EFFRACTOR
EFFRACTOR (
τοιχωρύχος:
effractarius, Senec.
Ep. 68.4), 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 [
DOMUS p. 660
a]. In Attic law he
reckoned among the
κακοῦργοι whose crimes
were capital (Dem.
c. Lacrit. p. 940.47; Antiph.
de
Caed. Herod. § 9; Plat.
Rep. 1.344 B, ix
575 B); the summary processes called
ἀπαγωγὴ and
ἐφήγησις were
available against him; he is often coupled with the
λωποδύτης (e. g.
Aristoph. Pl.
165; Diphil.
fr. 32, 14 M.), 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.).
(
Att. Process, ed. Lipsius, p. 86, n. 130, and p. 456;
Thalheim,
Rechtsalterth. p. 40; cf. KLOPES DIKÉ.）
The Romans did not shrink from capital punishments, at least under the
Empire; and we may be surprised to find that the crime of
effractio was not visited with death, as among the Greeks, and
till quite lately in England. 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 (Sidon. Apoll.
Ep. 9.7;
Dig.
1,
15,
1;
47,
17,
16,
5;
47,
18;
48,
19; Rein,
Criminalrecht, p. 319, and ap. Pauly, s.
v.).
[
W.W]
