Mistreatment of Foreign Legates and the Fetial Priests: Three Roman Cases

Abstract

be sacred and inviolate (sancti, epoL K Wo-TUXoL), and mistreatment of them to be sacrilegious and a source of pollution. The Romans held that their status was a part of the ius gentium, and were likely to exact a severe penalty for mistreatment of their envoys.1 This paper, however, is concerned with the few and relatively unnoticed cases during the Roman Republic of mistreatment of foreign envoys by Romans in Rome, with consideration of the part that the Fetials played in carrying out the punishment of offenders (extradition) and the part that they may have played in judging their guilt. I wish also to consider in this connection a somewhat neglected suggestion regarding the judicial functions of the Fetials made in one case by Theodor Mommsen a century ago. As will appear below, there is some mention in almost all periods of the role of the Fetials in declaring war, and still more of their part in concluding treaties.2 Special attention, too, was drawn to their part, for example, at Numantia in 137 B.c. when the refusal of the Senate to