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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §48.9.9.pr-48.9.9.2

The Sack Penalty for Parricide and Exemption for Insanity

Passage 8265 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Modestinus presents the traditional punishment for parricide (being sewn into a sack and cast into the sea, or thrown to beasts), the penalties for killing other persons, and the exemption from punishment for those who kill a parent in a state of madness.

[MODESTINUS libro duodecimo pandectarum. ] §48.9.9.prPoena parricidii more maiorum haec instituta est, ut parricida uirgis sanguineis uerberatus deinde culleo insuatur cum cane, gallo gallinaceo et uipera et simia: deinde in mare profundum culleus iactatur.
[MODESTINUS, Pandects, Book 12] The punishment for parricide established by ancestral custom is this: that the parricide, having been beaten with blood-stained rods, is then sewn into a leather sack with a dog, a rooster, a viper, and an ape; then the leather sack is cast into the deep sea.
hoc ita, si mare proximum sit: alioquin bestiis obicitur secundum diui Hadriani constitutionem.
This is so, if the sea is nearby; otherwise, he is thrown to wild beasts according to a constitution of the Divine Hadrian.
§48.9.9.1Qui alias personas occiderint praeter matrem et patrem et auum et auiam (quos more maiorum puniri supra diximus), capitis poena plectentur aut ultimo supplicio mactantur.
Those who kill other persons besides a mother, a father, a grandfather, and a grandmother (whom we have said above are punished according to ancestral custom) shall be punished with capital punishment or put to death by the ultimate penalty.
§48.9.9.2Sane si per furorem aliquis parentem occiderit, inpunitus erit, ut diui fratres rescripserunt super eo, qui per furorem matrem necauerat: nam sufficere furore ipso eum puniri, diligentiusque custodiendum esse aut etiam uinculis coercendum.
Of course, if anyone kills a parent while in a state of madness, he shall go unpunished, as the Divine Brothers wrote in a rescript concerning one who had killed his mother while in a state of madness; for they stated that it is enough that he is punished by his madness itself, and that he must be guarded more carefully or even confined with chains.

Notes

  1. §48.9.9.pruirgis sanguineis — Literally meaning "with blood-colored/bloody rods." This expression has been interpreted either as rods ritually painted red, or as rods stained with blood from severe beating, or rods intended to draw blood. In this translation, it is rendered as "blood-stained rods," reflecting the physical and symbolic severity of the ancient punishment.
  2. §48.9.9.2nam sufficere furore ipso eum puniri, diligentiusque custodiendum esse aut etiam uinculis coercendum — This is an indirect statement (accusative and infinitive construction) introduced by nam. The subject of the impersonal infinitive sufficere ("to be sufficient") is the infinitive clause eum puniri ("that he is punished"), where eum is the accusative subject of the passive infinitive puniri, and furore ipso is an ablative of means/cause ("by madness itself"). The subsequent clauses custodiendum esse and coercendum [esse] are future passive participles (gerundives) expressing necessity, with eum understood as their subject from the preceding clause.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §48.9.9.pr-48.9.9.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:48.9.9.pr-48.9.9.2

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