RĒGĬA. A Lex Regia during the kingly period of Roman history might have a two-fold meaning. In the first place it was a law which had been passed by the comitia under the presidency of the king, and was thus distinguished from a Lex Tribunicia, which was passed by the comitia under the presidency of the tribunus celerum. In later times all laws, the origin of which was attributed to the time of the kings, were called Leges Regiae, though it by no means follows that they were all passed under the presidency of the kings, and much less, that they were enacted by the kings without the sanction of the curies. Some of these laws were preserved and followed at a very late period of Roman history. A collection of them was made, though at what time is uncertain, by Papisius or Papirius, and this compilation was called the Jus Civile Papirianum or Papisianum. The second meaning of Lex Regia during the kingly period was undoubtedly the same as that of the Lex Curiata de Imperio. [[Imperium].] This indeed is not mentioned by any ancient writer, but must be inferred from the Lex Regia which we meet with under the empire, for the name could scarcely have been invented then; it must have come down from early times, when its meaning was similar, though not nearly so extensive. During the empire the curies continued to hold their meetings, though they were only a shadow of those of former times; and after the election of a new emperor, they conferred upon him the imperium in the ancient form by a Lex Curiata de Imperio, which was now usually called Lex Regia. The imperium, however, which this Regia Lex conferred upon an emperor, was of a very different nature from that which in former times it had conferred upon the kings. It now embraced all the rights and powers which the populus Romanus had formerly possessed, so that the emperor became what formerly the populus had been, that is, the sovereign power in the state. A fragment of such a lex regia, conferring the imperium upon Vespasian, engraved upon a brazen table, is still extant in the Lateran at Rome.
REMNĬA. [[Calumnia].]
RĔPĔTUNDĀRUM. [[Repetundae].]
RHŎDĬA. The Rhodians had a maritime code which was highly esteemed. Some of its provisions were adopted by the Romans, and have thus been incorporated into the maritime law of European states. It was not, however, a lex in the proper sense of the term.
ROSCĬA THEĀTRĀLIS, proposed by the tribune L. Roscius Otho, B.C. 67, which gave the equites a special place at the public spectacles in fourteen rows or seats (in quatuordecim gradibus sive ordinibus) next to the place of the senators, which was in the orchestra. This lex also assigned a certain place to spendthrifts. The phrase sedere in quatuordecim ordinibus is equivalent to having the proper census equestris which was required by the lex. There are numerous allusions to this lex, which is sometimes simply called the Lex of Otho, or referred to by his name. It is erroneously supposed by some writers to have been enacted in the consulship of Cicero, B.C. 63.
RUBRĬA. The province of Gallia Cisalpina ceased to be a provincia, and became a part of Italia, about the year B.C. 43. When this change took place, it was necessary to provide for the administration of justice, as the usual modes of provincial administration would cease with the determination of the provincial form of government. This was effected by a lex, a large part of which, on a bronze tablet, is preserved in the Museum at Parma. The name of this lex is not known, but it is supposed by some to be the Lex Rubria.
RŬPĬLĬAE LĒGES (B.C. 131), were the regulations established by P. Rupilius, and ten legati, for the administration of the province of Sicily, after the close of the first servile war. They were made in pursuance of a consultum of the senate. Cicero speaks of these regulations as a decretum of Rupilius, which he says they call Lex Rupilia; but it was not a lex proper. The powers given to the commissioners by the Lex Julia Municipalis were of a similar kind.
SĂCRĀTAE. Leges were properly so called which had for their object to make a thing or person sacer. A lex sacrata militaris is also mentioned by Livy.
SAENĬA DE PATRICIORUM NUMERO AUGENDO, enacted in the 5th consulship of Augustus.