[Yves LASSARD, The Roman Law Library, 2014]

LAW ON VESPASIAN'S IMPERIUM

Law conferring constitutional powers and privileges on Emperor Vespasian
( AD 69-70 )
( M. H. Crawford et al., Roman Statutes, I, London, 1996, pp. 549-553, n. 39 ).

II. 1-2 [---] or that it be lawful (for him) to make a treaty with whomever he shall wish, just as it was
lawful for th divine Augustus, Ti. Iulius Caesar Augustus, and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus ;
II. 3-6 and that it be lawful for him to convene the senate, to report business, to transmit (business), to
pass decrees of the senate by report and by division, just as it was lawful for the divine Augustus,
Ti. Iulius Caesar Augustus, Ti. Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ;
II. 7-9 and that when the senate shall be convened according to his wish or authority, by his order or
mandate or in his presence, the law in all matters should be maintained and observed, as if the senate
had been summoned and was being convened according to statute ;
II. 10-13 and that whomever, when they seek a magistracy, power, imperium, or care of anything, he
shall have commended to the senate and people of Rome, or to whomever he shall have granted or
promised his support in canvassing, account be taken of them at any elections extra ordinem ;
II. 14-16 and that it be lawful for him to advance and extend the line of the pomerium when he shall
deem it to be according to the public interest, just as it was lawful for Ti. Claudius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus ;
II. 17-21 and that whatever he shall deem to be according to the custom of the res publica and the
greaterness of divine and human, public and private matters, there be right and power for him to
undertake and to do, just as there was for the divine Augustus, Tiberius Iulius Caesar Augustus, and
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ;
II. 22-8 and that in whatever statutes or plebiscites it is written down, that the divine Augustus, or
Tiberius Iulius Caesar Augustus, and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus should not be
bound, the emperor Caesar Vespasian should be released from those statutes and plebiscites ; and that
whatever it was appropriate for the divine Augustus, or Tiberius Iulius Caesar Augustus, or Tiberius
Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus to do according to any statute or rogatio, it be lawful for the
emperor Caesar Vespasian Augustus to do all those things ;
II. 29-32 and that whatever before the proposal of this statute has been undertaken, carried out,
decreed or ordered by the emperor Caesar Vespasian Augustus or by anyone according to his order or
mandate, they be lawful and binding, just as if they had been undertaken according to the order of the
people or plebs.

[Yves LASSARD, The Roman Law Library, 2014]

Sanction
II. 34-9 If anyone in implementation of this statute has acted or shall have acted contrary to
statutes,rogationes, or plebiscites, or decrees of the senate, or if in implementation of this statute he
shall not have done what it shall be appropriate for him to do according to a statute, rogatio, or
plebiscite or decree of the senate, that is not to be a matter of liability for him, nor is he to be obliged to
give anything to the people on account of that matter, nor is anyone to have action or right of
judication concerning that matter, nor is anyone to allow there to be action before him concerning that
matter.

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[Yves LASSARD, The Roman Law Library, 2014]

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Source : Bronze tablet found in Rome at the 14th century ( Musei Capitolini, Inv. 7180 ).