Lex Luci Spoletina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
_08.jpg)
The Lex Luci Spoletina is a Roman law dated to around the 3rd-century BCE, likely shortly after Spoletium became a Roman colony in 241 BCE.[1][2]
The text, preserved in two distinct tablets,[1] forbids the cutting of woods or the removal of timber from a nearby lucus dedicated to Jupiter,[3][4] except for the purpose worship on the specific day in which a festival of divine worship was performed.[5]
This law is one of the most detailed and well-preserved examples of Roman laws concerning sacred groves. The law further outlined the appropriate punishments for individuals that violated thus law: those that had desecrated the area were required to sacrifice an ox to Jupiter and were fined 300 asses as punishment.[6][7]
According to the text, the responsibility for the exaction of the fine fell upon a local magistrate termed the "dicator," which has been interpreted as a misspelling of "dictator," a title used for magistrates in other towns.[5] The law makes particular reference to notion of malintent ("scies violasit dolo malo"),[8] indicating that the determination of ill-intent was essential to deciding the ultimate punishment.[9]
