5 ms·
> But it was not until the principate, when the stability and power of the Empire rested on the shoulders of a single man, that murder truly became a crime. Yo
by mikece 6y ago
> But it was not until the principate, when the stability and power of the Empire rested on the shoulders of a single man, that murder truly became a crime.
You would have to discount the entirety of Old Testament Judaic law, which goes back at least 5800 years, to make the claim that murder wasn’t a crime until the rise of the principate.
- Fezzik 6y agoThe oldest books of the Old Testament were written around 300-500 years BC... so many centuries after the events supposedly occurred. To say that those books are definitely indicative of what the law was 5,800 years ago seems like a bit of a stretch. Edit: spelling.
- samatman 6y agoMurder is mentioned in the first clause of the Code of Hammurabi, in 1700 BC. So that gets us 3,700 years back. But it, and the Bible, are irrelevant to Roman law, which is what's being discussed here.
- eximius 6y agoThe OT was an oral tradition predating it's written recording...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Fezzik 6y agoI knew my grandfather, who in my eyes was a god, and I embellish everything about him. He died in 2010. Think how muddled, exaggerated, revised, and dressed-up stories get over centuries... especially when they are not written down.
- eximius 6y agoSomewhat different cultures, I think. There are oral traditions where we can compare the written and oral records and see less deviation in the oral records over even long periods of time. I acknowledge that requires examples and citations and at one point I knew where to pull them up offhand.
- leoc 6y agoI think the author is referring specifically to the situation under Roman law here.