Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/44

30. The immediate charge of the treasury was, however, taken away from the consuls and intrusted to their two assistants, the quaestors, who served as a means of control upon their superiors.

Right of Appeal. — The law in regard to appeal, carried by Publius Valerius Poplicola in 509, contained a very important limitation of the consular authority. It provided that within the mile limit, that is, within the city and usually within one Roman mile (4854 feet) from the Servian wall, the consul must allow every Roman citizen condemned to death (and perhaps those sentenced to corporal punishment) to appeal to the people. Still, appeal was not granted in civil cases, or, for instance, against arrest and imprisonment, or to offenders against the state religion, or in any case to women.

Effect of the Law of Appeal on the Consular Authority. — It was not expedient that the supreme consular authority should come into conflict with the sovereign power of the people, and hence a consul did not act as judge where the right of appeal existed, or prosecute any one who appealed. In case he transgressed the law of appeal, he committed a wicked deed (improbe factum), but was apparently not legally punishable.

As the consuls had in general lost the power to inflict the punishment of death within the mile limit, their lictors, when inside this boundary, laid aside the axes in the fasces (p. 15). They also lowered the fasces before the people in meetings and assemblies.

The Civil and Military Spheres. — The Valerian law introduced an important distinction between the civil and the military spheres (domi and militiae). Within the city wall, the civil law was supreme, the right of appeal was granted, and within the mile limit fundamental and permanent