ADu Li'Eiiiar. 
father in such cases returned the dovier he had fl^Ceived from Mier 
husbatid, which some think was refunded by the adulterer. Aiiiotfi%r 
jpuhishhient among those’ pedple was, putting but the eyes of^tI)[e 
Adulterers. At Gortyn in Crete, adulterers were covered with wbdl^ 
An emblem of the softness and etfeminacy of their disposition, apd hi 
that dress carried through the city to the magistrate’s hbuse, %^^^ 
sentenced them to ignominy, whereby they were deprived of all their 
privileges, and their share in administering the laws, or being employed 
in any public business. 
There are various conjectures concerning the ancient puhishmentpf 
adultery among the Romans. Some will have it to have been made 
capital by a law of the Romans, and again by the tw^elve tables. 
Others, that it was made capital by Augustus ; and others, not before 
the emperor Constantine. The truth is, the punishments in early ages 
were very various, much being left to the discretion of the hUsbalid 
and partners of the adulterous wife * w ho exercised it differently, rather 
with the silence and countenance of the magistrate, than by any for- 
mal authority from him. Thus we are told, the wife’s father was 
allowed to kill both parties when caught in the fact, provided he did 
it immediately, killed both together, and as it were with one bld\yl 
The same power ordinarily was not indulged the husband, except th| 
crime was committed with some mean and infamous person ; thou|n, 
in other cases, if his rage carried him to put them to death, he wai 
hot punished as a murderer. On many occasions, however, reveng| 
was not carried so far, but mutilating, cutting off the ears, nose, 
served the turn. 
The punishment allotted by the Lex Julia^ was not, as many liave 
imagined, death, but rather banishment, or being interdicted fire and 
water, though Octavius appears, in several instances, to have gone 
beyond his own law, and to have put adulterers to death, Undec 
Mauricus, many were burnt at a stake. Constantine first by law 
made the crime capital. Under Constantins and Constans, adulterers 
were burnt, or sewed in sacks and thrown into the sea. Under ted 
hhd Marcian, the penalty was abated to perpetual banishment, d| 
cdtting off'^he! nose. Under Justinian, a farther mitigation w as granted^ 
at least in favour of the wife, who was only to be scourged, lose bir 
dower, and be shut up in a monastery. After two years, the husband 
was at liberty to take her back again ; if he refused, she was shaven, 
and made a nun for life ; but it still remained death for the husband. 
The reason alleged for this difference w'as, that the woman )s^^ 
weaker vessel. Matthaeus declaims against the empress The odor^^^ 
w/ho is supposed to have been the cause of this law, as well as of 
Others procured in favour of that sex from the empe!roi. 
By the Jewish law, adultery was punished by death in both partresj 
where either the woman was married, or both. The Jews had a par-S, 
ticniar method of trying an adulteress, or a woman suspected of tlic^ 
crime, by making her drink the bitter waters of jealousy, which, jfslig 
was f uilty, made her swell. In Spaing they punished adultery in m^ 
by amputation of the offending member. 1 ! 
^ The" Saxoris fotmerly burnt the adulteress, And over her 
AreciAd a gibbet, whereoir the adultelrer was hanged. In this kingdom 
