A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities/Abigei

by Various Authors

ABIG´EI, ABIGEATO´RES or ABACTO´RES, terms used to signify the class of thieves who commit the crime of cattle stealing (abigeatus), which was distinguished from ordinary furtum and punished as a special offence. Abigeatus was committed by stealing beasts of pasture, as horses, oxen, sheep, goats, and pigs; but only if the theft was of a sufficiently serious kind. The stealing of one horse and perhaps of an ox made the thief abigeus; but it was thought that to steal less than ten sheep, or than four or perhaps five pigs, was not abigeatus, but simple furtum. It was abigeatus, however, if the aggregate of sheep or pigs stolen on separate occasions amounted to the above numbers. It appears that a person who stole cattle was not abigeus unless it was his practice to steal cattle. (Dig. 47, 14, 1, § 1: et abigendi studium quasi artem exercent; but see Platner, De jure crim. quaest., p. 447.) An abigeus who took cattle from a stable was punished more severely than one who drove them from pasture ground. (Dig. 47, 14, 3, § 1, plenius coercendum ; but see Cujas, Obs. vi. 8.) Abigeatus was not prosecuted by a judicium publicum, but fell under the extra-ordinary jurisdiction of the magistrate, who punished it according to his discretion. The different punishments by which the crime was visited are enumerated in a rescript of Hadrian (Collat. xi. 7; Dig. 47, 14). They included different forms of death, the mines, and other kinds of penal servitude for a term or for life, but a person of superior rank was only liable to banishment (relegatio) and degradation from his rank. For an abigeus to carry arms was a great aggravation of his offence. Ulpian does not think the exposure of armed abigei to wild beasts too severe a punishment. Pastoral districts were at times devastated by armed and mounted bands of cattle stealers. (Paul. Sent. v. 18, de Abactoribus; Collat. xi. de Abigeatoribus; Dig. 47, 14, de Abigeis; Cod. ix. 37, de Abigeis; L. Platner, Quaestio de jure crim. pp. 445-449; Rein, Das Criminalfrecht der Röm. pp. 323-325, Leipzig, 1844.) [E.A.W]