The lex Aternia Tarpeia was a Roman law, introduced by the consuls Aulus Aternius Varus and Spurius Tarpeius Montanus Capitolinus in 454 BC, and passed during their year of office.
The year after their successful campaign against the Aequi, the consuls Titus Romilius Rocus Vaticanus and Gaius Veturius Cicurinus were prosecuted by Gaius Calvius Cicero, one of the tribunes of the plebs, on the grounds that the soldiers had been deprived of their spoils.
It is not mentioned by Livy or Dionysius, but was described by Cicero, Aulus Gellius, and is alluded to by Pliny.
[8][9] Dionysius mentions a maximum fine of two oxen and thirty sheep, although Gellius gives the reverse.
The lex Aternia Tarpeia is said to have addressed this defect by establishing an equivalence scale: ten asses for a sheep, and one hundred for an ox.