Kitap 26
3.3
Finally, after many punishments of the kind, a charioteerSuch men used poison and magic against the horses of their rivals; cf. xxviii. 1, 27; 4, 25. called Hilarinus was convicted on his own confession of having entrusted his son, who had barely reached the age of puberty, to a mixer of poisons to be instructed in certain secret practices forbidden by law, in order to use his help at home without other witnesses; and he was condemned to death. But since the executioner was lax in guarding him, the man suddenly escaped and took refuge in a chapel of the Christian sect; however, he was at once dragged from there and beheaded.
3.4
But efforts were still made to check these and similar offences, and none, or at any rate very few, who were engaged in such abominations defied the public diligence. But later, long-continued impunity nourished these monstrous offences, and lawlessness went so far that a certain senator followed the example of Hilarinus, and was convicted of having apprenticed a slave of his almost by a written contract to a teacher of evil practices to be initiated into criminal secrets; but he bought escape from the death penalty, as current gossip asserted, for a large sum of money.
