Note 52.3 — THE SCOPE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Digest, xlviii. 9.9, “Poena parricidii more majorum haec instituta est, ut parricida virgis sanguineis verberatus deinde culleo insuatur cum cane, gallo gallinaceo et vipera et simia: deinde in mare profundum culleus jactatur.” Compare Valerius Maximus, i. 1. 13; Professor J. E. B. Mayor’s note on Juvenal, viii. 214. If the view suggested above is correct, the scourging of the criminal to the effusion of blood (virgis sanguineis verberatus) must have been a later addition to the original penalty, unless indeed some provision were made for catching the blood before it fell on the ground.