Lex Luci Spoletina

The Lex Luci Spoletina is a Roman law dated to around the 3rd-century BCE, likely shortly after Spoletium became a Roman colony in 241 BCE.^[1][2] The text, preserved in two distinct tablets,^[1] forbids the cutting of woods or the removal of timber from a nearby lucus dedicated to Jupiter,^[3][4] except for the purpose worship on the specific day in which a festival of divine worship was performed.^[5] This law is one of the most detailed and well-preserved examples of Roman laws concerning sacred groves. The law further outlined the appropriate punishments for individuals that violated thus law: those that had desecrated the area were required to sacrifice an ox to Jupiter and were fined 300 asses as punishment.^[6][7] According to the text, the responsibility for the exaction of the fine fell upon a local magistrate termed the "dicator," which has been interpreted as a misspelling of "dictator," a title used for magistrates in other towns.^[5] The law makes particular reference to notion of malintent ("scies violasit dolo malo"),^[8] indicating that the determination of ill-intent was essential to deciding the ultimate punishment.^[9] It was uncovered in 1876 by the Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Sordini, who discovered the artifact at the church of San Quirico in Castel Ritaldi.^[2]

Lex Spoletina, stored at the Museo archeologico Sant'Agata