The laws on adultery are rather more lenient to the woman than to the man.  In the first place, the Roman law insisted that it was unfair for a husband to demand chastity on the part of his wife if he himself was guilty of infidelity or did not set her an example of good conduct,[84]—­a maxim which present day lawyers may reflect upon with profit.  A father was permitted to put to death his daughter and her paramour if she was still in his power and if he caught her in the act at his own house or that of his son-in-law; otherwise he could not.[85] He must, however, put both man and woman to death at once, when caught in the act; to reserve punishment to a later date was unlawful.  The husband was not permitted to kill his wife; he might kill her paramour if the latter was a man of low estate, such as an actor, slave, or freedman, or had been convicted on some criminal charge involving loss of citizenship.[86] The reason that the father was given the power which was denied the husband was that the latter’s resentment would be more likely to blind his power of judging dispassionately the merits of the case.[87] If now the husband forgot himself and slew his wife, he was banished for life if of noble birth, and condemned to perpetual hard labour if of more humble rank.[88] He must at once divorce a wife guilty of adultery; otherwise he was punished as a pander, and that meant loss of citizenship.[89] Women convicted of adultery were, when not put to death, punished by the loss of half their dowry, a third part of their other goods, and relegation to an island; guilty men suffered the loss of half of their possessions and similar relegation to an island; but the guilty parties were never confined in the same place.[90] We have mention also in several writers of some curious and vicious punishments that might be inflicted on men guilty of adultery.[91]

Now, all this seems rigorous enough; but, as I have already remarked, we must beware of imagining that a statute is enforced simply because it stands in the code.  As a matter of fact, public sentiment had grown so humane in the first three centuries after Christ that it did not for a moment tolerate that a father should kill his daughter, no matter how guilty she was; and in all our records of that period no instance occurs.  As to husbands, we have repeated complaints in the literature of the day that they had grown so complaisant towards erring wives that they could not be induced to prosecute them.[92] A typical instance is related by Pliny.[93] Pliny was summoned by the Emperor Trajan to attend a council where, among other cases, that of a certain Gallitta was discussed.  She had married a military tribune and had committed adultery with a common captain (centurio).  Trajan sent the captain into exile.  The husband took no measures against his wife, but went on living with her.  Only by coercion was he finally induced to prosecute.  Pliny informs us that the guilty woman had to be condemned, even against the will of her accuser.