Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights
John C. Rolfe, Ed.

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[p. 349] wrote On Dividing Spoils among the Soldiers, complains in strong and choice language about unpunished thievery and lawlessness. I have quoted his words, since they pleased me greatly: ¹ “Those who commit private theft pass their lives in confinement and fetters; plunderers of the public, in purple and gold.”

But I think I ought not to pass over the highly ethical and strict definition of theft made by the wisest men, lest anyone should consider him only a thief who privately purloins anything or secretly carries it off. The words are those of Sabinus in his second book On Civil Law: ² “He is guilty of theft who has touched anything belonging to another, when he has reason to know that he does so against the owner's will.” Also in another chapter: ³ “He who silently carries off another's property for the sake of gain is guilty of theft, whether he knows to whom the object belongs or not.”

Thus has Sabinus written, in the book which I just now mentioned, about handling things for the purpose of stealing them. But we ought to remember, according to what I have written above, that a theft may be committed even without touching anything, when the mind alone and the thoughts desire that a theft be committed. Therefore Sabinus says ⁴ that he has no doubt that a master should be convicted of theft who has ordered a slave of his to steal something.