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

ADULTERIUM. ADVOCATUS. 17
2. ROMaN. Adulterium properly signifies, in instances under the emperors in which death was
the Roman law, the offence committed by a man, inflicted, it must be considered as an extraordinary
married or unmarried, having sexual intercourse punishment, and beyond the provisions of the
with another man's wife. Stuprum (called by Julian law. (Tacit. Ann. ii. 50, iii. 24; J. Lips.
the Greeks cpOopd) signifies the commerce with a Excurs. ad Tacit. Ann. iv. 42; Noodt, Op. Omn. i.
widow or a virgin. It was the condition of the 286, &c.) But by a constitution of Constantine
female which determined the legal character of (Cod. ix. 30, if it is genuine), the offence in the
adultery; there was no adultery unless the female adulterer was made capital. By the legislation of
was married. It is stated, however (Dig. 48. Justinian (Nov. ]34. c. 10), the law of Contit. 5. s. 13), that a woman might commit adultery stantine was probably only confirmed; but the
whether she was "justa uxor sive injusta," the adulteress was put into a convent, after being first
meaning of which is not quite certain; but pro- whipped. If her husband did not take her out in
bably it means whether she was living in a mar- two years, she was compelled to assume the habit,
riage recognised as a marriage by the Roman law and to spend the rest of her life in the convent.
or merely by the jus gentium. The male who The Julian law permitted the father (both
committed adultery was adulter, the female was adoptive and natural) to kill the adulterer and
adultera. The Latin writers were puzzled about adulteress in certain cases, as to which there were
the etymology of the word adulterium; but if we several nice distinctions established by the law.
look to its various significations besides that of If the father killed obley one of the parties, he
illegal sexual commerce, we may safely refer it to brought himself within the penalties of the Corthe same root as that which appears in adultus. nelian law De Sicariis. The husband might kill
The notion is that of "growing to,"' fixing," or persons of a certain class, described in the law,
"fastening to," one tiing on another and extra- whom he caught in the act of adultery with his
neonus thing: hence, among other meanings, the wife; but he could not kill his wife. The husRomans used adulterium and adulteratio as we band, by the fifth chapter of the Julian law, could
use the -word " adulteeltion," to express the cor- detain for twenty hours the adulterer whom he
rupting of a thing by mixing something with it of had caught in the fact, for the purpose of calling
less'value. in witnesses to prove the adultery. If the wife
In the time of Augustus a lex wam enacted was divorced for adultery, the husband was in(probably B.c. 17), intitled Ley Jdia de Aldel- titled to retain part of the dos. (Ulpian, Fr. vi.
triis coibcendlis, the first chapter of which repealed 12.) The authorities for the Lex Julia de Adulsome prior enactments on the same subject, with teriis, both ancient and modern, are collected by
the provisions of which prior enactments we are, Rein, Das Criminalreclht der RMnier, 1844. [G. L.]
however, unacquainted. Horace (CarGn. iv. 5. 21) ADVERSAIRIA, note-book, memorandumalludes to the Julian law. In this law, the terms book, posting-book, in which the Romans entered
adulterium and stuprum are used indifferently; but, memoranda of any importance, especially of money
strictly speaking, theSe two terms differed as above received and expended, which twere afterwards
stated. The chief provisions of this law may be transcribed, usually every month, into a kind of
collected from the Digest (48. tit. 5), from Paulus ledger. (Tab6lac jicstae, code accepti et expensi.)
(Sentent. Recept. ii. tit. 26. ed. Schulting), and Bris- They were probably called Adversaria, because
sonius (Ad Leges aJzliam De Adllteriis, Lib. Sing.). they lay always open before the eyes. (Cic. p. Rosc.
It seems not unlikely that the enactments re- Cone. 3; Prop. iii. 23. 20r)
pealed by the Julian law contained special penal ADVERSA'RIUS. [ACTOR.]
provisions against adultery; and it is also not ADU'NATI (&avaTo,), persons supported by
improbable that, by the old law or custom, if the the Athenian state, who, on account of infirmity or
adulterer wlas canght in the fact, he was at the bodily defects, were unable to obtain a livelihood.
mercy of the injured husband, and that the hus — The sum which they-received from the state apbalnd might punish with death his adulterous wife. pears to have varied at different times. In the
(Dionys. ii. 25; Suet. Ti. 35.) It seems, also, time of Lysias and Aristotle, one obolus a day
that originally the act of adultery might be pro- was given; but it appears to have been afterwards
secuted by any person, as being a public offence; increased to two oboli. The bounty was restricted
but under the emperors the right of prosecution to persons whose property was under three minae.
was limited to the husband, fiather, brother, pa- It was awarded by a decree of the people; belt
truus, and avuncnlus of the adulteress. the examination of the individuals belonged to the
By the Julian law, if a husband kept his wife senate of the Five Hundred: the payments were
after an act of adultery was known to him, and let made by prytaneias; Peisistratus is said to have
the adulterer off, he was guilty of the offence of been the first to introduce a law for the maintelenocinium. The husband or father in whose nance of those persons who had been mutilated in
power the adulteress was, had sixty days allowed war; but, according to others, this provision defor commencing proceedings against the wife, after rived its origin from a law of Solon. (Plut. Solon.
which time any other person might prosecute. 31; Schol. ad Aesch. vol. iii. p. 738, ed. Reiske
(Tacit. Ann. ii. 85.) A woman convicted of Aesch. c. Tins. p, 123; Harpocrat. Suid. Hesych.
adultery was mulcted in half of her dos and the s. v.; Lysias,'Tirep TO'AuvvarTov, a speech
third part of her property (bona), and banished written for an individual in order to prove that he
(relegata) to some miserable island, such as Seri- was intitled to be supported by the state; Bicklh,
phos, for instance. The adulterer was mnulcted in Public E con. of Athens, p. 242, &c. 2nd edit.)
half his property, and banished in like manner, ADVOCA'TUS seems originally to have signibut not to the same island as the woman. The fled any person who gave another his aid in any
adulterer and adulteress were subjected also to affair or business, as a witness for instance (Varr.
civil incapacities; but this law did not inflict the De Re Rust. ii. c. 5); or for the purpose of aiding
pumishment of death on either party; and in those and protecting him in taking possession of a piece
c