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part of the women to their hu(bands would have appeared 

 as ftrange as that of difpla)-ing the leaft regard to lludied 

 ornaments in their drefs. And Lycurgus, it is faid, did not 

 enact any law agaiiift adultery, becaufe no fuch crime tx- 

 ifted in Sparta. See Plut. Oper. torn. i. p. 49. torn 2. 

 p. 289. Ed. Xylandr. Potter's Arch. lib. iv. cap. 12. 



Plutarch telU us, that if any pcrfon difcovered his filler or 

 daughter, while unmarried, in this crime, he was allowed by 

 Solon's laws to fell her for a flave. If a hulband furprifed 

 his rival in the aft of dilhonouring him, he might put him 

 to death, or oblige him by torments to ranfom his life ; but 

 if the wife had only yielded to force, he could demand no 

 more than a pecuniar)- fine at the difcretion of the judges, as 

 violence in fuch cafes was Icfs to be dreaded than feduction. 

 Ill t'.ie heroic ages, adulterers were Honed to death ; and 

 the punilhment was called xiivo; x't^'i a Jlone coat. Homer 

 Iliad, 1. ■)'• Adulterelfes were never after pemiitted to adorn 

 themfelves with line cloaths ; and in cafe they appeared fo 

 to do, were liable to have them torn off by any that met 

 them, and likewife be beaten. The fame li'oerty was per- 

 mitted to any that found them in the temples, which were 

 thought to be polluted by the admiflion of pcrfons fo in- 

 famous and deteflable. Laftly, their hufbands, though 

 wiUing, were forbidden to cohabit any longer with them, 

 upon pain of ignominy, at^Liy. ; but perfons who proftituted 

 women, were adjudged to die. 



There were other remarkable punifhments for adulterers 

 among the Grecians ; fucli, particularly, as putting out 

 their eyes. And the Locrians obferved this cuftora in later 

 ages, being compelled to the obfervance of it by Zaleucus, 

 their lawgiver, whofe rigour in executing this law is very 

 remarkable ; for having caught his fon in adultery, he re- 

 folved to deprive him of his fight, and remained a long time 

 inexorable, notwithlfanding the whole city was willing to 

 remit the puniihment, and reqiiefted him to fpare the youth. 

 At length, unable to refift the people's importunity, he 

 mitigated his fentence, and redeemed one of his fon's eyes, 

 by caufmg one of his own to be put out ; by this glorious 

 aft fetting a memorable example both of j'ljlice and of 

 mercy. Valer. Maxim. 1. vi. c. 5. 



At Goityn in Crete, they punifhed adulterers after an- 

 other manner ; they were covered v\'ith wool, an emblem 

 of the foftnefs and effeminacy of their difpofition, and in 

 that drefs they were carried through the city to the magif- 

 trate's houfe, who impofed a fine and fentcnced them to 

 ignominy, whereby they were in a manner deprived of all 

 their privileges, and their fhare in adminiftering the public 

 bufmefs. iElian. Var. Hift. 1. xii. c. 12. not. Perizon. 

 torn. 2. p. 736. Ed. Gronov. For other punifliments, fee 

 Qnobatis and Paratilmus. 



There are various conjeftures concerning the ancient pu- 

 niihment of adultery among the Romans. 



By a law of Romulus, of which Plutarch makes men- 

 tion, a man had the liberty of turning away his wife, either 

 for poifoning his children, counterfeiting his private keys, 

 or for adultery. Though fome maintain that it was made 

 capital, by a law of Romulus, and again by the Twelve 

 Tables. Others, that it was firfl made capital by Auguftus; 

 and others, not before the emperor Conftantine. The 

 truth is, the punirtiment in ancient time was veiy various, 

 much being left to the difcretion of the hufband and pa- 

 rents of the adulterous wife, who exercifed it ditferently, 

 rather with the filence and countenance of the magiilrate, 

 than any fonrial authority from him. Thus we are told, 

 the wife's father was allowed to kill both parties, when 

 caught in the faft, provided he did it immediately, kiUed 

 botli together, andj as it were, with one tlow. The lame 



3 



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power ordinarily was not indulged the hufband, except the 

