Mosaycarum et Romanarum legum collatio

T I T V L V S L

...is accustomed [to be acquitted], specifically if he did not commit it with the intention of killing: and he who has not killed, but intended to kill, is condemned as a murderer. Therefore, it must be determined from the matter itself from which he struck with iron. For if he drew his sword, or struck with a weapon, what doubt is there that he struck with the intention of killing? Thus if he struck with a stone, or a pot, or if he struck with iron while he happened to be quarreling, but not with the intention of killing. Therefore, seek this out, and if there was a will to kill, order the slave to be punished with the penalty of death according to the law.

PAUL in the fifth book, under the title mentioned above. HE WHO has killed a man is sometimes acquitted: and he who has not killed is condemned as a murderer. For the purpose of each person is to be punished, not the act. Therefore, he who, when he wished to kill, could not carry it out by some accident, is punished as a murderer: and he who has wounded a man with a weapon by accident, imprudently, is acquitted. But if a man was struck in a brawl, since one must also consider the blows themselves against each one, therefore the lower classes are condemned to the games or to the mines, and the more honorable are punished by the confiscation of half their goods and are relegated.

LIKEWISE GREGORIANUS in book IV "On the Cornelian Law concerning assassins and poisoners," puts forth such a constitution: EMPEROR Antoninus Augustus to Aurelius Herculanus and other soldiers. Your brother will have acted more correctly if he presents himself to the Governor of the province: to whom, if he proves that [the man] was struck by him not with the intention of killing...