Note 246 — THE ORIGIN OF PROPERTY IN LAND (continued 2)

M. de Jubainville has translated controversiæ publicæ, as if it were controversiæ inter duos populos. I know of no example in Latin literature where the word publicus has this sense. In Suetonius, Augustus, 29, the judicia publica are certainly not suits between peoples: they are criminal suits. When Cicero, defending Roscius of Ameria, says he is conducting his first causa publica, it is clear that he is not arguing for one people against another. He is defending Roscius, who is accused of parricide: it is a criminal proceeding.