[2] 6. To prevent
usurpation, it was established that every person who exercised an
authority not conferred on him by the people, should be devoted as a
victim to the gods.[3] This, was at once a sentence of outlawry and
excommunication; the Criminal might be slain by any person-with
impunity, and all connection with him was shunned as pollution. 7. No
magistrate could legally be brought to trial during the continuance of
his office, but when his time was expired, he could be accused before
the general assembly of the people, if he had transgressed the legal
limits of his authority. The punishment in this case was banishment;
the form of the sentence declared that the criminal "should be
deprived of fire and water;" that is, the citizens, were prohibited
from supplying him with the ordinary necessaries of life.
8. In all criminal trials, and in all cases where damages were sought
to be recovered for wrongs or injuries, the praetor impanelled a jury,
but the number of which it was to consist seems to have been left
to his discretion.
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