Unlike standard warfare or judicial execution, proscription functioned through the publication of "death lists." Once a name appeared on these tablets in the Forum, the individual lost all legal protection. The system was incentivized by greed:
Proscription represents the ultimate breakdown of concordia (harmony) and the rule of law. It turned neighbors into informants and made the state the primary agent of theft. By the time the practice faded, the psychological fabric of the Republic was destroyed, clearing the path for the rise of the Roman Empire and the absolute rule of the Emperors.
In Roman history, was the state-sanctioned murder and asset seizure of individuals declared enemies of the state. It transformed from an informal tool of political violence into a bureaucratic system of mass liquidation, most famously utilized by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 82 BCE and later by the Second Triumvirate (Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus) in 43 BCE. The Mechanism of Terror