ABSTRACT
In Roman law, specically the Justinian Code (Justinian, Digest 48.8.12), perhaps the rst written law in which insanity was codied as an excuse for crime (Walker 1985), which preceded canonical law of the Roman Church, insane oenders had been treated with leniency because, although a “madman has ‘no will’” (Digest 1.18.14, 27), the oender’s insanity was considered to be punishment enough (“satisfurore ipso punitur” Walker [1968] citing the Digest [1.18.14]).
