Poine: a study in ancient Greek blood-vengeanceTreston, Hubert Joseph
History
Poine: a study in ancient Greek blood-vengeance
Treston, Hubert Joseph
Criminal law (Greek law); Greece -- Civilization; Greek drama (Tragedy) -- History and criticism; Homicide (Greek law); Vendetta
When homicide occurred between members of different clans, death was
never inflicted on the slayer, except in the last resort. It was,
perhaps, in order to avoid this fate, that the slayer sometimes fled
into exile. But it is doubtful if his flight cancelled any part of the
wergeld except his own individual share, or the ‘spear-penny’ which he
was expected to collect, if he was poor. It is certain however that the
life of the slayer was never exposed to danger from the relatives of the
victim so long as he remained in exile. That there were variations in the
matter of accepting exile as part-payment of wergeld will be obvious from
the following facts which we cite also as illustrations of the survival
of wergeld in a modified form under feudal or ecclesiastical rule.
In the _Canones Wallici_, a code of laws which operated in Wales in the
seventh century A.D., we find[35] that the slayer pays half the total
wergeld, and his relatives pay half. The wergeld at this time consisted
of three male slaves and three female slaves: if the slayer went into
exile his half was cancelled, but his relatives had still to pay their
half, or to follow him into exile. In the Burgundian homicide-laws of
the fifth century A.D. we find[36] that the penalty for the murder of a
freeman was death. The older wergeld penalty, which was now abolished
for murder, was however retained in a certain form for minor degrees of
guilt. Thus, for manslaughter, we have a list of blood-ransoms arranged
according to the rank of the victim: for the unintentional slaying of a
noble, the penalty was a payment of 300 solidi: for that of an ordinary
man, 200 solidi, and so on. For slaying a person in self-defence, the
penalty was reduced to one-half in each case. Amongst the laws of the
early Norman Kings of England we find[37] the following, attributed
to Henry I, in which a group of neighbours known as guild-brethren
(_congildones_) are compelled to supplement the payments of the kindred.
‘If anyone commit homicide of this kind, let his relatives pay as
much wergeld as they would have received if he (the slayer) had been
killed: if the slayer have relatives on the father’s side and not on
the mother’s, they pay as much as they would have received, that is,
two-thirds the wergeld: if the slayer has only maternal relatives, they
pay one-third the wergeld, the _congildones_ one-third, and himself
one-third: if he has no maternal relatives, the _congildones_ pay half,
and himself half.’ The manner in which feudalism gradually substituted
the conception of murder as an insult to a king or to a lord for the
older conception of it as an injury to the clan is clearly seen in the
following law[38] attributed to King Henry I: ‘If the slain man has no
kindred ... half shall be paid to the king, and half to the _congildones_
(of the victim).’ In one portion of the Salic law we read[39] that if
anyone slays a kinsman and goes into exile, his goods are confiscated to
the royal treasury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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