130 A D U 
perly, by making ufe of a wrong metal, or an Undue al¬ 
loy, or too great an admixture of the baler metals with 
gold or filver. 
To adulterate or debafe the current coin, is a capital 
crime in all nations. The ancients punilhed it with great 
feverity: among the Egyptians both hands were cut off; 
and, by the civil law, the offender was thrown to wild 
beads. The emperor Tacitus enabled, that counterfeiting 
the coin (hould be capital; and under Conltantine it was 
made treafon, as it is alfo among us. 
ADULTERER,/ [adulter, Lat.] The perfon guilty 
of adultery: 
"With what impatience mud the mufe behold 
The wife by her procuring hulband fold; 
Eor, though the law makes null th’ adulterer's deed 
Of lands to her, the cuckold may fucceed. Dryden. 
ADULTERESS,/. Awoman that commits adultery.— 
The Spartan ladv replied, when fhe wasalked, What was 
the punilhment for adulterrjes? There are no fuch things 
here. 
An adulterefs, by our law, undergoes no temporal pu¬ 
nilhment whatever, except the lofs of her dower; and (he 
does not lofe even that, if her hulband is weak enough to 
be reconciled to her, and cohabit with her after the offence 
committed. 13 Edw. I. cap. 34. 
ADULTERINE,/ [ adulterine , Fr. adulterinus , Lat.] 
A child born of an adulterefs: a term of canon law. 
ADULTEROUS, adj. [adulter, Lat.] Guilty of adul¬ 
tery.—An adulterous perfon is tied to reilitution of the in¬ 
jury, fo far as it is reparable; and to make provifion for 
the children, that they may not injure the legitimate. 
.Taylor. 
ADULTERY,/ [adultcrium, Lat.] The aft of violat¬ 
ing the bed of a married perfon. Punilhments have been 
annexed to adultery in mod ages and nations, though of 
different degrees of feverity. In many it has been capi¬ 
tal ; in others venial, and attended only with flight pecu¬ 
niary mulcts. Some of the penalties are ferious, and even 
cruel; others of a jocofe and humorous kind. Even con¬ 
trary thingshave been enabled as punilhments for adultery. 
By fome laws, the criminals are forbid marrying toge¬ 
ther, in cafe they became Angle ; by others, they are for¬ 
bid to marry any befides each other ; by fome, they are in¬ 
capacitated from ever committing the like crime again; 
by others, they are glutted with it till it becomes down¬ 
right naufeous. 
Among the rich Greeks, adulterers were allowed to re¬ 
deem themfelves by a pecuniary fine ; the woman’s father, 
in fuch cafes, returned the dower he had received from her 
hulband, which fome think was refunded by the adulte¬ 
rer. Another punilhment among thole people was, put¬ 
ting out the eyes of adulterers. 
The Athenians had an extraordinary way of punifliing 
adulterers, praftifed at lead on the poorer fort, who were 
not able to pay the fines. This was an awkward fort of 
empalement, performed by thrufting one of the largelt ra¬ 
dices up the anus of the adulterer, or, in defect thereof, a 
filh with a large head, called mugil, “ mullet.” Alcaeus is 
faid to have died this way, though it is doubted whether 
the punilhment was reputed mortal. Juvenal and Catul¬ 
lus fpeak of this cuftom as received alfo among the Ro¬ 
mans, though not authorifed by an exprefs lavy, as it was 
among the Greeks. 