 crime were committed with fome mean or infamous pcrlon ; 

 though, in other cafes, if his rage carried him to put them 

 to death, he was not punifhed as a murderer. On many 

 occafions, however, revenge was not carried fo far, but mu- 

 tilating, caftrating, cutting off the ears, nofes, &c. were 

 deemed fufficient. The puniihment allotted by thr/f.v jfulia 

 was not, as many have imagined, death ; but rather banifh- 

 ment, or reh^atio, with the lofs, on the part of the wife, of 

 half her dowry, and a third part of her other goods ; and 

 on the part of the liulband, of half his goods : though Ofta- 

 vius appears, in feveral inllances, to have gone beyond his 

 ov.-n law, and to Irave put adulterers to death. But though 

 the Julian law left the accufation of adultery open to everf 

 bodv, yet fl;ra!>gers were feldom fuffered to profecute, where 

 the hulhand made no complaint ; but where the hufband 

 made a trade of his wife's infamy, or having feen her 

 (hame with his own eyes, patiently fufFered the affront : in 

 thefe cafes, adultery became a crime of public concern ; and 

 the Julian law provides a puniflrment for fuch hufbands as 

 well as for their wives. 



Under Auguftus, the guilty parties, after the payment of 

 heavy forfeitures and fines, were condemned to long or per- 

 petual exile in two feparate iflands. 



Under Macrinus, adulterers were burnt at a flake. Con- 

 ftantine, it is faid by Noodt and others, firft by law made 

 the crime capital. Under Conilantius and Conllans, adul- 

 terers were burnt, or fewed in facks, and thrown into the 

 fea. Under Leo and Marcian, the penalty was abated to 

 perpetual banifhment, or cutting off the nofe. 



By the civil law, as altered by Juftinian, who, at the in- 

 ftance of his wife Theodora, mitigated the feverity of the 

 lex Julia, adulter)' is punilhed with whipping, and fliutting 

 up in a convent for two years : during which time, if the 

 hufband do not confent to take her 'oack again, file is fhaven, 

 and fliut up for life. — This is called autheniLating, as having 

 been eftablifhed by an authentic. 



In France, however, the whipping is omitted, that the 

 hufband may be the lefs averfe to the taking lier back within 

 the two years. 



Under Tlieodofius, women convifted of this crime were 

 punifhed after a veiy lingular manner, viz. by a public con- 

 ftupration ; being locked up in a narrow cell, and forced 

 to admit all the men to their embraces that would offer them- 

 felves. This cuftom was again abohfhed by the fame prince. 



It was controverted whether, among the Romans, adul- 

 tery was allowed to be compounded ? 



Bv an edift of the emperor Antoninus, the hufband was 

 not allowed to bring an aftion of adulteiy againll his wife, 

 unlefs he himfelf were innocent ; the reafou given for it is 

 veiy natural, per i>::^uu?n emm •i>'tdetur cffe ttt pudicttiam vir CJ 

 uxore exlgat, qiiam ipfe uon exhibeat. 



Bv the Jewifh law, adulteiy was puniflied by death in both 

 parties, where they are both married, or only the woman. 

 The Jews had a particular method of trying, or rather 

 purging an adulterefs, or a woman fufpcfted of the crime, by 

 making her drink the bitter water of jealoufy ; which, if fhc 

 were guilty, made her fwell. 



In Arabia Felix the punifhment of adultery was death. 

 Strabo Geog. torn. ii. p. 1 130. 



By the laws of Jenghiz Ivlian, founder of the Mogul em- 

 pire, adulterers were condemned to dealli ; and a man was 

 permitted to kill them., when furprifed in the aft. Some 

 of the people, however, difliked this law, becaufe it was a 

 culiom with thtm to offer their wives and daughters tq 

 their friends who vilited them, in token of refpeft and af- 

 ftftion : and thev petitioned to be continued in the exercife 



