Plebiscitum Ovinium

{{Short description|Ancient Roman law}} {{Roman government}} The '''Plebiscitum Ovinium''' (often called the ''Lex Ovinia'') was an initiative by the Plebeian Council that transferred the power to revise the list of members of the Roman Senate (the ''lectio senatus'') from consuls to censors.<ref name="Lintott 68">{{cite book|last1=Lintott|first1=Andrew|title=The Constitution of the Roman Republic|date=1999|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford, New York|page=68|isbn=978-0-19-158467-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yaFPohP2lB8C&pg=PA68}}</ref><ref>T.J. Cornell, "The Lex Ovinia and the Emancipation of the Senate" in C. Bruun, ed. The Roman Middle Republic; Politics, Religion, and Historiography; c. 400-133 B.C., Rome, 2000, pages 69-90.</ref>

==Date== Since Appius Claudius Caecus is said to have changed the membership of the senate during his censorship in 312 BCE, the law must have been passed by then, but not much earlier because the censors of 319 removed a man from his tribe, but not from the Senate.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rotondi|first1=Giovanni|title=Leges publicae populi romani: elenco cronologico con una introduzione : sull'attività legislativa dei comizi romani|date=1912|publisher=Società editrice libraria|location=Milan|pages=233–234|oclc=10152672|language=Italian}}</ref>

==Reaction== The patricians did not recognize the validity of the ''Plebiscitum Ovinium'', but nevertheless did not attempt to prevent the ''lectio senatus'' being carried out by the censors rather than the consuls.<ref name="Ferenczy 163">{{cite book|last1=Ferenczy|first1=Endre|title=From the Patrician State to the Patricio-plebeian State|date=1976|publisher=Adolf M. Hakkert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5SsLAQAAIAAJ&q=plebiscitum+Ovinium|location=Amsterdam|page=163|isbn=9789630506717}}</ref>

==See also== *Conflict of the Orders *Ovinia gens

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Roman law Category:Initiatives