Th e Twelve Tables prescribed the death sentence for a va-
riety of crimes. A debtor unable to repay aft er 60 days could
be killed by his creditor. Writers of slanderous or insulting
songs could be clubbed to death. Accepting a bribe or com-
mitting fraud was also a capital crime. Th ose bearing false
witness in court were fl ung headfi rst from the Tarpeian Rock,
a cliff near the center of Rome that served as the city’s place
of public execution. Anyone suff ering injury could exact “an
eye for an eye” but could also agree with the aggressor on
monetary compensation for the injuries. In all, the Twelve
Tables set out eight diff erent forms of punishment: a fi ne, fet-
ters, fl ogging, retaliation in kind, civil disgrace, banishment,
slavery, and death.
Patricians still benefi ted from prejudice in the law, as the
punishment of crimes oft en depended on the off ender’s social
standing. Under the Roman Empire, established by Augustus
in 27 b.c.e., honestiores were distinguished from humiliores.
Th e former were aristocrats, soldiers, and those holding pub-
lic offi ce; the latter were everyone else. For the honestiores, the
usual sentence for serious crimes was exile and the confi sca-
tion of property; for the humiliores, death or slavery was the
more common consequence of a guilty verdict. Only humilio-
res could be crucifi ed, tortured, or publicly whipped.
Th e Romans also distinguished between public and pri-
vate crimes. Public crimes were those committed against
the state, including perjury, bribery, espionage, and treason.
Such crimes were more severely punished than private ones
throughout Rome’s history. Private crimes were those against
individuals, including indebtedness, theft , murder, and as-
sault. A robber surprised in the act could be legally killed by
the injured party. A Roman who committed assault, however,
could simply pay a fi ne, and aristocrats sometimes amused
themselves by openly breaking a “private” law and blithely
paying a few coins to those they had injured or insulted. In
this case the victim had no recourse to the justice system.
In the fourth century b.c.e., the judicial duties of the
consuls passed to the praetor. Th e praetor was the head of the
judicial branch of government and responsible for the state’s
legal decisions. He appointed judges to hear cases; he also
had the power to pronounce sentence and to fi x the amount
of damages in cases involving theft or fraud. By custom the
praetor announced new laws and procedures at the beginning
of his term, a practice that supposedly prompted him to en-
force the laws impartially. Criers wandered the city and the
Forum to announce the edicts of the praetor, whose laws were
also inscribed on public tablets. Although the praetor was
supposed to uphold the law equally for patricians and plebe-
ians, juries were nonetheless composed of Roman aristocrats
(who, it was asserted, had the sense of honor that would guar-
antee fair decisions).
Capital punishment became more common under the
Roman Empire than during the Roman Republic. Th e usual
method of execution in Rome was beheading. Crucifi xion
was reserved for noncitizens and for crimes considered ex-
tremely dangerous to public order, such as the rebellion of a
Drawing by Michelangelo of the Crucifi xion of Christ and two thieves;
crucifi xion was a punishment for crimes against public order and for
noncitizens. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)slave or anyone’s inspiring a revolt against Roman authority
in the provinces. Th e bodies of executed criminals were com-
monly left exposed in public for the education of the citizens.
A special sentence was reserved for vestal virgins, priestesses
responsible for keeping the sacred fi re of Vesta burning in the
center of Rome. Th e vestals were to abstain from sexual con-
duct of any kind; if found guilty of impurity, the off ender was
buried alive.
Some criminals were sentenced to take part in gladiato-
rial contests, where they were left to their own devices to face
skilled combatants; others were left bound in the wild and at
the mercy of the elements and animal predators. Sentences of
perpetual labor in the Roman quarries or slavery on a seafar-
ing galley were also very common. Roman prisons were never
the convicted criminal’s fi na l de s t i nat ion; t he y were u s e d on ly
to detain criminal suspects and those sentenced to death.
Th e praetor could commute a death sentence, order the
demolition of a home, or impose permanent exile on those
found guilty of a crime. In these cases the state also confi scat-
ed the guilty party’s property. By ancient custom the accused
were presumed innocent until proved guilty, but anyone who304 crime and punishment: Rome