nal orators, who were too well
satisfied with their own situation to discover either vice or misery
under the government of a generous sovereign. [94] 2. The laws of
Constantine against rapes were dictated with very little indulgence for
the most amiable weaknesses of human nature; since the description of
that crime was applied not only to the brutal violence which compelled,
but even to the gentle seduction which might persuade, an unmarried
woman, under the age of twenty-five, to leave the house of her parents.
"The successful ravisher was punished with death;" and as if simple death
was inadequate to the enormity of his guilt, he was either burnt alive,
or torn in pieces by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. The virgin's
declaration, that she had been carried away with her own consent,
instead of saving her lover, exposed her to share his fate. The duty of
a public prosecution was intrusted to the parents of the guilty or
unfortunate maid; and if the sentiments of nature prevailed on them to
dissemble the injury, and to repair by a subsequent marriage the honor
of their family, they were themselves punished by exile and
confiscation. The slaves, whether male or female, who were convicted of
having been accessory to rape or seduction, were burnt alive, or put to
death by the ingenious torture of pouring down their throats a quantity
of melted lead. As the crime was of a public kind, the accusation was
permitted even to strangers.[9401]

[Footnote 9401: This explanation appears to me little probable. Godefroy
has made a much more happy conjecture, supported by all the historical
circumstances which relate to this edict. It was published the 12th of
May, A. D. 315. at Naissus in Pannonia, the birthplace of Constantine.
The 8th of October, in that year, Constantine gained the victory of
Cibalis over Licinius. He was yet uncertain as to the fate of the war:
the Christians, no doubt, whom he favored, had prophesied his victory.
Lactantius, then preceptor of Crispus, had just written his work upon
Christianity, (his Divine Institutes;) he had dedicated it to
Constantine. In this book he had inveighed with great force against
infanticide, and the exposure of infants, (l. vi. c. 20.) Is it not
probable that Constantine had read this work, that he had conversed on
the subject with Lactantius, that he was moved, among other things, by
the passage to which I have referred, and in the first transport of his
enthusiasm, he publishe