Lex Antonia (Latin for Antonine law, sometimes presented plurally as the leges Antoniae, Antonine laws) was a law established in ancient Rome in 44 BC. It was proposed by Mark Antony and passed by the Roman Senate, following the assassination of Julius Caesar. It formally abolished the Dictatorship. It was the second law to do so (the first being passed after the Second Punic War, replacing the Dictatorship with the final decree of the Senate); however, the earlier law had essentially been nullified by the subsequent Dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar. The lex Antonia was mainly intended to provide Antony, who was beginning his consolidation of power, with some support from the Senatorial class, who had been alienated by the perpetual Dictatorships of Sulla and (especially) Caesar. In the end, this law did not succeed either, for in 22 BC the Senate offered Caesar Augustus the Dictatorship; however, he declined.
