Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/179

Rh jured away the harvest, or who without due title cut the corn by night in the field intrusted to the protection of the gods and of the people; all of these were therefore dealt with as though they had been guilty of high treason. The king opened and conducted the process, and pronounced sentence after conferring with the senators whom he had called in to advise with him. He was at liberty, however, after he had initiated the process, to commit the further handling and the adjudication of the matter to deputies, who were, as a rule, taken from the senate. The commissioners for adjudicating on rebellion (duoviri perduellionis) were extraordinary deputies of this sort. The "trackers of murder" (quæstores paricidii) appear to have been standing deputies, whose primary duty was to search for and arrest murderers, and who therefore acted as a sort of police. The three "night-masters" also (tres viri nocturni or capitales), who were charged with the duties of a nocturnal police in guarding against fire or other dangers and with the superintendence of public executions, and in that capacity probably acquired at an early date a certain summary jurisdiction, were already perhaps in existence at this period. Imprisonment while the case was undergoing investigation was the rule; the accused might, however, he released on bail. Torture to compel confession was only applied to slaves. Every one convicted of having broken the public peace expiated his offence with his life. The modes of inflicting capital punishment were various: the false witness, for example, was hurled from the stronghold-rock; the harvest-thief was hanged; the incendiary was burnt. The king could not grant a pardon, for that privilege was vested in the community alone; but the king might grant or refuse to the condemned permission to appeal for mercy (provocatio). In addition to this the law recognized an intervention of the gods in favour of the condemned criminal. He who had made a genuflection before the priest of Jupiter might not be scourged on the same day; any one under fetters who set foot in his house had to be released from his bonds, and the life of a criminal was spared if on his way to execution he accidentally met one of the sacred virgins of Vesta.

The king inflicted at his discretion fines payable to the state for trespasses against order and for police offences; they consisted in a definite number (hence the name multa) of cattle or sheep. It was in his power also to pronounce sentence of scourging.