What is Lex Hortensia?

Lex Hortensia of in 287 BC was a law which made laws passed assembly of the plebeians (the Plebeian Council) binding on all Roman citizens without the prior approval of the Senate. The patrician aristocracy had been refusing to recognise the laws passed by the plebeians (the commoners) in the Plebeian Council as binding on all citizens; that is, on both patricians and plebeians. A previous law (Lex Valeria Horatia of 449 BC) had provided that the laws passed by the Plebeian Council were binding on all citizens. However, the passed laws had to get the approval (acutoritas partum) of the patrician-controlled and unelected senate. Thus, the senate could veto them. The lex Publilia Philonis of 339 BC repealed the requirement that the senate approve the laws after they were passed. From then on the approval had to be given in advance (at the bill stage), making it a formality. However, the senate could still disrupt the process of formulating bills by disapproving a bill on the ground of technicalities. The lex Hortensia repealed the acutoritas partum requirement, thus eliminating senatorial interference with the legislative process of the Plebeian Council.

This law is seen as marking the end on the 200-year Conflict of the Order between patricians and plebeians. In this conflict the poor plebeians fought to have their economic grievances addresses and the rich plebeians, who led the plebeian movement, fought for power-sharing with the patricians. At the beginning the patricians monopolised power by monopolising the seats of the senate, the consulship (the office of the two annually elected heads of the Roman Republic) and the priesthoods. The rich plebeians succeeded in gaining access to the consulship, the other executive offices of state which were created as the Republic developed and some of the priesthoods. The struggle to make the laws passed by the Plebeian council effectively binding of all citizens was part of this conflict. With the lex Hortensia the Plebeian Council became the main legislative body of the Republic.