Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

LEGES VALERIAE.

237

LIBELLUS.

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.

VALERIAE ET HORATIAE, three laws
proposed by the consuls L. Valerius and M.
Horatius, b. c. 449, in the year after the
decernvirate, enacted, 1. That a plebiscitum
should be binding on the whole people, respect-
ing the meaning of which expression, see Ple-
biscitum. 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 judiees and decemviri. There
is considerable doubt as to who are meant
by the judiees and decemviri.

VALERIA, proposed by the consul M.
Valerius, b. c. 300, re-enacted for the third
time the celebrated law of his family respect-
ing 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.

VARIA. [Majestas.]

VATINIA DE PROVINCIIS, was the
enactment by which Julius Caesar obtained
the province of Gallia Cisalpina with Illy-
ricum for five years, to which the senate
added Gallia Transalpina. This plebiscitum
' was proposed by the tribune Vatinius. A
Trebonia Lex subsequently prolonged Cae-
sar's imperium for five years.

VATINIA DE COLONIS, under which the
Latina Colonia [Latinitas] of Novum-Comum
in Gallia Cisalpina was planted, b.c. 59.

VATINIA DE REJECTIONE JUDICUM.
(Cic. in Vatin. 11.)

DE XI. [Vis.]

VIARIA. A viaria lex which Cicero says
the tribune C. Curio talked of; but nothing
more seems to be known of it. Some modern
writers speak of leges viariae, but there do
not appear to be any leges properly so called.
The provisions as to roads in many of the
Agrarian laws were parts of such leges, and
had no special reference to roads.

VISELLIA, made a Latinus who assumed
the rights of an ingenuus liable to prosecu-
tion.

VILLJA ANNALIS. [Lex Anxalis.]
VOCONIA, enacted on the proposal of
Q. Voconius Saxa, a tribunus plebis, b.c. 169.
One provision of the lex was, that no per-
son who should be rated in the census at
100,000 sesterces [centum millia aeris) after
the census of that year, should make any
female [virginem neve mulierem) his heres.
The lex allowed no exceptions, even in fa-
vour of an only daughter. It applied simply
to testaments, and therefore a daughter or
other female could inherit ab intestato to
any amount. The vestal virgins could make
women their heredes in all cases, which
was the only exception to the provisions
of the lex. Another provision of the lex
forbade a person who was included in the
census to give more in amount, in the form
of a legacy to any person, than the heres or
heredes should take. This provision secured
something to the heres or heredes, but still
the provision was ineffectual, and the object
of the lex was only accomplished by the Lex
Falcidia, b. c. 44, which enacted that a
testator should not give more than three-
fourths in legacies, thus securing a fourth to
the heres.

LIBELLA, a small Roman silver coin,
which existed in the early age of the city.
The name was retained later as a proverbial
expression for a very small value. The
libella was equal in value to the old full-
weight as ; and it seems most probable that
the coin ceased being struck at the time of
the reduction of the as, on account of the
inconveniently small size which it would
have assumed. The libella was subdivided
into the sembella, its half, and the teruncius,
its quarter. Cicero uses these words to ex-
press fractions of an estate, with reference
to the denarius as the unit, the libella signi-
fying l-10th, and the teruncius l-40th of the
whole.

LIBELLUS, the diminutive form of liber,
signifies properly a little book. It was
distinguished from other kinds of writings,
by being written like our books by pages,
whereas other writings were written trans-
versa charta. It was used by the Romans
as a technical term in the following cases :—

1. Libelli accusatorum or uccusatorii, the
written accusations which in some cases a
plaintiff, after having received the permission
to bring an action against a person, drew up,
signed, and sent to the judicial authorities.

2. Libelli famosi, libels or pasquinades, in-
tended to injure the character of persons.
A law of the Twelve Tables inflicted very
severe punishments on those who composed
defamatory writings. 3. Libellus memorialist