But the practice
of vice was not discouraged by the severity of opinion; the indelible
stain of manhood was confounded with the more venial transgressions of
fornication and adultery, nor was the licentious lover exposed to the
same dishonor which he impressed on the male or female partner of his
guilt. From Catullus to Juvenal the poets accuse and celebrate the
degeneracy of the times; and the reformation of manners was feebly
attempted by the reason and authority of the civilians till the most
virtuous of the Caesars proscribed the sin against nature as a crime
against society.
A new spirit of legislation, respectable even in its error, arose in the
empire with the religion of Constantine. The laws of Moses were received
as the divine original of justice, and the Christian princes adapted
their penal statutes to the degrees of moral and religious turpitude.
Adultery was first declared to be a capital offence: the frailty of the
sexes was assimilated to poison or assassination, to sorcery or
parricide; the same penalties were inflicted on the passive and active
guilt of pederasty, and all criminals of free or servile condition were
either drowned or beheaded, or cast alive into the avenging flames.
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