PARRICIDE, the murder of one's parents or chil-
dren. By the Roman law, it was punished in a much
severer manner than any other kind of homicide. Af-
ter being scourged, the delinquents were sewed up in a
leathern sack, with a live dog, a cock, a viper, and an
ape, and so cast into the sea. Solon, it is true, in his
laws, made none a guilt of parricide; apprehending it im-
possible that one should be guilty of so unnatural a bar-
barity. And the Persians, according to Herodotus, en-
tertained the same notion, when they adjudged all per-
sons who killed their reputed parents to be bastards.
And upon some such reason as this must we account for
the omission of an exemplary punishment for this crime
in our English laws; which treat it no otherwise than
as simple murder, unless the child was also the servant of
the parent. Parricide.
For though the breach of natural relation is unob-
served, yet the breach of civil or ecclesiastical connexions,
when coupled with murder, denominates it a new of-
fence; no less than a species of treason, called parente
proditio, or petit treason; which, however, is nothing
else but an aggravated degree of murder; although,
on account of the violation of private allegiance, it
is stigmatized as an inferior species of treason. And
thus, in the ancient Gothic constitution, we find
the breach both of natural and civil relations ranked
in the same class with crimes against the state and fore-
ign.