Fines were a common mode of punishment with the Romans, as with the early Germans.  Imprisonment in a public jail was rare, the custom of bail being in general use.  Although retaliation was authorized by the Twelve Tables for bodily injuries, it was seldom exacted, since pecuniary compensation was taken in lieu.  Corporal punishments were inflicted upon slaves, but rarely upon citizens, except for military crimes; but Roman citizens could be sold into slavery for various offences, chiefly military, and criminals were often condemned to labor in the mines or upon public works.  Banishment was common,—­aquae et ignis interdictio; and this was equivalent to the deprivation of the necessities of life and incapacitating a person from exercising the rights of citizenship.  Under the emperors persons were confined often on the rocky islands off the coast, or in a compulsory residence in a particular place assigned.  Thus Chrysostom was sent to a dreary place on the banks of the Euxine, and Ovid was banished to Tomi.  Death, when inflicted, was by hanging, scourging, and beheading; also by strangling in prison.  Slaves were often crucified, and were compelled to carry their cross to the place of execution.  This was the most ignominious and lingering of all deaths; it was abolished by Constantine, from reverence to the sacred symbol.  Under the emperors, execution took place also by burning alive and exposure to wild beasts; it was thus the early Christians were tormented, since their offence was associated with treason.  Persons of distinction were treated with more favor than the lower classes, and their punishments were less cruel and ignominious; thus Seneca, condemned for privity to treason, was allowed to choose his mode of death.  The criminal laws of modern European States followed too often the barbarous custom of the Roman emperors until a recent date.  Since the French Revolution the severity of the penal codes has been much modified.

The penal statutes of Rome however, as Gibbon emphatically remarks, “formed a very small portion of the Code and the Pandects; and in all judicial proceedings the life or death of the citizen was determined with less caution and delay than the most ordinary question of covenant or inheritance.”  This was owing to the complicated relations of society, by which obligations are created or annulled, while duties to the State are explicit and well known, being inscribed not only on tables of brass, but on the conscience itself.  It was natural, with the growth and development of commerce and dominion, that questions should arise which could not be ordinarily settled by ancient customs, and the practice of lawyers and the decisions of judges continually raised new difficulties, to be met only by new edicts.  It is a pleasing fact to record, that jurisprudence became more just and enlightened as it became more intricate.  The principles of equity were more regarded under the emperors than in the time of Cato.  It is in the application of these principles that the laws of the Romans have obtained so high consideration; their abuse consisted in the expense of litigation, and the advantages which the rich thus obtained over the poor.