ith
death not only defilers of the marriage-bed, but also those who indulge
in criminal intercourse with those of their own sex, and inflicts
penalties on any who without using violence seduce virgins or widows
of respectable character. If the seducer be of reputable condition,
the punishment is confiscation of half his fortune; if a mean person,
flogging and relegation.

5 The lex Cornelia on assassination pursues those persons, who commit
this crime with the sword of vengeance, and also all who carry weapons
for the purpose of homicide. By a 'weapon,' as is remarked by Gaius in
his commentary on the statute of the Twelve Tables, is ordinarily meant
some missile shot from a bow, but it also signifies anything thrown with
the hand; so that stones and pieces of wood or iron are included in the
term. 'Telum,' in fact, or 'weapon,' is derived from the Greek 'telou,'
and so means anything thrown to a distance. A similar connexion of
meaning may be found in the Greek word 'belos,' which corresponds to our
'telum,' and which is derived from 'ballesthai,' to throw, as we learn
from Xenophon, who writes, 'they carried with them 'belei,' namely
spears, bows and arrows, slings, and large numbers of stones.'
'Sicarius,' or assassin, is derived from 'sica,' a long steel knife.
This statute also inflicts punishment of death on poisoners, who kill
men by their hateful arts of poison and magic, or who publicly sell
deadly drugs.

6 A novel penalty has been devised for a most odious crime by another
statute, called the lex Pompeia on parricide, which provides that any
person who by secret machination or open act shall hasten the death of
his parent, or child, or other relation whose murder amounts in law to
parricide, or who shall be an instigator or accomplice of such a crime,
although a stranger, shall suffer the penalty of parricide. This is not
execution by the sword or by fire, or any ordinary form of punishment,
but the criminal is sewn up in a sack with a dog, a cock, a viper, and
an ape, and in this dismal prison is thrown into the sea or a river,
according to the nature of the locality, in order that even before death
he shall begin to be deprived of the enjoyment of the elements, the
air being denied him while alive, and interment in the earth when dead.
Those who kill persons related to them by kinship or affinity, but whose
murder is not parricide, will suffer the penalties of the lex Cornelia
on assassination.

7 The l