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 534 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliv factor who claimed the privilege of a Koman was elevated by the command of Galba on a fairer and more lofty cross. 192 Oc- casional rescripts issued from the throne to decide the questions which, by their novelty or importance, appeared to surpass the authority and discernment of a proconsul. Transportation and beheading were reserved for honourable persons; meaner criminals were either hanged or burnt, or buried in the mines, or exposed to the wild beasts of the amphitheatre. Armed robbers were pursued and extirpated as the enemies of society ; the driving away horses or cattle was made a capital offence ; 193 but simple theft was uniformly considered as a mere civil and private injury. The degrees of guilt and the modes of punish- ment were too often determined by the discretion of the rulers, and the subject was left in ignorance of the legal danger which he might incur by every action of his life. Measure of A sin, a vice, a crime, are the objects of theology, ethics, and jurisprudence. "Whenever their judgments agree, they corro- borate each other ; but, as often as they differ, a prudent legis- lator appreciates the guilt and punishment according to the measure of social injury. On this principle, the most daring attack on the life and property of a private citizen is judged less atrocious than the crime of treason or rebellion, which invades the majesty of the republic ; the obsequious civilians unani- mously pronounced that the republic is contained in the person of its chief ; and the edge of the Julian law was sharpened by the incessant diligence of the emperors. The licentious commerce of the sexes may be tolerated as an impulse of nature, or for- bidden as a source of disorder and corruption ; but the fame, the fortunes, the family of the husband are seriously injured by the adultery of the wife. The wisdom of Augustus, after curbing the freedom of revenge, applied to this domestic offence the animadversion of the laws ; and the guilty parties, after the pay- ment of heavy forfeitures and fines, were condemned to long or 192 It was a guardian who had poisoned his ward. The crime was atrocious ; yet the punishment is reckoned by Suetonius (c. 9) among the acts in which Galba shewed himBelf acer vehemens, et in delictis coercendis immodicus. 193 The abactores, or abigeatores, who drove one horse, or two mares or oxen, or five hogs, or ten goats, were subject to capital punishment (Paul. Sentent. Eecept. 1. iv. tit. xviii. p. 497, 498). Hadrian (ad Concil. Beeticse), most severe where the offence was most frequent, condemns the criminals, ad gladium, ludi damnationem (Ulpian, de Officio ProconBulis, 1. viii. in Collatione Legum Mosaic, et Rom. tit. xi. p. 235).