Plebiscitum

Definition: A plebiscitum was a Roman resolution, decree or legislative measure that was passed in a plebeian assembly, concilium plebis, without any patricians voting. Originally the plebeian assembly enacted measures affecting themselves only, like the election of plebeian magistrates, but over time, the focus changed. At first a plebiscitum served as law only if the senate approved; later, under the lex Hortensia of 287 B.C., plebiscita were made valid as law. Later still, the plebeians suffered a political set-back under Sulla, but the loss in power was reversed in 70 B.C.

A plebiscitum was not the same as a lex 'law' although it came to have the same force.

References:

• _{Eastland Stuart Staveley, Antony J. S. Spawforth "plebiscitum" The Oxford Classical Dictionary.}
• _{"Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law"
  Adolf Berger
  Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 43, No. 2 (1953)}

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Also Known As: Plebiscite