Unlike standard warfare or judicial execution, proscription functioned through the publication of "death lists." Once a name appeared on these tablets in the Forum, the individual lost all legal protection. The system was incentivized by greed:
Information leading to the death of a proscribed person was rewarded with silver, while those who harbored "enemies" faced death themselves. proscription
In Roman history, was the state-sanctioned murder and asset seizure of individuals declared enemies of the state. It transformed from an informal tool of political violence into a bureaucratic system of mass liquidation, most famously utilized by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 82 BCE and later by the Second Triumvirate (Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus) in 43 BCE. The Mechanism of Terror Unlike standard warfare or judicial execution