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Chap.xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 529 inflicted on a foreign enemy in the heat of victory, and at the command of a single man. The Twelve Tables afford a more severity of the Twelve decisive proof of the national spirit, since they were framed by Tables the wisest of the senate and accepted by the free voices of the people ; yet these laws, like the statutes of Draco, 177 are written in characters of blood. 178 They approve the inhuman and un- equal principle of retaliation ; and the forfeit of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a limb for a limb, is rigorously exacted, unless the offender can redeem his pardon by a fine of three hundred pounds of copper. The decemvirs distributed with much liberality the slighter chastisements of flagellation and servitude ; and nine crimes of a very different complexion are adjudged worthy of death. 1. Any act of treason against the state, or of correspondence with the public enemy. The mode of execution was painful and ignominious : the head of the de- generate Roman was shrouded in a veil, his hands were tied behind his back, and, after he had been scourged by the lictor, he was suspended in the midst of the forum on a cross, or in- auspicious tree. 2. Nocturnal meetings in the city ; whatever might be the pretence — of pleasure, or religion, or the public good. 3. The murder of a citizen; for which the common feel- ings of mankind demand the blood of the murderer. Poison is still more odious than the sword or dagger ; and we are sur- prised to discover, in two flagitious events, how early such subtle wickedness had infected the simplicity of the republic and the chaste virtues of the Eoman matrons. 179 The parricide who violated the duties of nature and gratitude was cast into the river or the sea, enclosed in a sack ; and a cock, a viper, a dog, and a monkey, were successively added as the most suitable com- panions. 180 Italy produces no monkeys; but the want could 177 The age of Draco (Olympiad xxxix. 1) is fixed by Sir John Marsham (Canon Chronicus, p. 593-596) and Corsini (Fasti Attici, torn. iii. p. 62). For his laws, see the writers on the government of Athens, Sigonius, Meursius, Potter, &c. 178 The viith, de delictis, of the xii. tables is delineated by Gravina (Opp. p. 292, 293, with a Commentary, p. 214-230). Aulus Gellius (xx. 1) and the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum afford much original information. 179 Livy mentions two remarkable and flagitious aeras, of 3000 persons accused, and of 190 noble matrons convicted, of the crime of poisoning (xl. 43, viii. 18). Mr. Hume discriminates the ages of private and public virtue (Essays, vol. i. p. 22, 23). I would rather say that such ebullitions of mischief (as in France in the year 1680) are accidents and prodigies which leave no marks on the manners of a nation. 180 The xii. Tables and Cicero (pro Roscio Amerino, c. 25, 26) are content with the sack ; Seneca (Excerpt. Controvers. v. 4) adorns it with serpents : Juvenal pities vol. iv. — 34