Suppose It to Be So
188 L A W GLOSSARY. by a fine of twenty-five asses, or pounds of brass. But if the injury was more atrocious, as, for instance, if any one deprived another of the use of a limb, (si membrum rapsit, i. e. ruperit,) he was punished by retaliation, \talione,) if the person injured would not accept of any other satisfaction. If he only dislocated or broke a bone, he paid three hundred asses, if the suffer er was a freeman ; and one hundred and fifty, if a slave. Gell. xx. If any one slandered another by defamatory verses, (si quis aliquem publice diffamas- set, eique adversus bonos mores convicium fecissit,�i. e. "if any one defamed another, or cast reproach on him contrary to good manners or morality ;" " affronted him (vel carmen famosum in eum condidisset)�i. e. made an in famous libel upon him," he was beaten with a club, vid. Hor. Sat. ii. which alludes to the law for this species of libel. But these laws gradually fell into disuse, Gell. xx. ; and by the edicts of the Prcetor, an action was granted on account of ail personal injuries and af fronts only, for a fine, which was proportioned according to the dignity of the person, and the nature of the injury. This, however, being found in sufficient to check licentiousness and insolence, Sulla made a new law con cerning injuries, by which, not only a civil action, but also a criminal prose cution, was appointed for certain offences, with the punishment of exile, or working in the mines.
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