United States or Turkmenistan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
SCELUS: this word looks chiefly to the criminal intention, whether it be carried into action or not, malum, facinus to the completed crime; flagitium is sin rather than crime, Facinus in sense is often rather narrower and lighter than scelus; cf. Verr. 5, 170 facinus est vincire civem Romanum, scelus verberare, prope parricidium necare.
Instead of being appointed when and as state-offences were committed, they had a general, though a temporary jurisdiction over such as might be perpetrated. Our proximity to a regular criminal jurisprudence is also indicated by the general terms "Parricidium" and "Perduellio" which mark the approach to something like a classification of crimes.
Word Of The Day