Kitap 11
1
Furthermore, we may infer that it was for the same reason—namely, since Italy at that time so abounded in cattle—that the fine was established which is called supreme, consisting of two sheep and thirty oxen each day, obviously proportionate to the abundance of oxen and the scarcity of sheep. But when a fine of that sort, consisting of cattle and sheep, was pronounced by a magistrate, oxen and sheep were brought, now of small, again of greater value; and this made the penalty of the fine unequal. Therefore later, by the Aternian law, Passed by the consul, A. Atinius, in 454 B.C. the value of a sheep was fixed at ten pieces of brass, of the cattle at a hundred apiece. Now the smallest fine is that of one sheep. The supreme fine is of that number which we have mentioned, beyond which it is not lawful to impose a fine for a period of successive days; That is, for a certain number of animals to be paid on a number of successive days. and for that reason it is called supreme, that is, greatest and heaviest.
