Provocatio Ad Populum was a legal establishment emanating from common law in ancient Rome that initially manifested itself in the Republic. " The Provocation to the People " according to its etymology, consisted of an Appeal that was requested to the Roman people against the decisions, sentences and mandates of the magistrates of Rome, which allowed a convicted person with Capital Punishment (Death Penalty) to be saved for the revocation of the same. The figure of the Provocatio Ad Populum was conditioned to a series of elements that are not clear in the history of Roman Law.
The crimes that are registered to which the Provocatio Ad Populum was applied were: Parricidium, the murder of the Pater Familia by a family member, Perduelium, treason, bribery of judges and magistrates to change their judgments and sorcery that was widely condemned by ancient Roman society.
The appeal that was produced by the Provocatio Ad Populum could be revoked or not, the people were not given the power to decide on the penalty imposed on the convicted person, rather the people were allowed to stop the prosecution process and He proceeded to reconsider the sentence taking into account the provocation made by the people. If the magistrates or the court decided not to revoke the sentence, it was carried out without further protocol.
It is not clear if Provocatio Ad Populum was applied to the king's decisions, what is certain is that when a dictator was appointed, which was an extreme case, it was not possible because the decisions of a dictator had to be implacable and irrevocable. The commoners for their part at the beginning of the republic did not have this "benefit" that only the patricians could give themselves, but like all rights in Rome, the possibility was granted to provoke the people to a commoner when they were admitted to the courts and at least one of them was a representative among the magistrates. With the arrival of theMonarchy, this institution disappears completely.
