In Roman law during the Republic, calumnia was the willful bringing of a false accusation, that is, malicious prosecution.
Scaurus was charged under the Lex Iulia de repetundis for alleged misconduct during his governorship of Sardinia in 55 BC.
He was acquitted, with only four of twenty-two senators voting to convict, two of twenty-three equites, and two of twenty-five tribuni aerarii ("tribunes of the treasury").
[8] During the time of Sulla, Afrania,[9] a senator's wife, appeared so often before the praetor that muliebris calumnia ("woman's calumny") became regarded as pernicious to the legal system.
An edict was consequently enacted that prohibited women from bringing claims on behalf of others, though they continued to be active in the courts in other ways.