Pa'pius
1. C.
Papius, a tribune of the plebs B. C. 65, was the author of a law by which all peregrini were banished from Rome.
This was the renewal of a similar law which had been proposed by M. Junius Pennus, in B. C. 126. The Papia lex also contained provisions respecting the punishment of those persons who had assumed the Roman franchise without having any claim to it (
D. C. 37.9; Cic.
de Off. 3.11,
pro Balb. 23, pro Arch. 5, de Leg. Agr. 1.4,
ad Att. 16). If we are to believe Valerius Maximus (3.4.5), this law must have been passed at a much earlier period, since he relates that the father of Perperna, who was consul B. C. 130, was accused under the Papia lex after the death of his son, because he had falsely assumed the rights of a Roman citizen.
But since Dio Cassius (
l.c.) expressly places the law in B. C. 65, and Cicero speaks of its proposer as a contemporary (
de Off. 3.11), we may conclude that there is some mistake in Valerius Maximus.
