The
Aquilian law defended the living property of a citizen, his slaves and
cattle, from the stroke of malice or negligence: the highest price was
allowed that could be ascribed to the domestic animal at any moment of
the year preceding his death; a similar latitude of thirty days was
granted on the destruction of any other valuable effects. A personal
injury is blunted or sharpened by the manners of the times and the
sensibility of the individual: the pain or the disgrace of a word or
blow cannot easily be appreciated by a pecuniary equivalent.
The rude jurisprudence of the decemvirs had confounded all hasty
insults, which did not amount to the fracture of a limb by condemning
the aggressor to the common penalty of twenty-five _asses_. But the same
denomination of money was reduced in three centuries from a pound to the
weight of half an ounce: and the insolence of a wealthy Roman indulged
himself in the cheap amusement of breaking and satisfying the law of the
_Twelve Tables_. Veratius ran through the streets striking on the face
the inoffensive passengers, and his attendant purse-bearer immediately
silenced their clamors by the legal tender of twenty-five pieces of
copper, about the value of one shilling.
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