Part I
As the bedrock of Western civilization, Ancient Rome has left an indelible mark in the history of mankind. History books are naturally full of their achievements, glory, victories. But are there some peculiarities that often escape the pages? If we focus on the laws and regulations in Rome, the answer is yes...
"The laws are like spiders’ webs: just as spiders’ webs catch the weaker creatures but let the stronger ones through, so the humble and poor are restricted by the laws, but the rich and powerful are not bound by them." --Valerius Maximus
First thing first. By law, Roman citizens began to divide for so-called honestiores and humiliores. The first group focused people on the so-called “noble” birth, among others: senators, high officials, municipal councilors, the emperor’s wealthiest emissaries, as well as officers of the highest military rank. The second group was constituted by the rest of the citizens: free peasants, coloni, freedmen or craftsmen. That's crucial in Roman society since punishment must fit the social status, not the crime's itself. Therefore it's difficult to say that every citizen is treated in the same way. For example, a member of the group humiliores for a heavy crime was killed by wild animals or tortured; in turn, honestiores the worst could be sentenced to quick death (preferably beheading. Yes it was a noble privilege). Honestior was sent to exile, and humilior went to mines, where he usually ended his life. Moreover, honestior could appeal against the sentence to the emperor (omitting the images of the majesty of the ruler or treason).
As Suetonius narrated at once "When a guardian poisoned his ward in order to inherit his property, Galba had him crucified. The man invoked the law, saying that he was a Roman citizen and therefore not liable to such punishment. As if he were intending to mitigate the punishment as a consolation befi tting the man’s status, Galba ordered that his cross be set up much higher than the others and painted white."
In A.D. 61, the city prefect, an ex-consul named Pedanius Secundus, was murdered by one of his slaves, either because Pedanius would not free him after a price had been agreed or because of sexual rivalry. Ancient custom ordained that when a slave killed his owner, all slaves living under the same roof should be executed. Even though so many of them were women and children whose innocence was obvious, the Senate resolved to adhere to this practice, ignoring massive public protests and appeals for mercy: all four
hundred of Pedanius’s household slaves were executed.
Being a slave in Rome was not easy at all. By law The testimony of slaves was admissible only if obtained through torture.
By Lex Julia, the wearing of the toga, a garment that was a symbol of Roman citizenship. The law stipulated that only the Emperor could wear a completely purple toga, a color associated with royalty and power. The law against wearing purple was a “sumptuary law,” and These laws were strict. If you weren’t a citizen, you weren’t allowed to put on a toga let alone the purple one. Purple dye was incredibly expensive. It had to be imported from Phoenicia, where they made the dye from mollusks.
If a man caught his wife having an affair, he was encouraged to lock his wife and her lover up and call every neighbor he could to come see. He had 20 hours to call as many neighbors as he could and invite them to check out the guy his wife has been sleeping with. He then had three days to make a public declaration describing where he found his wife, who was having sex with her, and any extra juicy details he could supply. He was also legally required to divorce his wife, or else he would be charged with pimping. He could murder his wife’s lover if he was a slave or a prostitute. If it was a citizen, though, he would have to talk to his father-in-law. Fathers, in Rome, could legally murder their daughter’s lovers no matter how nice of a toga they wore.
Roman society was a patriarchal society and in Rome, patricide was considered one of the most socially offensive crimes. The punishment for such an offense in Latin was: "poena cullei."
If someone was found guilty of patricide, they were blindfolded and told that they were unworthy of light. They would then be taken to a field outside of the town, stripped naked, and beaten with colored rods. When you couldn’t take anymore, then put you in a sack, throw in one serpent, one dog, one ape, and one rooster, and you and your whole menagerie would all be sewn in there together and thrown into the sea or the river. Constantine the Great, gave up the punishment of poena cullei in his brutal form, only agreeing to put the snake in the sack. The punishment was later imposed in the Byzantine Empire.
Roman ladies all had naturally black hair. Natural blondes, in Roman time, were barbarians, especially the Gauls. Since the prostitutes couldn’t be associated with the dignity of a proper Roman woman, they had to make themselves look like barbarians, so they made them dye their hair. Being a prostitute in Rome wasn't easy either. Roman prostitutes -meretrices- were required to obtain a license, pay taxes, and wear blonde hair as a mark of her profession.
In some circumstances, committing suicide was just considered prudent thinking. Kings typically kept poison on hand in case things turned bad, and sick people would be encouraged to drink hemlock to put an end to their suffering. The only people who couldn’t commit suicide were soldiers, slaves, and prisoners, and this was just for economic reasons. In one area, they even had a formalized system to request suicide. A depressed person could file a petition to the senate requesting death, and if the senate agreed they really were better off dead, they received a free bottle of poison.
Lightning strikes, the Romans believed, were acts of god performed by Jupiter. If something got hit by a lightning bolt, it wasn’t bad luck. Jupiter just really hated it. Whether it was a tree or a person, Jupiter had decided it was time for it to go. If it was your friend who got hit, you were legally forbidden to lift the body above the knees, and you definitely couldn’t bury his body. If you did, you’d stolen a sacrifice from Jupiter. They let people make up for it, though. If you buried someone who got hit by a lightning bolt, the Romans would sacrifice you to Jupiter instead.
Earlier we already mentioned on patriarchal society in Rome. Fathers in Rome had the legal right to temporarily sell their kids. An agreement would be made between the father and a buyer, and the son would become the buyer’s possession. The buyer, as part of the bargain, was expected to bring the kid back home.
Anyone who sold their child into slavery three times, though, was considered an unfit father. Their child would have to finish his third session as a slave because a deal is a deal, but afterward, he would be legally emancipated from his parents.
In the early days of Rome, there was no limit to what a father could do to his family. He could dole out any degree of abuse he could imagine. That didn’t just mean he was allowed spanking: If his children misbehaved, he could straight up murder them.
Fathers held on to those rights even after their kids grew up. Daughters still had to fear their fathers after marriage, and his sons only earned independence when their fathers died.
By time, Rome relaxed these laws a little bit. The right to murder family members ended in the first century BC, although, even then, they kept a few exceptions. Now, the law said, fathers could only murder their sons if they’ve been convicted of a crime.
