The equity of the praetors
examined and estimated the distinct merits of each particular complaint.
In the adjudication of civil damages the magistrate assumed the right to
consider the various circumstances of time and place, of age and
dignity, which may aggravate the shame and sufferings of the injured
person: but if he admitted the idea of a fine, a punishment, an example,
he invaded the province, though, perhaps, he supplied the defects of the
criminal law.
IV. The execution of the Alban dictator, who was dismembered by eight
horses, is represented by Livy as the first and the last instance of
Roman cruelty in the punishment of the most atrocious crimes. But this
act of justice, or revenge, was inflicted on a foreign enemy in the heat
of victory and at the command of a single man. The _Twelve Tables_
afford a more decisive proof of the national spirit, since they were
framed by the wisest of the senate, and accepted by the free voices of
the people; yet these laws, like the statutes of Draco, are written in
characters of blood. They approve the inhuman and unequal principle of
retaliation; and the forfeit of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,
a limb for a limb, is rigorously exacted, unless the offender can redeem
his pardon by a fine of three hundred pounds of copper.
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