Lex Cornelia

Lex Cornelia DE SICARIIS ET VENEFICIS. From Pliny (Plin. Nat. 18.12) we learn that the Twelve Tables contained some regulations as to homicide, but probably these were little more than a repetition of the law of Numa Pompilius which punished intentional slaying with death (Festus, s. v. Parici): unintentional killing was atoned for under the old religious law, and possibly by the Twelve Tables (Cic. pro Tull. 51; Top. 17; Festus, s. v. Subici, Subigere), by the offer of a ram (Serv. in Eclog. 4.43; Georg. 3.387; Dionys. A. R. 7.22: cf. Festus, s. v. Sororium). The Twelve Tables also penalised incantations (Plin. Nat. 28.17; Sen. Nat. quaest. 4.7; Augustin. de Civ. Dei, 8.19) and poisoning, both of which offences appear to have been included under parricidium [POMPEIA DE PARRICIDIIS]: the murderer of a parent was sewed up in a sack (culleus) and thrown into a river. It was under the provisions of some old law that the senate by a consultum ordered the consuls P. Scipio and D. Brutus (B.C. 138) to inquire into the murder in the Silva Scantia (Cic. Brutus, 22). The Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis, passed circ. B.C. 81, inflicted penalties not only for actual killing, but for going about with weapons for the purposes of murder or thieving; for incendiarism; for preparing, having, or selling poisons for the destruction of human life; for inciting a magistrate without cause to bring a capital charge; for the taking of money by a magistrate for such a service, and for bearing false witness in a capital prosecution (Collatio leg. Mos. 1.3; Cic. pro Cluentio, 54, 55, 57; Dig. 48, 8, passim; Paul. Sent. rec. 5.23, 1 and 10; Inst. 4.18, 5). By an enactment of Antoninus Pius the killing of slaves without just cause was brought within the statute (Gaius, 1.53), which by senatusconsulta and imperial legislation was also extended to the offence of castration and to human sacrifices. The penalty which it inflicted was aquae et ignis interdictio (later deportatio: see EXSILIUM), to which Julius Caesar added forfeiture (Dig. 48, 8, 3, 5): in the case of meaner criminals, even death (Dig. ib.).