Lex Gabinia

The Lex Gabinia was a law that was adopted by the National Assembly in the year 67 BC in the late Roman Republic at the request of Aulus Gabinius tribunes. It empowered Pompey in the form of an empire extraordinarium to fight the pirates who made ​​the Mediterranean unsafe. Disruption of trade threatened the grain supply of Rome.

Lex Gabinia Pompey endowed with an unprecedented abundance of power for this war. This included a fleet of 500 ships with 120,000 infantry, 5000 cavalry and a budget of 36 million dinars. Spatially its operational area comprised all the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 50 miles inland. It is controversial whether it is in this imperium already negotiated an empire proconsulare maius as it has been awarded later Augustus, or an empire aequum. This was unclear in what proportion was in command of Pompey to the command of the provincial governor in whose territories he operated. The commanders were not always willing to submit to Pompey. To disagreements came about in Crete, where Metellus Creticus fought against the pirates.

While Pompey was popular among the people, but the Roman senate hesitated so much to concentrate power by an extraordinary empire on a single person. It was feared that Pompey could soar to become sole ruler, as did Sulla only 15 years before. Nevertheless, the tribunes could enforce the law because the pirate problem urged.