Cum res publica manum iniceret: un confronto tra manum depellere e provocare ad populum

Abstract

In the juridical and political tradition of Republican Rome ritual captures are ancestral
procedures, both in iudicia privata (citizens can perform manus iniectiones on other citizens)
and in public activities (magistrates can arrest private people): metaphorical comparisons
between these two spheres are already attested in Valerius Maximus’s text. This paper draws
a comparison between manum depellere (the procedure that allows a citizen to repel the
manus iniectio performed by another private and to start a trial) and provocare ad populum
(the expression used by Roman citizens asking for a comitial trial after being arrested by a
magistrate).

Key-words: manus iniectio, provocatio ad populum, lex Vallia, leges Valeriae.