Dissidi magistratuali e processi criminali nel 169 a.C.: riflessioni a margine di un anno turbolento.

The Roman events occurred in 169 BC, immediately before the final fight against Perseus and the definitive victory in the Macedonian wars, offer a problematic institutional framework, that is, characterized by a large number of conflicts between constitutional powers: these disputes, prima facie, seem to foreshadow the struggles happened during the age of the civil wars. This essay aims to analyze the conflicts between the consuls and the praetors before, and among censors and plebeian tribunes then, pointing out that the solutions are still inspired by cooperative and non-divisive purposes. Although it gave rise to a trial against the censors charged with perduellio by a plebeian tribun, the behaviors of the magistrates involved tend to mantain - albeit operating from different points of view - the correct and consolidated application of the established rules on behalf of res publica. Finally, in the exercise of their powers, the constitutional authorities gave up to break the essentially harmonic framework concerning the age of Mediterranean expansion.