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Killing and the king: Numa's murder law and the nature of monarchic authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2004

JUDY E. GAUGHAN
JUDY E. GAUGHAN
Affiliation:
Department of History, Colorado State University.
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Abstract

The author makes the argument that the presence of a murder law during the Roman monarchy and the absence of such a law during the republic reflects the difference in the nature of authority in these two political institutions. The centralized authority of the monarchy demanded a control over the right to kill. An act of homicide practised by another infringed upon the king's authority and so a murder law was promulgated. When the Romans expelled their kings, authority devolved onto individual patres and this decentralized leadership under the republic meant that the act of homicide was no longer a matter of concern for the state.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , December 2003 , pp. 329 - 343
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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