lave is killed has the option of suing the wrongdoer
for damages in a private action under the lex Aquilia, or of accusing
him on a capital charge by indictment.

12 The second chapter of the lex Aquilia is now obsolete;

13 the third makes provision for all damage which is not covered by the
first. Accordingly, if a slave or some quadruped which comes within
its terms, is wounded, or if a quadruped which does not come within its
terms, such as a dog or wild animal, is wounded or killed, an action is
provided by this chapter; and if any other animal or inanimate thing
is unlawfully damaged, a remedy is herein afforded; for all burning,
breaking, and crushing is hereby made actionable, though, indeed, the
single word 'breaking' covers all these offences, denoting as it does
every kind of injury, so that not only crushing and burning, but any
cutting, bruising, spilling, destroying, or deteriorating is hereby
denominated. Finally, it has been decided that if one man mixes
something with another's win or oil, so as to spoil its natural
goodness, he is liable under this chapter of the statute.

14 It is obvious that, as a man is liable under the first chapter
only where a slave or quadruped is killed by express design or through
negligence on his part, so, too, he is answerable for all other damage
under this chapter only where it results from some wilful act or
carelessness of his. Under this chapter, however, it is not the highest
value which the thing had within a year, but that which it had within
the last thirty days, which is chargeable on the author of the mischief.

15 It is true that here the statute does not expressly say 'the highest
value,' but Sabinus rightly held that the damages must be assessed as
if the words 'highest value' occurred also in this chapter; the Roman
people, who enacted this statute on the proposal of Aquilius the
tribune, having thought it sufficient to use them in the first chapter
only.

16 It is held that a direct action lies under this statute only when the
body of the offender is substantially the instrument of mischief. If a
man occasions loss to another in any other way, a modified action will
usually lie against him; for instance, if he shuts up another man's
slave or quadruped, so as to starve him or it to death, or drives his
horse so hard as to knock him to pieces, or drives his cattle over a
precipice, or persuades his slave to climb a tree or go down a well,
who, in climbin