RĔPĔTUNDAE, or PĔCŪNĬAE RĔPĔTUNDAE, was the term used to designate
such sums of money as the socii of the Roman state or individuals
claimed to recover from magistratus, judices, or publici curatores,
which they had improperly taken or received in the Provinciae, or
in the Urbs Roma, either in the discharge of their jurisdictio,
or in their capacity of judices, or in respect of any other public
function. Sometimes the word Repetundae was used to express the
illegal act for which compensation was sought, as in the phrase
_repetundarum insimulari, damnari_; and Pecuniae meant not only
money, but anything that had value. The first lex on the subject
was the Calpurnia, which was proposed and carried by the tribunus
plebis L. Calpurnius Piso (B.C. 149). By this lex a praetor was
appointed for trying persons charged with this crime. It seems that
the penalties of the Lex Calpurnia were merely pecuniary, and at
least did not comprise exsilium. Various leges de repetundis were
passed after the Lex Calpurnia, and the penalties were continually
made heavier. The Lex Junia was passed probably about B.C. 126, on
the proposal of M. Junius Pennus, tribunus plebis. The Lex Servilia
Glaucia was proposed and carried by C. Servilius Glaucia, praetor,
in the sixth consulship of Marius, B.C. 100. This lex applied to
any magistratus who had improperly taken or received money from
any private person; but a magistratus could not be accused during
the term of office. The lex enacted that the praetor peregrinus
should annually appoint 450 judices for the trial of this offence:
the judices were not to be senators. The penalties of the lex were
pecuniary and exsilium; the law allowed a comperendinatio. [JUDEX.]
Before the Lex Servilia, the pecuniary penalty was simply restitution
of what had been wrongfully taken; this lex seems to have raised
the penalty to double the amount of what had been wrongfully taken;
and subsequently it was made quadruple. Exsilium was only the
punishment in case a man did not abide his trial, but withdrew from
Rome. The lex gave the civitas to any person on whose complaint a
person was convicted of repetundae. The Lex Acilia, which seems
to be of uncertain date, was proposed and carried by M’. Acilius
Glabrio, a tribune of the plebs, and enacted that there should be
neither ampliatio nor comperendinatio. The Lex Cornelia was passed
in the dictatorship of Sulla, and continued in force to the time of
C. Julius Caesar. It extended the penalties of repetundae to other
illegal acts committed in the provinces, and to judices who received
bribes, to those to whose hands the money came, and to those who did
not give into the aerarium their proconsular accounts (_proconsulares
rationes_). The praetor who presided over this quaestio chose the
judges by lot from the senators, whence it appears that the Servilia
Lex was repealed by this lex, at least so far as related to the
constitution of the court. This lex also allowed ampliatio and
comperendinatio. The penalties were pecuniary (_litis aestimatio_)
and the _aquae et ignis interdictio_. Under this lex were tried
L. Dolabella, Cn. Piso, C. Verres, C. Macer, M. Fonteius, and L.
Flaccus, the two last of whom were defended by Cicero. In the Verrine
Orations Cicero complains of the comperendinatio or double hearing
of the cause, which the Lex Cornelia allowed, and refers to the
practice under the Lex Acilia, according to which the case for the
prosecution, the defence, and the evidence were only heard once, and
so the matter was decided. The last lex de repetundis was the Lex
Julia, passed in the first consulship of C. Julius Caesar, B.C. 59.
This lex repealed the penalty of exsilium, but in addition to the
litis aestimatio, it enacted that persons convicted under this lex
should lose their rank, and be disqualified from being witnesses,
judices, or senators. The lex had been passed when Cicero made his
oration against Piso, B.C. 55. A. Gabinius was convicted under this
lex. Under the empire the offence was punishable with exile.