There are various conjectures concerning the ancient 
punilhment of adultery among the Romans. Some will 
have it to have been made capital by a law of Romulus, 
and again by the twelve tables. Others, that it was firlt 
made capital by Augultus ; and others, not before the em¬ 
peror Conltantine. The truth is, the punilhment in the 
early days was very various, much being left to the difcre- 
tion of the hulband and parents of the adulterous wife, who 
exercifed it differently, rather with the filence and counte¬ 
nance of the magiftrate than any formal authority front 
him. Thus've are told, the wife’s father was allowed to 
A D U 
kill both parties, when caught in the fad, provided he did 
it immediately, killed both together, and as it were with 
one blow. The fame power ordinarily was not indulged 
the hulband, except the crime were committed with fome 
mean or infamous perfon ; though, in other cafes, if his 
rage carried him to put them to death, he was not punilhed 
as a murderer. On many occafions, however, revenge was 
not carried fo far ; but mutilating, caftrating, cutting off 
the ears, nofes, &c. ferved the turn. The punilhment al¬ 
lotted by the lex Julia, was not, as many have imagined, 
death ; but rather banilhment, or deportation, being in¬ 
terdicted fire and water : though OCtavius appears, in fe- 
veral inltances, to have gone beyond his own law, and to 
have put adulterers to death. Under Macrinus, many 
were burnt at a (take. Conltantine firlt by law made the 
crime capital. Under Conftantius and Conltans, adulte¬ 
rers were burnt, or fewed in facks and thrown into the fea. 
Under Leo and Marcian, the penalty was abated to perpe¬ 
tual banilhment, or cutting off the nofe. ’ Under Jultinian, 
a farther mitigation was granted, at lead in favour of the 
wife, who was only to be fcourged, lofe her dower, and 
be Ihut up in a monadery; after two years, the hulband 
was at liberty to take her back again; if he refufed, flie 
was Ihaven, and made a nun for life : but it dill remained 
death in the hulband. Tl»e reafon alleged for this dif- \ 
ference is, that the woman is the weaker velfel. 
Under Theodofius, women conviCted of this crime were 
punilhed after a very Angular manner, viz. by a public 
condupration; being locked up in a narrow cell, and forc¬ 
ed to admit to their embraces all the men that would ofl'er 
themfelves. To this end, the gallants were todrefs them¬ 
felves on purpofe, having feveral little bells fadened to 
their clothes, the tinkling of which gave notice to thofe 
without of every motion. This cudont was again abolilh- 
ed by the fame prince. 
By the Jewilh law, adultery was punilhed by death in 
both parties, where they were both married, or only the 
woman. The Jews had a particular method of trying, or 
rather purging, an adulterefs, ora woman fufpebtedof the 
crime, by making her drink the bitter waters of jealoufy ; 
which, if fhe were guilty, made her fwell. 
Among the Mingrelians, according to Chardin, adulte¬ 
ry is punilhed with the forfeiture of a hog, which is ufual- 
ly eaten in good friendlhip between the gallant, the adul¬ 
terefs, and the cuckold. In fome parts of the Indies, it is 
faid any man’s wife is permitted to proditute herfelf to him 
who will give an elephant for the ufe of her ; and it is re¬ 
puted no fmall glory to her to have been rated fo high. 
Adultery is faid to be fo frequent at Ceylon, that not a wo¬ 
man butpraClifes it, notwithdanding its being punifhable 
with death. Among the Japanefe, and divers other na¬ 
tions, adultery is only penal in the woman. Among the 
AbyfAnians, the crime of the hulband is faid to be only 
punilhed on the innocent wife. In the Marian iflands, on 
the contrary, the woman is not punifhable for adultery ; 
but if the man go adray he pays feverely: the wife and 
her relations wade his lands, turn him out of his houfe, 
&c. Among the Chinefe, adultery is not capital; for it 
is faid that fond parents will make a Contract for their 
daughters’ future hulbands to allow them the indulgence 
of a gallant. 
In Spain, they punilhed adultery in men by cutting off 
that part which had been theindrument of the crime. In 
Poland, before Chridianity was edablifhed, they punilhed 
adultery and fornication in a very particular manner : the 
criminal they carried to the market-place, and there fad¬ 
ened him by the tedicles with a nail; laying a razor with¬ 
in his reach, and leaving him under a necellity, either of 
doing judice upon himfelf or of peri living in that condition. 
The Saxons formerly burnt the adulterefs, and over 
her alhes erefted a gibbet, whereon the adulterer was 
hanged. In this kingdom, likewife, adultery, by the an¬ 
cient laws, was feverely punilhed. King Edmund the 
Saxon ordered adultery to be punilhed in the fame manner 
as homicide ; and Canute the Dane ordered that a man 
who 
