1. Any force, violence, or disturbance relating to a person or property.
“Vis, as a legal term, was understood to denote the organizing and arming of tumultuous bodies of men for the purpose of obstructing the constituted authorities in the performance of their duty, and thus interrupting the ordinary administration of the laws. No such offence was recognised by the Criminal Code until the last century of the republic, when violent riots by hired mobs became so frequent, that M. Plautius Silvanus, Tribune of the Plebs, B.C. 89, [secured the passing of] the lex Plautia de Vi, in terms of which, those convicted of such practices were banished.” William Ramsay, A Manual of Roman Antiquities 347 (Rodolfo Lanciani ed., 15th ed. 1894).
2. The force of law. • Thus vim habere (“to have force”) is to be legally valid. Pl. vires.
