dy Noodt, (de Jurisdictione
et Imperio Libri duo, tom. i. p. 93--134,) Heineccius, (ad Pandect. l.
i. et ii. ad Institut. l. iv. tit. xvii Element. ad Antiquitat.) and
Gravina (Opp. 230--251.)]

[Footnote 202: The office, both at Rome and in England, must be
considered as an occasional duty, and not a magistracy, or profession.
But the obligation of a unanimous verdict is peculiar to our laws,
which condemn the jurymen to undergo the torture from whence they have
exempted the criminal.]

[Footnote 203: We are indebted for this interesting fact to a fragment
of Asconius Pedianus, who flourished under the reign of Tiberius. The
loss of his Commentaries on the Orations of Cicero has deprived us of a
valuable fund of historical and legal knowledge.]

A Roman accused of any capital crime might prevent the sentence of
the law by voluntary exile, or death. Till his guilt had been legally
proved, his innocence was presumed, and his person was free: till
the votes of the last century had been counted and declared, he might
peaceably secede to any of the allied cities of Italy, or Greece,
or Asia. [204] His fame and fortunes were preserved, at least to his
children, by this civil death; and he might still be happy in every
rational and sensual enjoyment, if a mind accustomed to the ambitious
tumult of Rome could support the uniformity and silence of Rhodes or
Athens. A bolder effort was required to escape from the tyranny of the
Caesars; but this effort was rendered familiar by the maxims of the
stoics, the example of the bravest Romans, and the legal encouragements
of suicide. The bodies of condemned criminals were exposed to public
ignominy, and their children, a more serious evil, were reduced to
poverty by the confiscation of their fortunes. But, if the victims of
Tiberius and Nero anticipated the decree of the prince or senate, their
courage and despatch were recompensed by the applause of the public, the
decent honors of burial, and the validity of their testaments. [205] The
exquisite avarice and cruelty of Domitian appear to have deprived the
unfortunate of this last consolation, and it was still denied even by
the clemency of the Antonines. A voluntary death, which, in the case of
a capital offence, intervened between the accusation and the sentence,
was admitted as a confession of guilt, and the spoils of the deceased
were seized by the inhuman claims of the treasury. [206] Yet the
civilians have always respected the