Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis

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The Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis (or veneficiis)

Justinian in the 6th century A.D.[3]

The provisions of the law were described by the later Roman jurist Paul as including:[4][5]

  • Suppliers of love potions or abortifacients to be relegated to the mines if lower class (humiliores), banished to an island if upper class (honestiores), or executed if the potion results in death.
  • Those who perform bewitching or binding spells to be crucified or thrown to the beasts.
  • Those who engage in human sacrifice or make offerings of human blood in temples to be thrown to the beasts if lower class, executed if upper class.
  • Practitioners of magic to be thrown to the beasts or crucified. A professional "
    magus
    " to be burned alive.
  • Possessors of magical books (libri artis magicae) to have their property confiscated and the books publicly burned, if upper class then exiled, if lower class executed.
  • Suppliers of drugs given as cures that result in death to be executed if lower class, banished to an island if upper class.

The law significantly moved to replace the traditional Roman penalty of the

foetus
.

The penalties of the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis were imposed by Hadrian on castrators, already generally banned by Domitian, and by edict of Antoninus Pius on all who performed circumcision on males, with special exemption for the Jews.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ J.D. Cloud, 'How Did Sulla Style His Law de Sicariis?', Classical Review 18(2) (1968), 140-43.
  2. ^ Appian, Civil Wars, 1.99
  3. ^ a b c Digest of Justinian, 48.8.2.
  4. ^ Paulus, Sententiae, 5.23.14-9.
  5. ^ D. Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Oxford: 2009. 279
  6. ^ "LacusCurtius — Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
  7. ^ P. Schafer, Judeophobia: Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Ancient World, Cambridge, Mass: 1997. 104.
  8. ^ Origen, Contra Celsum, 2.13.
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