a felony is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison or penitentiary. A misdemeanor is generally a crime that is punishable for a year or less in prison, or only in a county or local jail.
I'm pretty sure that the answer is 'the Romans"
Citizen Genêt Affair, incident precipitated by the military adventurism of Citizen Edmond-Charles Genêt, a minister to the United States dispatched by the revolutionary Girondist regime of the new French Republic, which at the time was at war with Great Britain and Spain.
