Effractor
（
τοιχωρύχος,
effractarius). A burglar.
As the name
τοιχωρύχος implies, the Greek burglar sought to
effect an entrance through the wall of a house, rather than through the doors or windows. (See
Domus, p. 538.) In Attic law he was reckoned among
the
κακοῦργοι whose crimes were capital (Demosth.
c.
Lacrit. p. 940.47); the summary processes called
ἀπαγωγή and
ἐφήγησις were available against
him; he is often coupled with the
λωποδύτης (e. g.
Plut. 165), both offences being hedged in with special penalties because they
were so easy to commit. The midnight terrors of a rich miser behind his flimsy walls are
amusingly depicted by Lucian (
Gall. p. 748, Reitz). See
Klopes Diké.
The Romans did not shrink from capital punishments, at least under the Empire; and yet the
crime of
effractio was not visited with death, as among the Greeks.
Their houses were better built than those of the Greeks, and thus they did not legislate under
the influence of panic. The penalty was hard labour for life (
opus
perpetuum), and for burglary by night, in the mines (
poena
metalli). The trial was before the
praefectus vigilum, or chief of
police (Sidon. Apollin.
Ep. ix. 7;
Dig. 1, 15, 1).
