Penal Practice and Penal Policy in Ancient Rome »

Using Roman literary and legal sources, this book assesses Roman penal policy through an in-depth examination of six high-profile criminal cases, ranging from the Bacchanalian trials in 186 BC to the trials for treason and magic in the fourth century. Identifying Roman attitudes to crime and punishment, this book brings out contrasts and developments in those attitudes.

O.F. Robinson examines Roman criminal legislation (both that laid down by Justinian and that codified and confirmed by him) as well as Roman attitudes, both juristic and philosophical, to the purposes of punishment, including deterrence, retribution, reform, protection of the public and how they were modified over time. The author also discusses arguments for fixed as against flexible penalties, and the changes made in the actual punishments and in those to whom they were applied.

This book is an essential tool for any specialist, student or researcher wishing to learn more about Roman values from their approach to crime and punishment

Acknowledgements     viii
Introduction     1
The Bacchanalian affair     7
The sources     7
The cult of Bacchus     8
The story     9
The whore with the heart of gold     9
The authorities are informed     11
Hispala's story     13
The source of the romance     15
The Senate     16
The reactions     18
The Senate's resolutions     19
Livy on the Senate's conduct     22
After-shocks     23
Foreign cults     25
Whose plot?     27
Cicero, murder and the courts     30
The system of the standing jury-courts     31
The quaestio perpetua de sicariis et veneficis     33
The lack of a state prosecution service and the moral ambivalence of prosecution     34
The Social War and Sulla's dictatorship     36
The proscriptions     37
Pro Roscio Amerino: the case     40
The narrative     42
Parricide and its penalty     44
Cicero's speech     47
Cicero's counter-charge     51
The slaves of Roscius     53
Roscius' estate     54
The trial of Cn. Calpurnius Piso in AD 20     56
The sources     56
Germanicus and Piso     57
After Germanicus' death     60
Treason     62
Delators     63
The trial     64
Preliminaries to the trial     64
The opening of the trial     66
The prosecution     67
The defence     68
Piso's end     69
Subsidiary trials     70
The sentences     72
The survival of the standing jury-courts     75
Pliny and repetundae trials before the Senate     78
The crime of res repetundae     78
The disappearance of 'voluntary' exile     81
The trial of Marius Priscus and his legate     82
The trial of Classicus and his companions     86
Calumny and other procedural crimes     89
Further subsidiary trials     90
The trial of Julius Bassus     91
The trial of Varenus Rufus     94
A trial before the emperor     96
The Senate and the ordo     98
Acta Martyrum Christianorum: the extension of torture     99
The sources      100
The background: astrologers and philosophers     101
The different stages of the criminal law concerning Christianity     102
Death and torture, and the links with social status     105
Decius, the gods and the Christians     108
Pionius     111
The lapsed     115
Valerian and the criminalization of Christianity     116
Cyprian     118
The 'great' persecution     120
The first edict, and the martyrdom of Felix     121
The later edicts     122
Agape and her companions     124
Some brief accounts: Irenaeus of Sirmium; Phileas of Thmuis; Crispina     125
Popular pressures and the rule of law     127
Some trials for treason and magic in the fourth century     130
The historical background     130
Fourth-century issues     132
The sources     135
Constantius and the trials of 359     137
The prohibitions on magic under Constantine and his sons     140
Astrology as science     142
Valentinian I and the trials at Rome for magic and adultery     144
Formalities in the criminal procedure of the fourth century     147
The trials at Antioch in 371-72     149
The origins     149
Theodorus on trial     151
Dangerous writings     153
The resumption of the inquiries     154
The continued prohibition of pagan sacrifices and divination     156
Justinian the legislator     158
Justinian and the Corpus Iuris Civilis     158
Justinian's own legislation in Code, Book 9     159
Justinian's legislation on criminal matters in his Novels     164
Justinian's Code and the Theodosian Code     168
Justinian and the jurists     174
Crime and punishment     179
The philosophy of punishment     180
Penalties in Republican Rome     184
The growth of the death penalty: punishment in the Empire     187
Law and general ideas of punishment     193
Summary     195
Glossary     198
Bibliography     202
Index of Sources     228
General Index     243