Definitions of Roman legal terms
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This page contains a noninclusive list of legal terms used in ancient Rome.
C
Calumnia
In Roman law during the Republic, calumnia was the willful bringing of a false accusation, that is, malicious prosecution. [1]
I
Infamia
In ancient Roman culture, infamia (in-, "not," and fama, "reputation") was a loss of legal or social standing. As a technical term of Roman law, infamia was an official exclusion from the legal protections enjoyed by a Roman citizen, as imposed by a censor or praetor.[2] More generally, especially during the Republic and Principate, infamia was informal damage to one's esteem or reputation. A person who suffered infamia was an infamis (plural infames).
Infamia was an "inescapable consequence" for certain professionals, including prostitutes and pimps, entertainers such as actors and dancers, and gladiators.[3] Infames could not, for instance, provide testimony in a court of law. They were liable to corporal punishment, which was usually reserved for slaves.[4] The infamia of entertainers did not exclude them from socializing among the Roman elite, and entertainers who were "stars," both men and women, sometimes became the lovers of high-profile figures.
A passive homosexual who was "outed" might also be subject to social infamia, though if he was a citizen he might retain his legal standing.[5]
Ingenui
Ingenui or ingenuitas (singular ingenuus), was a legal term of ancient Rome indicating those freemen who were born free, as distinct from, for example, freedmen, who were freemen who had once been slaves.[6]
Incestum
Incestum is an act that violates religious purity. (sacrilege)
S
STUPRUM
1 Sexual intercourse between a man and an unmarried woman other than one in slavery or concubinage
2 Illicit intercourse contrary to morality
3 Unchastity of a woman [7]
References
- ↑ Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 1, p. 238.
- ↑ Thomas A.J. McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 65ff.
- ↑ Catharine Edwards, "Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome," in Roman Sexualities (Princeton University Press, 1997, p. 67.
- ↑ Edwards, "Unspeakable Professions," p. 73.
- ↑ Amy Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality: The Materiality of the cinaedus and the Roman Law against Love between Men," Journal of the History of Sexuality 3.4 (1993), pp. 550–551, 555ff.; Edwards, "Unspeakable Professions," p. 68.
- ↑ Long, George (1870). "Ingenui". in Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 637
- ↑ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stuprum
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