Delatōres
A term originally applied to those who gave notice to the officials of the treasury of
moneys that had become due to the treasury. It subsequently received a wider application. A
delator was not quite identical with our “informer”;
the term covered two classes—one consisting of those who themselves acted as
prosecutors, the other of those who simply gave information. The legislation of Augustus gave
the first stimulus to the habit of delation by granting pecuniary rewards to those who secured
the conviction of offenders against his laws relating to marriage (
Tac. Ann. iii. 28). The Lex Iulia
de maiestate,
by rewarding the successful prosecutor with a fourth part of the estate of the condemned
(
Tac. Ann. iv. 20), gave a fatal encouragement
to this class; and although Tiberius appears to have endeavoured at first to check the
practice, it became during his reign a veritable scourge; and as his suspicious temper
developed, he actually encouraged them. Caligula at the beginning of his reign
negavit se delatoribus aures habere (
Calig. 15), and Nero reduced the
rewards of those who prosecuted offenders against the Papian law to the legal fourth part.
Titus severely punished them; Domitian at first followed his example, but soon proved ready to
use them as the tools of his tyrannous greed. They were again banished by Trajan
(
Paneg. 34), and denounced by a rescript of Constantine (
Cod.
x. 11, 5). But the need of this constant repression proves what a standing evil this class
must have been to the State. See Mayor's notes on Juvenal, i. 33-36, iv. 48, x. 70; and the
article
Maiestas.
