veneficium

vĕnēfĭcĭum, ii, n. [veneficus].

• A poisoning: de veneficiis accusare, Cic. Rosc. Am. 32, 90: qui tuis veneficiis remedia invenit, id. Phil. 13, 11, 25; id. Clu. 1, 1 sq.; Liv. 8, 18, 11; Val. Max. 2, 5, 3; Quint. 5, 7, 37; 5, 9, 11; 7, 3, 7: venefici damnari, Tac. A. 12, 66: deferre aliquem venefici reum, Plin. Ep. 7, 6, 8 al.—
• II The preparation of magic potions, magic, sorcery: subito totam causam oblitus est: idque veneficiis et cantionibus Titiniae factum esse dicebat, Cic. Brut. 60, 217; cf.: quosque veneficiis abstulit illa (Medea) suis, Ov. H. 6, 150; Plin. 18, 6, 8, § 41 sq.; 25, 2, 5, § 10; Petr. 128, 2.

venēficium, iī, n. (veneficus), I) die Giftmischerei, Vergiftung, auch meton. = der Gifttrank selbst, Liv., Plin. u.a. – II) die Zubereitung der Zaubertränke, die Zauberei, Bezauberung, Cic.: amoris veneficium, ein Liebestrank, Plin. – ➳ im Vulgärlatein auch beneficium, zB. Vulg. (Amiat.) 4. regg. 9, 22; sap. 18, 13 u. 9, 21; vgl. Thielmann in Wölfflins Archiv I, 79.

veneficium [CL] 1 practice of magical arts, witchcraft; b (applied to or assoc. w. use of poison). vel latrociniis, vel perjuriis, vel fornicationibus, vel ~iis, aliisque hujusmodi sceleribus Bede Prov. 1019D; paganissimus ‥ est, ut quis idola colat ‥ aut ~ium diligat seu homicidium furtivum efficiat ullo modo (Cons. Cnuti) GAS 313; plurimum substancie dissipavit in annosas vetulas, que ~iis et incantacionibus suis insanire facerent illam amore turpitudinis V. Chris. Marky. 23; Circen, quam veneficam fuisse inducunt, ab eo contemtam reor quia ~iis renuntiaverit Alb. Lond. DG 11. 11; si quis ‥ ~io interfecerit alterum, eo quod sine idolatria perficere scelus non potuit, nisi in fine impertiendam non esse illi communionem Rob. Flamb. Pen. 267.  b mulier Smirnensis adducta est confitens se maritum et filium datis clam venenis occidisse ‥ cum ‥ Dolobella rem in consilium deduxisset, non fuit qui in causa ‥ manifestum ~ium et parricidium auderet absolvere J. Sal. Pol. 535B; licet ~ium detestabile semper fuerit, venenum quo ille extinctus est orbis censuit esse vitale Ib. 789D; ne maculetur aliqua specie idololatrie vel per sortilegium vel per maleficium incantationum vel per ~ium herbarum et potionum T. Chobham Conf. 44; propter malitiam Eadburge filie Offe ‥ que quum esset venefica, compertum est ejus ~ium in quodam adolescente regi dulcissimo, quem illa veneno sustulit Silgrave 41. 2 poison (also fig.). omnes diabolicae malignitatis ministros, fures, sacrilegos, perjuros, fidei violatores, ~ii compositores ‥ diuturno aut perpetuo relegavit exsilio Osb. V. Dunst. 34; cultellum qui, ante ora comedentis infixus, sudore ‥ prodebat manubrii si quid tecto illatum esset venefitii W. Malm. GR IV 387; fugio ‥ urbem tantis obscenitatibus plenam; adulatorum ~io toxicatam suis adulatoribus derelinquo J. Sal. Pol. 487A; pictam hic ‥ invenies cum suis honestatem favoribus ‥ et cum suis turpitudinem odiosis flagiciis. hanc tibi vitandam proponimus pro ~iis, illam eligendam pro beneficiis Map NC V 1 f. 59v.

vĕnēfĭcĭum, (11) ĭī, n. (veneficus), confection de breuvage, ¶ 1 empoisonnement, crime dʼempoisonnement : de veneficiis accusare Cic. Amer. 90, accuser du chef dʼempoisonnement, cf. Cic. de Or. 2, 105 ; veneficii crimen Cic. Clu. 166, accusation dʼempoisonnement, cf. Cic. Clu. 2 ; venefici damnari Tac. Ann. 12, 66, être condamné pour empoisonnement ¶ 2 philtre magique, sortilège, maléfice : Cic. Br. 217 ; Plin. 18, 41.

veneficium , ii. n.
毒死人罪。巫害人。

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venēficium ī, n

• veneficus, a poisoning: qui tuis veneficiis remedia invenit: de veneficiis quaesitum est, L.—Magic, sorcery: id veneficiis Titiniae factum esse dicebat: Quosque veneficiis abstulit illa suis, O.: Esquilinum, H.

