atrocious than the crime of treason or rebellion,
which invades the _majesty_ of the republic; the obsequious civilians
unanimously pronounced that the republic is contained in the person of
its chief; and the edge of the Julian law was sharpened by the incessant
diligence of the emperors. The licentious commerce of the sexes may be
tolerated as an impulse of nature, or forbidden as a source of disorder
and corruption; but the fame, the fortunes, the family of the husband,
are seriously injured by the adultery of the wife. The wisdom of
Augustus, after curbing the freedom of revenge, applied to this domestic
offence the animadversion of the laws; and the guilty parties, after the
payment of heavy forfeitures and fines, were condemned to long or
perpetual exile in two separate islands.

Religion pronounces an equal censure against the infidelity of the
husband; but, as it is not accompanied by the same civil effects, the
wife was never permitted to vindicate her wrong; and the distinction of
simple or double adultery, so familiar and so important in the canon
law, is unknown to the jurisprudence of the _Code_ and the _Pandects_. I
touch with reluctance and despatch with impatience a more odious vice,
of which modesty rejects the name, and nature abominates the idea. The
primitive Romans were infected by the example of the Etruscans and
Greeks; in the mad abuse of prosperity and power, every pleasure that is
innocent was deemed insipid; and the Scatinian law, which had been
extorted by an act of violence, was insensibly abolished by the lapse of
time and the multitude of criminals.

By this law the rape, perhaps the seduction, of an ingenuous youth was
compensated as a personal injury by the poor damages of ten thousand
sesterces, or fourscore pounds; the ravisher might be slain by the
resistance or revenge of chastity; and I wish to believe that at Rome,
as in Athens, the voluntary and effeminate deserter of his sex was
degraded from the honors and the rights of a citizen. But the practice
of vice was not discouraged by the severity of opinion; the indelible
stain of manhood was confounded with the more venial transgressions of
fornication and adultery, nor was the licentious lover exposed to the
same dishonor which he impressed on the male or female partner of his
guilt. From Catullus to Juvenal the poets accuse and celebrate the
degeneracy of the times; and the reformation of manners was feebly
attempted by the reaso