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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 946 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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X11 . 6o See also:

patricians, knights, freedmen, slaves, philosophers, See also:literary men, and, above all, lawyers. The See also:objects of their attacks were the wealthy, all possible rivals of the See also:emperor, and those whose conduct implied a reproach against the imperial mode of See also:life. See also:Special opportunities were afforded by the See also:law of majestas, which (originally directed against attacks on the ruler by word or See also:deed) came to include all kinds of accusations with which it really had nothing to do; indeed, according to See also:Tacitus, a See also:charge of See also:treason was regularly added to all criminal charges. The See also:chief See also:motive for these accusations was no doubt the See also:desire of amassing See also:wealth,' since by the law of majestas one-See also:fourth of the goods of the accused, even if he committed See also:suicide in See also:order to avoid See also:confiscation (which was always carried out in the See also:case of those condemned to See also:capital See also:punishment), was assured to the accuser (who was hence called quadruplator). See also:Pliny and See also:Martial mention instances of enormous fortunes amassed by those who carried on this hateful calling. But it was not without its dangers. If the See also:delator lost his case or refused to carry it through, he was liable to the same penalties as the accused; he was exposed to, the See also:risk of vengeance at the hallds of the proscribed in the event of their return, or of their relatives; while emperors like Tiberius would have no scruples about banishing or putting out of the way those of his creatures for whom he had no further use, and who might have proved dangerous to himself. Under the better emperors a reaction set in, and the severest penalties were inflicted upon the delators. See also:Titus drove into See also:exile or reduced to See also:slavery those who had served See also:Nero, after they had first been flogged in the See also:amphitheatre. The abuse naturally reappeared under a See also:man like See also:Domitian; the delators, with whom See also:Vespasian had not interfered, although he had abolished trials for majestas, were again banished by See also:Trajan, and threatened with capital punishment in an See also:edict of See also:Constantine; but, as has been said, the evil, which was an almost necessary See also:accompaniment of See also:autocracy, lasted till the end of the 4th See also:century. See See also:Mayor's See also:note on See also:Juvenal iv.

48 for See also:

ancient authorities; C. See also:Merivale, Hist. of the See also:Romans under the See also:Empire, See also:chap. 44; W. See also:Rein, Criminalrecht der Romer (1842); T. See also:Mommsen, Romisches Strafrecht (1899); Kleinfeller in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencydopddie.

End of Article: X11

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