“An obviously deformed child….”
November 12, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
I teach about the ancient Greeks and Romans and one law from the Twelve Tables—the first written code of law among the Romans (449 B.C.)—and this law from Table IV has been on my mind:
Cito necatus insignis ad deformitatem puer esto.
An obviously deformed child must be put to death.
The words for “child” is puer; the word for “obviously deformed” is insignis ad deformitatem: insignis means “conspicuous” or “manifest”; deformitas means “ugliness,” “disfigurement,” “blemish.”
Puer is a big more vague: Its basic meaning is “boy” or “child,” and this leads me to wonder, how old of a child who was “conspicuously disfigured or blemished” was to be “put to death”?
And how ‘conspicuous?’ picky, picky, picky!
Insignis has somewhat the meaning of “marked” and “standing out.”