For wicked men, a penalty must be enacted, and assuredly it will not be lighter for the followers than for the leaders in treason
For wicked men, a penalty must be enacted, and assuredly it will not be lighter for the followers than for the leaders in treason. M. Tullius Cicero. De Amictias. Laelius on Friendship. Section 42.
Note: With the Roman empire, the law of treason, or lex maiestatis, was greatly expanded in scope, mainly in the reign of Tiberius, and led to the rise of a class of professional informers, called delatores. The concept of the emperor as divine had much to do with this. It became a maxim that treason was next to sacrilege in gravity. The punishment from the time of Tiberius was death (usually by beheading) and confiscation of property, coupled with complete civil disability. A traitor could not make a will or a gift or emancipate a slave. Even the death of the accused, if guilty of treason of the gravest kind, such as levying war against the state, did not extinguish the charge, but the memory of the deceased became infamous, and his property was forfeited as though he had been convicted in his lifetime.
Image: Trajan's column Scene 61. Although this is supposedly a scene of Trajan greeting an ambassador, everyone looked so grim, I thought it represented today's quote. I could easily imagine the center figure as Sejanus!
Courtesy of http://www.trajans-column.org/
Note: With the Roman empire, the law of treason, or lex maiestatis, was greatly expanded in scope, mainly in the reign of Tiberius, and led to the rise of a class of professional informers, called delatores. The concept of the emperor as divine had much to do with this. It became a maxim that treason was next to sacrilege in gravity. The punishment from the time of Tiberius was death (usually by beheading) and confiscation of property, coupled with complete civil disability. A traitor could not make a will or a gift or emancipate a slave. Even the death of the accused, if guilty of treason of the gravest kind, such as levying war against the state, did not extinguish the charge, but the memory of the deceased became infamous, and his property was forfeited as though he had been convicted in his lifetime.
Image: Trajan's column Scene 61. Although this is supposedly a scene of Trajan greeting an ambassador, everyone looked so grim, I thought it represented today's quote. I could easily imagine the center figure as Sejanus!
Courtesy of http://www.trajans-column.org/
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