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If you are interested in how much people have valued a human life, in money units, throughout history, I can give you at least one recommendation. Medieval Ice
by innguest 12y ago
If you are interested in how much people have valued a human life, in money units, throughout history, I can give you at least one recommendation.
Medieval Iceland lived for 300 years without a government. Murder was punished by fine or exile, or becoming a slave or worse, an outlaw, if they refused to pay their debt to the victim's kin. This period is very well documented. Maybe you could find the exact value murderers were fined. That would give us a data point for 1000 years ago.
- Detrus 12y agoSame was true in Germania when Rome invaded it. And Roman law at the time called for execution to punish murder, which did not go over well in Germania. And at one point in ancient Rome theft carried more severe punishment than murder. Germania was a poor province, when Rome tried taxing it, they got very little. Maybe it seemed wasteful to Germans to kill yet another man after losing one, when they could profit instead. To the Romans, prevention was the priority.