Exsilium
（
φυγή).
1. Greek
Among the Greeks, exile was the legal punishment for homicide (see
Ephetae), and for sundry other offences, such as wounding with intent to
kill, the murder of a non-citizen for impiety (
ἀσέβεια);
and was often voluntary on the part of those who wished to avoid some other form of
punishment. It was also, at times, a political measure, adopted especially in times of civil
disturbance, and might carry with it
ἀτιμία and loss of
property, except in the case of ostracism. (See
Ostracismus.)
2. Roman
Among the Romans there was, originally, no such thing as a direct expulsion from the city
(
Pro Caec. 34); but a man might be cut off from fire and water, the symbol of
civic communion, which of course practically forced him to leave the country. This
interdictio aquae et ignis was originally inflicted by the Comitia
Centuriata, and later by the permanent judicial commissions appointed to try certain serious
offences, as, for instance, treason, arson, and poisoning. In case of the
capital charge the accused was always free to anticipate an unfavourable verdict, or the
interdictio aquae et ignis, by withdrawing into voluntary exile; for exile
was originally conceived not as a punishment, but as a means of escaping punishment
(
Pro Dom. 34), and we hear of the
ius exsulandi (cf.
Schwegler,
Römische Geschichte, i. p. 438). Voluntary exile, as being
a confession of guilt, was regularly confirmed by a plebiscitum; and when the exile was
recalled, the decree was also annulled by legislative act.
Interdictio seems
to have been primarily regarded as clearing the State from any guilt that might have been
incurred in the eyes of the gods by letting the criminal go unpunished. The exsilium involved
in the lesser
deminutio capitis (q. v.), or loss of citizenship, if the
banished person became citizen of another State; or if the people declared the banishment to
be deserved; or if the
interdictio aquae et ignis was pronounced after
he had gone into exile. It was only in very serious cases that a man's property was also
confiscated. Real banishment was first inflicted under the Empire. See
Deportatio; Interdictio;
Relegatio.
