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DELATOR

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 945 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DELATOR , in See also:

Roman See also:history, properly one who gave See also:notice (deferre) to the See also:treasury officials of moneys that had become due to the imperial fisc. This See also:special meaning was extended to those who lodged See also:information as to punishable offences, and further, to those who brought a public See also:accusation (whether true or not) against any See also:person (especially with the See also:object of getting See also:money). Although the word delator itself, for " See also:common informer," is confined to imperial times, the right of public accusation had See also:long been in existence. When exercised from patriotic and disinterested motives, its effects were beneficial; but the moment the principle of See also:reward was introduced, this was no longer the See also:case. Sometimes the accuser was rewarded with the rights of See also:citizen-See also:ship, a See also:place in the See also:senate, or a See also:share of the See also:property of the accused. At the end of the republican See also:period, See also:Cicero (De Officiis, ii. 14) expresses his See also:opinion that such accusations should be undertaken only in the interests of the See also:state or for other urgent reasons. Under the See also:empire the See also:system degenerated into an abuse, which reached its height during the reign of Tiberius, although the delators continued to exercise their activity till the reign of See also:Theodosius.

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