Neglegentia and Contemptio legis: Unfulfillment and Contempt of Law in Rome (1st. Century B. C. to 5th. Century A. D.)

Abstract

Roman laws used two utterances in order to make reference to the unfulfillment of norms: neglegentia legis and contempio legis. The concept of neglegentia, linked to leges publicae, apperared during the 1st. century B. C., named actions against law. Nevertheless, it started to mean “ignorance of law” from the principate of Severus Alexander. Nevertheless, under Diocletian, another phrase was applied in acts refering to disobedience of norms, the contemptio legis, that concerned situations where the law, enforced by imperial authority, was disdained. From the Theodosian period, this attitude will be considered an infraction associated with the laesa maiestas.