Historical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome

ofifended deity (piacularis hostia), accompanied possibly with satisfaction to any injured third party. What happened in consequence of an inexpiable breach of the fas depended apparently on circumstances. Take the case of the perjurer. He had solemnly invoked the wrath of heaven upon himself and all that belonged to him in the event of his knowingly swearing falsely. It was for the pontiff to say whether he had done so, or whether his offence was attributable to his imprudence and therefore expiable. If it was not, what then ? Did the pontiffs content themselves with their finding, abstaining from any express sentence, and leaving the party injured to be the instrument of the irate deity in punishing the offender by reprisals ?7 Or did they formally excommunicate the sinner, declaring him sacer, i.e. devoting him to the infernal gods, and forfeiting his estate to the service of the deity he had primarily offended ? This was expressly the penalty of several of the contraventions referred to above,?selling a wife, striking a parent, removing a landmark, etc. (pp. 27 and 53). The homo sacer was in every sense of the word an outcast,?one with whom it was pollution to associate, who dared take no part in any of the institutions of the state, civil or religious, whose life the gods would not accept as a sacrifice, but whom, nevertheless, any onemight put to death with impunity as no longer god-protected. Those precepts of the fas, therefore, were not mere exhortations to...