Note 32 — BOOK VI. CONCERNING CRIMES AND TORTURES.

The savage Lex Talionis of the Mosaic Code, which demanded “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” was permitted by the Visigothic jurisprudence, as is disclosed by this and other chapters. In most instances it was authorized where, on account of the poverty of the culprit, a pecuniary compensation was not forthcoming. Notwithstanding the abuse to which it was inevitably liable, there is certainly a measure of stern and retributive justice in the provision consigning a false accuser to the vengeance of the family of his deceased victim; as well as in the case of a wicked and corrupt judge, who maliciously permitted an innocent man to be tortured to death. The Lex Talionis was not unknown to the Romans, and is referred to in the Twelve Tables; but, in after times, their ideas of the proper functions of judicial tribunals, in the infliction of penalties, were too correct to countenance either its acceptance or enforcement.—[Ed.]