Riflessioni in tema di 'parricidium'

The article examines the historical development of parricidium in Roman law. It begins by highlighting that, in the legal framework of the regal period, parricidium was subsumed, from a criminal law perspective, under the broader crime of homicide, while from a religious point of view the perpetrator would have been persecuted by the furies of the divi parentum. The study then traces the emergence of parricidium as a distinct offence during the Republican era, marked by the introduction of the poena cullei through a lex. The essay proceeds to analyse whether the lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis provided a substantive regulation for parricide or merely subjected it to the jurisdiction of the quaestio de sicariis. The focus then shifts to the lex Pompeia de parricidiis, examining its provisions and the conduct it sanctioned, with particular reference to the distinction between the killing of parentes and other relatives. Conclusively, the article highlights the evolving interpretation and expansion of the notion of parricide over time, which culminated in Constantine’s broad nuncupatio parricidi.