But, besides all those instruments of flagellation used for punishing Slaves, which have been mentioned above, and as if the terrible _flagellum_ had not been of itself sufficiently so, new contrivances were used to make the latter a still more cruel weapon; and the thongs with which that kind of scourge was made, were frequently armed with nails, or small hard bones. They also would sometimes fasten to those thongs small leaden weights: hence scourges were sometimes called _Astragala_, as Hesychius relates, from the name of those kinds of weights which the Ancients used to wear hanging about their shoes. Under the tortures which those different instruments inflicted, it was no wonder that Slaves should die: indeed this was a frequent case; and the cruelty, especially of Mistresses towards their female Slaves, grew at last to such a pitch, that a provision was made in the Council of Elvira to restrain it; and it was ordained, that if any Mistress should cause her Slave to be whipped with so much cruelty as that she should die, the Mistress should be suspended from Communion for a certain number of years. The following are the terms of the above Ordinance, in the fifth Canon. “If a Mistress, in a fit of anger and madness, shall lash her female Slave, or cause her to be lashed, in such a manner that she expires before the third day, by reason of the torture she has undergone; inasmuch as it is doubtful whether it has designedly happened, or by chance; if it has designedly happened, the Mistress shall be excommunicated for seven years; if by chance, she shall be excommunicated for five years only; though, if she shall fall into sickness, she may receive the Communion[23].” [Illustration: (decorative end of chapter icon)] FOOTNOTES: [17] ---- _Adsit Regula peccatis quæ pœnas irroget æquas, Nec Scuticâ dignum horribili sectere Flagello; Nam, ut Ferulâ cædas meritum majora subire Verbera, non vereor._ Lib. I. Sat. I. v. 117. [18] _Sectus flagellis hic Triumviralibus Præconis ad fastidium._ Lib. V. Ode IV. v. 11, 12. [19] _Ibericis peruste funibus latus._ Lib. V. Ode IV. v. 3. [20] _Erunt Bucædæ invitò, potius quàm ego sim Restio._ Mostell. Act. IV. Sc. II. [21] _Verberones_, _Subverbustos_.--The latter word literally signifies, _burnt with blows_: a figurative expression commonly used among the Romans, when they spoke of flagellations: thus, the words _flagrum_ and _flagellum_, had been derived from the word _flagrare_, which signifies _to burn_, and Horace, in a passage that will be quoted in page 66, says, _to be burnt_ with rods (_virgis uri_) for, _to be lashed_. [22] _Ad sua qui domitos deduxit flagra Quirites._ Juv. Sat. X. v. 99.