LATROCI´NIUM
LATROCI´NIUM,
LATRO´NES.
Armed persons who robbed others abroad on the public roads or elsewhere were
called
latrones, and their crime
latrocinium. Murder was not an essential part of the
crime, though it was a frequent accompaniment (Sen.
de Ben.
5.14;
Dig. 49,
15,
24;
50,
16,
118). Under the Republic
latrones were apprehended by the public magistrates,
such as consuls and praetors, and forthwith executed (
Liv. 39.29,
41). By the Lex Cornelia
de Sicariis of the dictator Sulla, they were classed with
Sicarii and punished with death, and this law continued in
force in the imperial times (
Dig. 48,
19,
28; Sen.
de
Clem. 2.1,
Epist. 7; Petron. 91); from the 2nd
century onwards the praefectus urbi had summary jurisdiction in such crimes
in the city and for a circuit of 100 Roman miles about it (see Marquardt,
Staatsverwaltung, 1.225; Mommsen,
Staatsrecht, 2.1067). The
grassatores were another kind of robbers, who robbed people in
the streets and roads, and besides robbing murdered and kidnapped (
Suet. Aug. 32;
Tib. 8; cf.
Juv. 3.305,
10.22,13.145; Friedländer, 2.29). The name
grassator seems strictly to belong to the unarmed
footpad: if they used arms, they were punished, like the
latrones, capitally, or in less flagrant cases they were
condemned to the mines or exiled. (Cic.
de
Fato, 15;
Dig. 48,
19,
28: see also Rein,
Criminalrecht, p. 424.)
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]
