Horace talks of the formidine fustis (l. ii. epist. ii. 154.), but Cicero (de Republica, l. iv. apud Augustin. de Civitat. Dei, ix. 6, in Fragment. Philosoph. tom. iii. p. 393, edit. Olivet) affirms that the decemvirs made libels a capital offence:
cum perpaucas res capite sanxissent — perpaucus!