Sacrilegium
(
sacra+lego, cf.
Hor. Sat. i.
3, 117). The Roman name for the crime of stealing objects consecrated to some god or
deposited in a consecrated place (
De Ben. 7, 7). In Cicero's time the word was
extended to cover also any damage or insult to sacred things (
Cic.
N. D. iii. 40, 94), and later still, to want of respect to the
emperor. (See
Maiestas.) A
Lex Iulia
punished sacrilege with
interdictio aqua et igni, but for this
deportatio was ultimately substituted; and under the Empire the heavier
penalties of burning alive and
damnatio ad bestias were inflicted
(
Dig. xlviii. 13, 6). Cf.
Hierosylias Graphé.