Abstract
"Cola di Rienzo and the Lex Regia." According to his contemporary biographer, the Roman revolutionary Cola di Rienzo was the only person in Rome in the mid fourteenth century who could read ancient Roman inscriptions. One of the important public exhibitions that helped gain him the dictatorship of the city was his display, translation, and explication of the ancient lex regia (or lex de imperio) tablet of Vespasian before an august company of Romans in 1345. Is it possible that no one else in Rome at that time could read the inscribed majuscule of the tablet? and if so, how was Cola able to translate his ability to read the inscription into political power? This paper addresses Cola's explication of the lex regia from three perspectives: the socio-cultural context of Rome in the middle of the fourteenth century, the paleographical context of the tablet's appearance, and the political theory behind the tablet's contents.
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