The Sulpician Law on Debt: Implications for the Political Elite and Broader Ramifications‪.‬

ABSTRACT Although there may be topical elements in descriptions about senatorial debt in the first century BC, the phenomenon does appear to have been historical. This study attempts to trace the origin of long-standing senatorial debts and how senators may have been affected by the lex Sulpicia of 88 BC. This legislation targeted elite indebtedness by regulating at an extremely low level future allowable debt by senators, which effectively disqualified current members of the oligarchy from office. Had the law been successful, it is possible that Sulpicius and his supporters intended replacing incumbent senators with a new membership drawn from the equestrian order.