La formula Octaviana di Cic. Verr. 2.3.65.152

The text of Cic. Verr. II 3.65.152 mentions a formula Octaviana, which is generally considered the historical antecedent of the actio quod metus causa. A critical analysis of the passage, however, leads to the hypothesis that the expression formula Octaviana is rather one of the many rhetorical devices Cicero employs throughout the text of the actio secunda in Verrem. The use of this adjective Octaviana would then not refer in a technical sense to an actio introduced by a praetor called Octavius, but would serve to evoke in the mind of the reader the idea of a formula aimed at sanctioning, with a particularly high monetary penalty, the illegitimate acquisitions made by the decumani from the provincials, analogous to the condemnation in octuplum of a similar actio which had already been included by Gaius Verres in his edict in Sicily.