Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1l8l VENEFICIUM. VENEFICIUT.
third relief is supposed by Mazois to represent the many as a hundred and seventy matrons lwere con.
training of a bestiarius. The latter has a spear in demned. (Liv. viii. 18; compare Val. Max. ii. 5.
each hand; his left leg is protected by greaves, ~ 3; August. De Civ. Dei, iii. 17.) We next read of
and he is in the act of attacking a panther, whose poisoning being carried on upon an extensive scale
movements are hampered by a rope, which fastens as one of the consequences of the introduction of the
him to the bull behind him, and which accordingly worship ofBacchus. (Liv. xxxix. 8.) [DIONYSIA, p.
places the bestiarius in a less dangerous position, 413.] In B. c. 184, the praetor,Q. Naevius Matho,
though more caution and activity are required than was commanded by the senate to investigate such
if the beast were fixed to a single point. Behind cases (de veneficiis quaerere): he spent four months
the bull another man stands with a spear, who in the investigation, which was principally carried
seems to be urging on the animal. The fourth on in the municipia and conciliabula, and, according
woodcut represents a man equipped in the same to Valerius of Antiurnm, he condemned 2000
way as the matador in the Spanish bull-fights in persons. (Liv. xxxix. 38. 41.). We again find
the present day, namely, with as-word in one hand mention of a public investigation into cases of
and a veil in the other. The veil was first em- poisoning by order of the senate, in B. C. 180,
when a pestilence raged at Rome, and many
i ~ r~ I ~-9i of the magistrates and other persons of high rank
b1 had perished. The investigation was conducted
in the city and within ten miles of it by the
__ praetor C. Claudius, and beyond the ten miles
by the praetor C. Maenius. Hostilia, the widow
of the consul C. Calpurnins, who had died in that
year, was accused of having poisoned her husband,
ployed in the arena in the time of the emperor and condemned on what appears to have been mere
Claudius. (Plin. H. N. viii. 21.) suspicion. (Liv. xl. 37.) Cases of what may be
VENEFI'CIUM, the crime of poisoning, is called private poisoning, in opposition to those
frequently mentioned in Roman history. Women mentioned above, frequently occurred. The speech
were most addicted to it; but'it seems not im- of Cicero in behalf of Cluentius supplies us with
probable that this charge was frequently brought several particulars on this subject. Under the
against females without sufficient evidence of their Roman emperors it was carried on to a great exguilt, like that of witchcraft in Europe, in the tent, and some females, who excelled in the art.
middle ages. We find females condemned to were in great request. One of the most celebrated
death for this crime in seasons of pestilence, when of these was Locusta, who poisoned Claudius at
the popular. mind is always in an excited state the command of Agrippina, and Britannicus at that
and ready to attribute the calamities under which of Nero, the latter of whom even placed persons
they suffer to the arts of evil-disposed persons. under her to be instructed in the art. (Tacit.
Thus the Athenians, when the pestilence raged in Annal. xii. 66, xiii. 15; Suet. Net. 33; Juv. i.
their city during the Peloponnesian war, supposed 71.)
the wells to have been poisoned by the Pelopon- The first legislative enactment especially directed
nesians (Thucyd. ii. 48), and similar instances against poisoning was a law of the dictator Sullaoccur in the history of almost all states. Still Lex Cornelia de Sicariis et Veneficis - passed in
however the crime of poisoning seems to have B. c. 82, which continued in force, with some
been much more frequent in ancient than in alterations, to the latest times. It contained promodern times; and this circumstance would lead visions against all who made, bought, sold, pospersons to suspect it in cases when there was no sessed, or gave poison for the purpnse of poisoning.
real ground for the suspicion. Respecting the crime (Cic. pro Cluent. 54; Marcian, Dig. 48. tit. 8. s. 3;
of poisoning at Athens, see PHARMACON GRAPHE. Inst. 4. tit. 18. s. 5.) The punishment fixed by
The first instance of its occurrence at Rome in this law was, according to Marcian, the deportatio
any public way was in the consulship of M. in insulam and the confiscation of property; but it
Claudius Marcellus and C. Valerius, -B.- c. 331, was mare probably the interdictio aquae et ignis,
when the citywas visited by a pestilence. After since the deportatio under the emperors took the
many of the leading men of the state had died by place of the interdictio, and the expression in the
the same kind of disease, a slave-girl gave informa- Digest was suited to the time of the writers or
tion to the curule aediles that it was owing to compilers. [IJE CORNELIA, p. 687.] By a sepcisons prepared by the Roman matrons. Follow- natusconsultum passed subsequently, a female, who
ing her information they surprized about twenty gave drugs or poison for the purpose of producing
matrons, among whom were Cornelia and Sergia, conception even without any evil intent, was banboth belonging to Patrician families, in the act of ished (r-clegatus), if the person to whom she adpreparing certain drugs over a fire; and being ministered them died in consequence. By another
compelled by the magistrates to drink these in the senatusconsultum all druggists (p9nerwentarii), who
forum, since they asserted that they were not administered poisons carelessly " purgationis causa,"
poisonous, they perished by their own wickedness. were liable to the penalties of this law. In the
Upon this further informations were laid, and as tilne of Marcian (that of Alexander-Severus) this