Thelex Canuleia (‘Canuleian law’), orlex de conubio patrum et plebis, was a law of theRoman Republic, passed in the year 445 BC, restoring the right ofconubium (marriage) betweenpatricians andplebeians.[1][2][3][4]
Five years earlier, as part of the process of establishing theTwelve Tables ofRoman law, the seconddecemvirate had placed severe restrictions on the plebeian order, including a prohibition on the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians.[5][6]
Gaius Canuleius, one of thetribunes of the plebs, proposed arogatio repealing this law. Theconsuls, Marcus Genucius Augurinus and Gaius Curtius Philo, vehemently opposed Canuleius, arguing that the tribune was proposing nothing less than the breakdown of Rome's social and moral fabric, at a time when the city was faced with external threats.[i]
Undeterred, Canuleius reminded the people of the many contributions of Romans of lowly birth, including several of thekings, and pointed out that the Senate had willingly givenRoman citizenship to defeated enemies, even while maintaining that the marriage of patricians and plebeians would be detrimental to the state. He then proposed that, in addition to restoring the right ofconubium, the law should be changed to allow plebeians to hold the consulship; all but one of the other tribunes supported this measure.[8]
An ill-chosen remark by the consul Curtius, to the effect that the children of mixed marriages might incur the displeasure of the gods, thereby preventing the propertaking of auspices, inflamed the people to the extent at which the consuls yielded to their demands, allowing a vote on Canuleius' originalrogatio. The prohibition on intermarriage between patricians and plebeians was thus repealed.[9]
The second question, however, permitting plebeians to stand for the consulship, was not brought to a vote. The senatorGaius Claudius Sabinus, brother of one of the decemvirs, argued vehemently against it, and urged that force be used against the tribunes when they obstructed a levy of troops unless theSenate agreed to consider the law. This radical escalation was prevented by his colleague,Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, and his brother,Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbatus.[10][11]
Claudius then suggested thatmilitary tribunes with consular power might be elected from either order, instead of consuls; but he was not willing to bring the matter forward himself, delegating the distasteful matter to Titus Genucius, brother of the consul, who was of a mind to compromise with the plebeians. This proposal was well-received, and the first consular tribunes were elected for the following year, BC 444.[10][12]
In the novel,Goodbye, Mr. Chips, set in an Englishboarding school in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, theschoolmaster Mr. Chipping describes the law to his Roman history class, suggesting a pun that could be used as amnemonic device:
"So that, you see, if Miss Plebs wanted Mr. Patrician to marry her, and he said he couldn't, she probably replied: 'Oh yes, youcan, you liar!' "[ii] (emphasis supplied).[13]