VENEFICIUM

VENEFI´CIUMthe crime of poisoning, is frequently mentioned in Roman history. Women were most addicted to it; but it seems not improbable that this charge was frequently brought against women without sufficient evidence of their guilt, like that of witchcraft in Europe, in the Middle Ages. We find them condemned to death for this crime in seasons of pestilence, when the popular mind is always in an excited state and ready to attribute the calamities under which they suffer to the arts of evil-disposed persons. Thus the Athenians, when the pestilence raged in their city during the Peloponnessian war, supposed the wells to have been poisoned by the Peloponnesians (Thucyd. 2.48), and similar instances occur in the history of almost all states. Still, however, the crime of poisoning seems to have been much more, frequent in ancient than in modern times; and this circumstance would lead persons to suspect it in cases when there was no real ground for the suspicion. Respecting the crime of poisoning at Athens, see PHARMACON GRAPHE

The first instance of its occurrence at Rome: in any public way was in the consulship of M. Claudius Marcellus and C. Valerius, B.C. 331, when the city was visited by a pestilence, After many of the leading men of the state had died by the same kind of disease, a slave-girl gave information to the curule aediles that it was owing to poisons prepared by the Roman matrons. Following her information, they surprised about twenty matrons, among whom were Cornelia and Sergia, both belonging to patrician families, in the act of preparing certain drugs over a fire; and being compelled by the magistrates to drink these in the forum, since they asserted that they were not poisonous, they perished by. their own wickedness. Upon this further informations were laid, and as many as a hundred and seventy matrons were condemned (Liv, 8.18; compare Val. Max.; Oros. iii 10;, August. de Civ. Dei, 3.17). next read of poisoning being carried on upoan an extensive scale as one of the consequences of the introduction of the worship of Bacchus (Liv. 39.8) [BACCHANALIA]. In B.C. 184, the praetor Q. Naevius Matho was commanded by the senate to investigate such cases (de veneficiis quaerere): he spent four months in the investigation, which was principally carried on in the municipia, and conciliabula, and, according to Valerius of Antium, he condemned 2000 persons (Liv. 39.38, 41). We again find mention of a public investigation into cases of poisoning, by order of the senate, in B.C. 180, when a pestilence raged at Rome, and many of the magistrates and other persons, of high rank had perished. The investigation was conducted in the city and within ten miles of it by the praetor C. Claudius, and beyond. the ten miles by the praetor C. Maenius. Hostilia, the widow of the consul C. Calpurnius, who had died in that year, was accused of having poisoned her husband, and condemned on what appears to have been mere suspicion (Liv. 40.37). In B.C. 154 two consulars were said to have been poisoned by their wives (Liv. Ep. xlviii.; Val. Max., 8). Cases of what may be called private poisoning, in opposition to those mentioned above, frequently occurred: so Quintil. 5.11, 39, nullam adulteram non eandem esse veneficam (cf. Auct. ad Herenn. 1, 23; Plin. Nat.2. § § 156-157). The speech of Cicero in behalf of Cluentius supplies us with several particulars on this subject. Under the Roman emperors it was carried on to a great extent, and some females who excelled in the art were in great request. One of the most celebrated of these was Locusta who poisoned Claudius at the command of Agrippina, and Britannicus at that of Nero the latter of whom even placed persons under her to be instructed in the art (Tac. Ann. 12.66, 13.15-Z2; Suet. Nero 33; Juven. 1.71). For a fuller list of poisoning cases, see Mayor's note on Juven. 1.70.

The first legislative enactment especially directed against poisoning was a law of the dictator Sulla--Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis--passed in B.C. 82, which continued in force, with some alterations, to the latest times. It contained provisions against all who made, bought, sold, possessed, or gave poison for the purpose of poisoning (Cic. Clu. 54, 158; Marcian, Dig. 48, 8, 3; Inst. 4.18, 5). The punishment fixed by this law was, according to Marcian, the deportatio in insulam and the confiscation of property; but it was probably in the earlier period the interdictio aquae et ignis, since the deportatio under the emperors took the place of the interdictio, and the expression in the Digest was suited to the time of the writers or compilers. [LEX CORNELIAp. 39.] By a senatusconsultum passed subsequently, a female who gave drugs or poison for the purpose of producing conception even without any evil intent, was banished (relegata) if the person to whom she administered them died in consequence. By another senatusconsultum all diruggists (pigmentarii) who administered poisons carelessly purgationis causa, were liable to the penalties of this law: [PHAIMACOPOLA. ] In the time of Marcian (that of Alexander Severus) this crime was punished capitally in the case of persons of lower rank (humiliores), who were exposed to wild beasts but persons of higher rank (altiores) were condemned to the deportatio in insulam (Dig. l. c.).

The word veneficium was also applied to potions, incantations, &c. (Cic. Brut. 60, 217; Petron. 118); whence we find veneficus and venefica used in the sense of a sorcerer and sorceress in general. [SUPERSTITIO] For the poisons employed, cf. Dioscor, de Venen., and other passages collected by Professor Mayor. It is noticeable that mineral poisons were unknown (Quintil. Lect. 350, p. 741 B). See further on this subject Rein in Paully.: s. v. veneficium, venenum; Mayor, l. c.

[W.S] [G.E.M]

Veneficium

The crime of poisoning which became common under the Empire, and even earlier, as is clear from the oration of Cicero for Cluentius. Several names of women have obtained an infamous immortality by reason of their skill as poisoners, among them Locusta, who poisoned Claudius at the desire of his wife Agrippina, and Britannicus, to please Nero. Poisoning was much resorted to by expectant heirs and by unfaithful wives. Mayor in his note on Juv. i. 70 has collected notices of the Roman causes célèbres that turn on charges of poisoning. By a law of Sulla , passed in B.C. 82 (lex Cornelia de Sicariis et de Veneficis), persons concerned in poisoning were punished by confiscation of property and deportatio in insulam. In later times, those of lower rank were thrown to wild beasts. On poisons for abortion, see abortio.