I hope this does not come-off to you as random. I was reading Livy, and it reminded me of Dred Scott (December 1875). I only know the basics of Dred Scott. He was a runaway slave who was recaptured. The case was of regional significance (with national implications) because it was suppose to decide, once and for all, whether or not new states entering the union would be a slave state or not--slave or free? The SCOTUS decision was supposed to keep America out of the Civil War, which it failed at. Thats all I know. Anything else is a faux pas, as I would be pretending to know more than I know. While reading Livy, however, I discovered an eerily similar jurisprudence in ancient Roman case law c. 449 BC. Verginia was the daughter of Verginius, a Roman soldier who was sent to fight a war against the encroaching Greeks, who were constantly at the Romans. Apparently, Verginius was sent away in a conspiracy concocted by the sick man, Appius Claudius, and his controversial decemvirs, to kidnap and debauch Verginia while her father was away at war. The decemvirs, which codified Roman law according to Solon or Greek morality, was the ruling body at that time. They were only recently established on the 302nd anniversary of Rome. Before then, Rome was ruled by a king, two consuls, the tribune and then followed by the decemvirs. The so-called board of ten, as the body was also known, replaced the popular tribune, which was more acceptable by the commoners and the poor alike. Livy describes the conspiracy like the Dred Scott case. An arrogant Appius employed his pimp, whom he had given qualified immunity to, to kidnap Verginia, claiming that she was his slave and not Verginius biological daughter. But it was all a lie. He then brought his case before the rigged decemvirs, over which he sat, there eventually winning on a denial of appeal and after a couple of legal maneuvers made to look like the proceeding was fair. But, instead of giving away his daughter to a life of prostitution in a brothel--like Sethe from Toni Morrisons fiction Beloved--Verginius kills her on the spot while her fiance, Icilius, and the others watched in horror.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 06:04:02 +0000
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