1Ulpianus, On Sabinus, Book XLIV. It is provided by the Julian Law on Peculation, that: “No one shall intercept, or appropriate for his own use, or do anything, by means of which another can remove, intercept, or employ for his own benefit, any money derived from sacred, religious, or public sources, unless he is authorized to do so by law; and no one shall add to, or mix anything with, gold, silver, or copper belonging to the government; or knowingly and fraudulently commit any act by means of which anything may be added to, or mixed with, the same, through which its value may be diminished.”

2Paulus, On Sabinus, Book XI. He is liable under the Julian Law relating to Balances who retains any public money destined for a certain use, and does not employ it for that purpose.

3Ulpianus, On Adultery, Book I. The penalty for peculation originally was the interdiction of water and fire, for which, at present, deportation has been substituted. Moreover, anyone who is placed in this position loses not only all his former rights but also his property.

4Marcianus, Institutes, Book XIV. He is liable under the Julian Law relating to Peculation who removes or appropriates any money destined for sacred or religious purposes. 1He is also liable to the penalty for peculation who abstracts anything which has been donated to Immortal God. 2Moreover, it is provided by the Imperial Mandates relating to sacrilege that the Governors of provinces shall search for all sacrilegious persons, robbers, and kidnappers, and punish them according to the gravity of their offences; and it is provided by the Imperial Constitutions that sacrilege shall be punished arbitrarily, by a penalty proportioned to the crime.

5Marcianus, Book XIV. He is liable under the Julian Law relating to Balances who retains in his hands any public money received from leases or purchases, the disposal of provisions or of anything else. 1Moreover, he who has received public money destined for any purpose, and retains it, and does not employ it for that purpose, is liable under this law. 2Anyone convicted under this law is punishable by a fine of a third more than what he owes. 3A place does not become religious in which a treasure is found; for, even though it may be found in a tomb, it is not seized as being religious. For what anyone is forbidden to inter cannot render a place religious, and money cannot be buried, as is provided by the Imperial Mandates, 4But when any public property is stolen, it is provided by the Constitutions of the Emperors Trajan and Hadrian that the crime of peculation is committed. This is the present practice.

6The Same, Rides, Book IV. The Divine Severus and Antoninus stated in a Rescript addressed to Cassius Festus that if the property of private individuals deposited in a temple should be stolen, an action for theft, and not one for sacrilege should be brought.

7Ulpianus, On the Duties of Proconsul, Book VII. The Proconsul should inflict the penalty for sacrilege either with greater or less severity or clemency, in accordance with the rank and condition of the culprit, taking into consideration the time, as well as his or her age and sex. I know that several magistrates have sentenced persons guilty of sacrilege to be thrown to wild beasts, others to be burned alive, and still others to be hanged on a gallows. The penalty, however, should be regulated by having those thrown to wild beasts who, with an armed band, have broken into a temple, and carried away the gifts of the gods by night; but where a person takes something of trifling value from a temple, he should be punished by being sentenced to the mines, or if he was born in a superior position, he should be deported to an island.

8The Same, In the Same Book. Those who make public money, or stamp it with a public die, and manufacture it for themselves outside of the mint, or steal it after it has been stamped, are not considered to have counterfeited it, but as having committed a theft of the common coin which resembles the crime of peculation. 1If anyone should steal any gold or silver belonging to the State, he shall, according to an Edict of the Divine Pius, be punished with exile, or sentenced to the mines according to his rank. Anyone who lends his stamp to a thief is considered to have been convicted of manifest theft, and becomes infamous. He who has unlawfully extracted gold from a mine, and melted it, is condemned to quadruple damages.

9Venuleius Saturninus, Public Prosecutions, Book II. The crime of peculation cannot be prosecuted after the lapse of five years.

10The Same, Public Prosecutions, Book III. Anyone who removes the brazen tablet of the law containing the boundaries of fields or anything else, or changes it in any way, is liable under the Julian Law relating to Peculation. 1He who erases anything from the public registers, or inserts anything therein, is liable under this law.

11Paulus, On Public Prosecutions. Persons convicted of sacrilege shall be punished with death. 1Persons guilty of sacrilege are such as purloin sacred articles belonging to the public. Those who appropriate sacred property belonging to persons, or chapels which are unguarded, deserve a more severe penalty than thieves, and a less severe one than sacrilegious persons. Therefore, careful consideration should be given to what is sacred, and to any acts which may be included in the crime of sacrilege. 2Labeo, in the Thirty-eighth Book of his Last Works, defines peculation to be the theft of public or sacred money, not made by him at whose risk it was at the time; and therefore the guardian of a temple, to whom property of this kind has been entrusted, does not commit peculation. 3In the same chapter, lower down, he says that not only the appropriation of public money, but also that of money belonging to private individuals, constitutes the offence of peculation, when anyone receives funds due to the Treasury pretending that he is the creditor of the latter; even though he may have taken, as his own, money belonging to a private person. 4He, also, who receives money for the purpose of transportation, or anyone else who assumes responsibility for money, does not commit peculation. 5The Senate ordered that those should be liable under the law against peculation who, without the order of the official in charge, permitted the examination and copying of public registers. 6He, also, who retains any public money destined for a certain use and does not employ it for that purpose is liable under this law; so Labeo says in the Thirty-eighth Book of his Last Works. Anyone who, departing from the province where he has held office, renders an account to the Treasury of the money remaining in his hands, and holds it, is not liable to an action to recover the balance, for the reason that he is a private individual indebted to the Treasury, and therefore should be classed among debtors; and he who is invested with authority can collect it from him, either by seizing his property, arresting him, or imposing a fine; but the Julian Law orders that, after the lapse of a year, this money shall be classed as a balance due.

12Marcianus, Public Prosecutions, Book I. He is liable under this law who enters upon the public registers a smaller amount than the proceeds of a sale or a lease, or who commits any other offence of this kind. 1The Divine Severus and Antoninus, having ascertained that a young man of very illustrious lineage had a small chest placed in a temple, and, after the temple was closed, emerged out of the chest and stole many things belonging to the temple, and afterwards again shut himself up in the chest, deported him to an island, after his conviction.

13Ulpianus, On the Edict, Book LXVIII. Anyone who perforates the wall of a temple, or steals anything by this means, is liable to the action for peculation.

14Marcellus, Digest, Book XXV. I am by no means guilty of peculation if I collect money from someone who is indebted to me as well as to the Treasury; for the money which I receive from the debtor of the Treasury is not misappropriated by me, because he still remains indebted to the Treasury.

15Modestinus, On Punishments, Book II. He who steals booty taken from the enemy is liable under the law relating to peculation, and shall be sentenced to pay quadruple damages.

16Papinianus, Questions, Book XXXVI. Public prosecutions for peculation, as well as those for appropriating balances, and for extortion, can also be brought against an heir; and this is not unreasonable, as the principle question involved has reference to the stolen money.