Controversia II AD
Calpurnius Flaccus - Exc. (Calpurnius FlaccusExc.42)
Text
"Magistratus de confesso sumat supplicium". "De iniusto supplicio tribunos appellare liceat". Quae quattuor liberos habebat, amissis tribus et marito, detracta est a filio, cum laqueum induisset. Sacrilegium in civitate commissum est. Adiit ipsa magistratus et dixit a se factum. Vult de illa supplicium sumere. Appellat pro ea filius tribunos de iniusto supplicio.
Translation
“A magistrate may exact punishment from a person who has confessed to a crime”. “One may appeal to the tribunes for intervention in a case of unjust punishment”. A woman had four children. After having lost three of them and her husband, she was taken down by her son when she had tried to hang herself. Someone committed an act of sacrilege in the city. The woman voluntarily approached the magistrates and said that she had done it. [A magistrate] wants to exact punishment. Her son appeals on her behalf to the tribunes for intervention on the grounds that this constituted unjust punishment.
Main Characters
Mother, Son
Characters
Magistrate
Issues
Accusations
Unjust punishment
Narrative themes
Bereavement, Hanging - attempt of suicide, Sacrilege
Legal references
De iniusto supplicio tribunos appellare liceat - punishment, Magistratus de confesso sumat supplicium - punishment