Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/302

 ture 284 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, symptoms of disaffection, to the actual preparation of '__ an open revolt. Their careless or criminal violation of truth and justice was covered by the consecrated mask of zeal ; and they might securely aim their poisoned arrovi's at the breast either of the guilty or the in- nocent, who had provoked their resentment, or refused to purchase their silence. A faithful subject, of Syria perhaps, or of Britain, was exposed to the danger, or at least to the dread, of being dragged in chains to the court of Milan or Constantinople, to defend his life and fortune against the malicious charge of these privileged informers. The ordinary administration was conducted by those methods which extreme necessity can alone palliate ; and the defects of evidence were diligently supplied by the use of torture ^ Use of tor- i'he deceitful and dangerous experiment of the cri- minal question, as it is emphatically styled, was ad- mitted, rather than approved, in the jurisprudence of the Romans. They applied this sanguinary mode of examination only to servile bodies, whose sufferings were seldom weighed by those haughty republicans in the scale of justice or humanity: but they would never consent to violate the sacred person of a citizen, till they possessed the clearest evidence of his guilt''. The annals of tyranny,- from the reign of Tiberius to that of Domitian, circumstantially relate the executions of many innocent victims; but, as long as the faintest remembrance was kept alive of the national freedom and honour, the last hours of a Roman were secure from the danger of ignominious torture ''. The con- ^ For the ' agentes in rebus,' see Ammian. 1. xv. c, 3. 1. xvi. c. 5, 1. xxii. c. 7, with the curious annotations of Valesius ; Cod. Theod. 1. vi. tit. xxvii. xxviii. xxix. Among the passages collected in the commentary of Godefroy, the most remarkable is one from Libanius, in his discourse con- cerning the death of Julian. » The Pandects (1. xlviii.tit. xviii.) contain the sentiments of the most celebrated civilians on the subject of torture. They strictly confine it to slaves; and Ulpian himself is ready to acknowledge, that Res est fragilis, et periculosa, et quee veritatem fallat. '' In the conspiracy of Piso against Nero, Epicharis (libertina mulier) was the only person tortured ; the rest were " intacti tormentis." It would be superfluous to add a weaker, and it would be difficult to find a stronger, example. Tacit. Annal. xv. 57.