Lex Villia Annalis

In Ancient Rome, the Lex Villia Annalis was a law passed in 180 BC that regulated the minimum age requirements of candidacy for different public offices within the cursus honorum.^[1]

The law was proposed by Lucius Villius Annalis, a Tribune of the Plebs, after previous debate within the senate pertaining to the age requirements for magistracies. These debates had arisen due to an increase in competition from a rise in new families attempting to gain success and social change within Roman society, which placed pressure on the political sphere. Where previous laws had failed to be passed or were too ambiguous to result in change, the Lex Villia Annalis has been described as having created a standard for a career in the cursus honorum.^[2]

Significant debate has arisen over the context and content of the law, given the minimal number of references provided within antiquity. It is questionable as to the level of detail within the law and whether or not it arose out of a formalisation of past customs.^[3]

^ Allen M. Ward, Fritz M. Heichelheim, and Cedric A. Yeo, History of the Roman People (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).
^ Hans Beck, Martin Jehne, and John Serrati, Money and Power in the Roman Republic (Bruxelles: Éditions Latomus, 2016).
^ Harriet I. Flower, Roman Republics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).

[1] Allen M. Ward, Fritz M. Heichelheim, and Cedric A. Yeo, History of the Roman People (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).

[2] Hans Beck, Martin Jehne, and John Serrati, Money and Power in the Roman Republic (Bruxelles: Éditions Latomus, 2016).

[3] Harriet I. Flower, Roman Republics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).

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