Crime and Punishment in

Ancient Greece and Rome

The University of Western

Ontario
Randall Pogorzelski

In 249 BCE the Roman consul Publius Claudius Pulcher used the sacred
chickens to see if the gods favored an attack on the Carthaginian fleet.

Later on this semester well look at Athens. We dont have all the evidence
wed like for Athenian law.

O.J. Simpson had both a criminal trial for murder and a civil trial for
wrongful death.

For much of Athenian and Roman history, murder was not a criminal or
public matter, but a civil or private matter.

We are much less Greeks than we believe (page 217).

In Rome, parricide was sometimes punished by the culleus, or sack. A

parricide would be sewn into a leather sack with a dog, cock, viper and
ape and then cast into running water.

The man who is found guilty of killing a parent is veiled, tied up in a sack
and thrown into running waterMalleolus was condemned for killing his
mother; on his condemnation, his head was immediately wrapped in the
skin of a wolf, and wooden soles were bound to his feet, then he was
taken to the prison. There those who were defending him brought in
tablets and wrote his will for him in his presence, and there were
witnesses. Then the penalty was imposed. (Rhetorica Ad Herrennium
1.13.23)

Crime and Punishment in

Ancient Greece and Rome

The University of Western

Ontario
Randall Pogorzelski