ABOLITION, in the Roman law, is the annulling a prosecution, or legal accusation: and in this sense, it is different from amnesty; for, in the former, the accusation might be renewed by the same prosecutor, but in the latter, it was extinguished for ever. Within 30 days after a public abolition, the same accuser, with the prince's license, was allowed to renew the charge; after a private abolition, another accuser might renew it, but the same could not. Abolition was also used for expunging a person's name from the public list of the accused, hung up in the treasury. It was either public, as that under Augustus, when all the names which had long hung up, were expunged at once; or private, when it was done at the motion of one of the parties. Abolition of debts, according to the laws of the Theodosian code, was sometimes granted to those who were indebted to the fiscus. A medal of the emperor Adrian represents that prince with a sceptre in his left hand, and a lighted torch in his right, with which he sets fire to several papers in presence of the people, who testify their joy and gratitude by lifting up their hands towards heaven. The legend on the medal is, Reliqua vetera n. s. nummis abolita.