Riflessioni sulla funzione emendatrice del castigo nel diritto romano di epoca classica
Reflections on the corrective function of punishment in classical Roman law

Summary/Abstract: The study investigates the corrective function of punishment in classical Roman law. Although well-known dictum of the jurist Paulus attests to this principle, evidence from the classical jurists attesting to such a function remains limited. A particularly instructive example is found in Callistratus (D. 48.19.28.3), who delineates a concrete set of sanctions aimed at the correction of the offender, without, however, excluding the application of the death penalty. The passage manifests a distinctly ‘curative’ conception of punishment, a paradigm that finds support in the literary tradition of non-juristic authors. Of particular note is Seneca, who – preceding Callistratus – formulated a theory according to which the emendatio of the offender represented a significant, though not indispensable, aim of punishment: where correction was impracticable, the offender remained liable to the death penalty. Despite the similarities that emerge from the comparison between the fragment of Callistratus and a passage of Seneca (ira 1.6.1-4), it is not possible to go beyond the conclusion reached by scholars: the theme of the emendatio of the reus, and more broadly the general theory regarding the function of penal sanctions, appears scarcely developed among classical jurists.

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