Latin
Lines 1.782-1.786
Roman Law and Society, Institutes of Justinian 1.782-786
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8. The lex Cornelia also speaks of injuriae, and introduced an actio injuriarum, which may be brought when anyone alleges that he has been struck or beaten, or that his house has been broken into. And the term "his house" includes one which belongs to him and in which he lives, or one he hires, or one in which he is received gratuitously or as a guest.
9. An injuria is said to be of a grave character, either from the nature of the act, as if any one is wounded or beaten with clubs by another, or from the nature of the place, as when an injury is done in a theater, a forum, or in the presence of the praetor; sometimes from the quality of the person, as when it is a magistrate that has received the injuria, or a senator has sustained it at the hands of a person of low condition, or a parent or patron at the hands of a child or freedman. For the injuria done to a senator a parent or a patron is estimated differently from an injury done to a person of low condition or to a stranger. Sometimes it is the part of the body injured that gives the character to the injuria as if any one had been struck in the eye. Nor does it make any difference whether such an injuria has been done to a paterfamilias or a filiusfamilius, it being in either case considered of a grave character.
10. Lastly, it must be observed that in every case of injuria he who has received it may bring either a criminal or a civil actio. In the latter, it is a sum estimated, as we have said, that constitutes the penalty; in the former, the iudex, in the exercise of his duty, inflicts on the offender an extraordinary punishment. We must, however, remark that a constitutio of Zeno permits men of the rank of illustris, or any higher rank, to bring or defend the actio injuriarum if brought criminally by a procurator, as may be seen more clearly by reading the constitutio itself.