This monument among inscriptions was found by Cola di Rienzo as an altar in S. Giovanni Laterano, used as an altar, in the 14° century. What remains is a part of one bronze plate, and the inscription probably was composed of at least 2 pieces, since the law begins with the second part of a sentence. In this text the Senate gives to Vespasian the powers of the Emperor, and is thus a unique direct example of what this entailed and allows checking against Tacitus and the tradition of this text in later sources. The Senate finds justification for Vespasian powers, in the example of the preceding, fully legitimate, Emperors, adding on powers which they had. There is no consensus on the real nature of this law and its need, but it is plausible that with it the confusion of the previous years was to be set and the Emperor became not an extraordinary power but a sort of magistrature. Particularly interesting is the sixth clause of the law, which gives to the Emperor powers to do anything, and has been variously interpreted as an emergency clause, a seed for autocracy or a summary of the preceding clauses.
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