronius Gracchus, M. Fulvius Flaccus, and Their Supporters3 The Confiscation of the Property of L. Appuleius Saturninus and His Supporters4 Conclusion: Accusations of regnum, senatus consultum ultimum, and Confiscations7 Confiscations of Property and the Declaration of hostes publici1 The hostis Declarations of 88 and 87 BC2 Conclusion: The Senatorial Debate over the Punishment of the Catilinarians8 The Sullan Proscriptions: A Point of No Return?1 The Precedents2 Proscriptions and Confiscations: An Assessment3 Public Sales of Confiscated Property4 Targeting Wealth5 Proscriptions and the Land Market6 Family Strategies of Self-Preservation7 The Triumviral Proscriptions8 Conclusion9 Disclosing Confiscations and Public Sales in the Late Republic: Cicero’s De domo sua1 De domo sua: Historical Context2 The Structure of the Speech3 Tribunician Consecrations of Property4 The Confiscation of the Property of Cicero5 The Auction of the Property of Cicero6 Conclusion10 ConclusionsReferencesIndex