A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. A.Gabinius, was tribune of the plebs, in B. C. 139, and introduced the first Lex Tabellaria, which substituted the ballot for open voting (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Tabellariae Leges.) Porcius Latro (Declamat. c. Catilinam, 100.19) mentions a Lex Gabinia, by which clandestine assemblies in the city were punishable with death, but it is not known to what age this law belongs, and even its existence has been doubted. (Heinec. Antiq. Rom. iv. tit. 17.47; Dieck, Versuche über das Criminalrecht der Römer, Halle, 1822, pp. 73, 74.)