ONE MURDER, 400 VICTIMS
The punishment could be even worse than the crime
As we explore with Dr Southon, murder was all too common in Ancient Rome and was often used as a tool for personal advancement or maintaining the status quo. But the state could be just as ruthless in its punishments, as illustrated by the murder of Lucius Pedanius Secundus by an enslaved member of his household. “The reasons given for the murder vary,” explains Southon. “Either Secundus had promised the murderer his freedom and then rescinded the promise, or the man had been in love with Secundus’s catamite (an underaged sex slave) and wanted Secundus to free the boy from his ‘duties’. The murder itself was reasonably shocking in Rome but the consequences were all the more outrageous. A recent law had been enacted by the Senate which stated that when an enslaved person killed their enslaver, every single enslaved member of the household would be crucified. In this case, Secundus had a household of over 400 enslaved men, women and children, and some more freedmen, all of whom now had to be executed by the state.” This didn’t go without a response from the people of Rome, however. “Among the working people of the city there was uproar as 400 executions, including the executions of children, for the actions of one man appalled them,” says Southon. “But the Senate – all of whom were extremely well-off enslavers, surrounded by enslaved people day and night – debated the issue and came to the conclusion that it was necessary to go through with the executions in order to make sure that enslaved people remained afraid and crushed by the system. ‘The only way to control such a medley of people is through terror,’ a senator said according to Tacitus. ‘Innocent lives will be lost, but the individual injustices are outweighed by the advantages to the community.’ It took two attempts to carry out the crucifixions because protestors prevented the first go. The army had to be brought in to protect the executioners and all 400 people were executed.”