Note 48 — BOOK IX. CONCERNING FUGITIVES AND REFUGEES.

While this is an early instance of the recognition of the offence of scandalum magnatum, subsequently regarded as a heinous crime against the Lord’s anointed, and still, under the name of lèse majesté, punished with exemplary severity by many of the monarchs of Europe, it here assumes a broader significance than it did in later times, as it applies also to the people, and thus includes the torts of slander and libel.—[Ed.]