VĂLĔRĬAE, proposed by the consul P. Valerius Publicola, B.C. 508,
enacted, 1. That whoever attempted to obtain possession of royal
power should be devoted to the gods, together with his substance.
2. That whoever was condemned by the sentence of a magistrate to
be put to death, to be scourged, or to be fined, should possess
the right of appeal (_provocatio_) to the people. The patricians
possessed previously the right of appeal from the sentence of a
magistrate to their own council the curiae, and therefore this
law of Valerius probably related only to the plebeians, to whom
it gave the right of appeal to the plebeian tribes, and not to
the centuries. Hence the laws proposed by the Valerian family
respecting the right of appeal are always spoken of as one of
the chief safeguards of the liberty of the plebs. The right of
appeal did not extend beyond a mile from the city, where unlimited
imperium began, to which the patricians were just as much subject
as the plebeians.
VĂLĔRĬAE ET HŎRĀTĬAE, three laws proposed by the consuls L.
Valerius and M. Horatius, B.C. 449, in the year after the
decemvirate, enacted, 1. That a plebiscitum should be binding on
the whole people, respecting the meaning of which expression, see
PLEBISCITUM. 2. That whoever should procure the election of a
magistrate without appeal should be outlawed, and might be killed
by any one with impunity. 3. Renewed the penalty threatened against
any one who should harm the tribunes and the aediles, to whom were
now added the judices and decemviri. There is considerable doubt as
to who are meant by the _judices_ and _decemviri_.
VĂLĔRĬA, proposed by the consul M. Valerius, B.C. 300, re-enacted
for the third time the celebrated law of his family respecting
appeal (_provocatio_) from the decision of a magistrate. The law
specified no fixed penalty for its violation, leaving the judges to
determine what the punishment should be.