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

REPETUNDAE.

319

RETIS.

Roma, either in the discharge of their juris-
dictio, or in their capacity of judices, or in
respect of any other public function. Some-
times the word Repetundae was used to ex-
press 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 Cal-
purnia, 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 Cal-
purnia were merely pecuniary, and at least
did not comprise exsilium. Various leges de
repetundis were passed after the Lex Calpur-
nia, 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. Ser-
vilius Glaucia, praetor, in the sixth consul-
ship of Marius, b.c. 100. This lex applied
to an}- 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 ex-
silium ; the law allowed a comperendinatio.
[Judex.] Before the Lex Servilia, the pecu-
niary 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 con-
victed of repetundae. The Lex Acilia, which
seems to he 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 (procon-
sulares rat tones). 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 I

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 Yer-
rine Orations Cicero complains of the compe-
rendinatio 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 aesti-
matio, it enacted that persons convicted under
this lex should lose their rank, and be dis-
qualified 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.

REPOTIA. [Matrimon-ium.]
REPUDIUM. [DrvoRTiuM.]
RETIARII. [Gladiatores.]
RETICULUM. [Coma.]
RETIS and RETE; dim. RETICULUM
(Slktvov), a net. Nets were made most com-
monly of flax or hemp, whence they are some-
times called Una (AiVa). The meshes (macu-
lae, fipoxoi, dim. /3poxi'Se;) were great or
small according to the purposes intended.
By far the most important application of net-
work was to the three kindred arts of fowling,
hunting, and fishing. In fowling the use of
nets was comparatively limited. In hunting
it was usual to extend nets in a curved line
of considerable length, so as in part to sur-
round a space into which the beasts of chace,
such as the hare, the boar, the deer, the
lion, and the bear, were driven through the
opening left on one side. This range of nets
was flanked by cords, to which feathers dyed
scarlet and of other bright colours were tied,
so as to flare and flutter in the wind. The
hunters then sallied forth with their dogs,
dislodged the animals from their coverts, and
by shouts and barking drove them first
within the formido, as the apparatus of string
and feathers was called, and then, as they
were scared with this appearance, within the
circuit of the nets. In the drawing below
three servants with staves carry on their
shoulders a large net, which is intended to be
set up as already described. In the lower
figure the net is set up. At each end of it
I stands a watchman holding a staff. Being