rpened by the manners of the times and the
sensibility of the individual: the pain or the disgrace of a word or
blow cannot easily be appreciated by a pecuniary equivalent.

The rude jurisprudence of the decemvirs had confounded all hasty
insults, which did not amount to the fracture of a limb by condemning
the aggressor to the common penalty of twenty-five _asses_. But the same
denomination of money was reduced in three centuries from a pound to the
weight of half an ounce: and the insolence of a wealthy Roman indulged
himself in the cheap amusement of breaking and satisfying the law of the
_Twelve Tables_. Veratius ran through the streets striking on the face
the inoffensive passengers, and his attendant purse-bearer immediately
silenced their clamors by the legal tender of twenty-five pieces of
copper, about the value of one shilling. The equity of the praetors
examined and estimated the distinct merits of each particular complaint.
In the adjudication of civil damages the magistrate assumed the right to
consider the various circumstances of time and place, of age and
dignity, which may aggravate the shame and sufferings of the injured
person: but if he admitted the idea of a fine, a punishment, an example,
he invaded the province, though, perhaps, he supplied the defects of the
criminal law.

IV. The execution of the Alban dictator, who was dismembered by eight
horses, is represented by Livy as the first and the last instance of
Roman cruelty in the punishment of the most atrocious crimes. But this
act of justice, or revenge, was inflicted on a foreign enemy in the heat
of victory and at the command of a single man. The _Twelve Tables_
afford a more decisive proof of the national spirit, since they were
framed by the wisest of the senate, and accepted by the free voices of
the people; yet these laws, like the statutes of Draco, are written in
characters of blood. They approve the inhuman and unequal principle of
retaliation; and the forfeit of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,
a limb for a limb, is rigorously exacted, unless the offender can redeem
his pardon by a fine of three hundred pounds of copper. The decemvirs
distributed with much liberality the slighter chastisements of
flagellation and servitude; and nine crimes of a very different
complexion are adjudged worthy of death.

1. Any act of treason against the state, or of correspondence with the
public enemy. The mode of execution was painful and igno