minious: the
head of the degenerate Roman was shrouded in a veil, his hands were tied
behind his back, and after he had been scourged by the lictor, he was
suspended in the midst of the Forum on a cross or inauspicious tree.

2. Nocturnal meetings in the city; whatever might be the pretence, of
pleasure, or religion, or the public good.

3. The murder of a citizen; for which the common feelings of mankind
demand the blood of the murderer. Poison is still more odious than the
sword or dagger; and we are surprised to discover in two flagitious
events how early such subtle wickedness has infected the simplicity of
the republic, and the chaste virtues of the Roman matrons.[35] The
parricide, who violated the duties of nature and gratitude, was cast
into the river or the sea, enclosed in a sack; and a cock, a viper, a
dog, and a monkey were successively added as the most suitable
companions. Italy produces no monkeys; but the want could never be felt
till the middle of the sixth century first revealed the guilt of a
parricide.[36]

4. The malice of an incendiary. After the previous ceremony of whipping,
he himself was delivered to the flames; and in this example alone our
reason is tempted to applaud the justice of retaliation.

5. Judicial perjury. The corrupt or malicious witness was thrown
headlong from the Tarpeian Rock to expiate his falsehood, which was
rendered still more fatal by the severity of the penal laws and the
deficiency of written evidence.

6. The corruption of a judge who accepted bribes to pronounce an
iniquitous sentence.

7. Libels and satires, whose rude strains sometimes disturbed the peace
of an illiterate city. The author was beaten with clubs, a worthy
chastisement, but it is not certain that he was left to expire under the
blows of the executioner.

8. The nocturnal mischief of damaging or destroying a neighbor's corn.
The criminal was suspended as a grateful victim to Ceres. But the sylvan
deities were less implacable, and the extirpation of a more valuable
tree was compensated by the moderate fine of twenty-five pounds of
copper.

9. Magical incantations; which had power, in the opinion of the Latian
shepherds, to exhaust the strength of an enemy, to extinguish his life,
and to remove from their seats his deep-rooted plantations. The cruelty
of the _Twelve Tables_ against insolvent debtors still remains to be
told; and I shall dare to prefer the literal sense of antiquity to the
speci