The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · ¶198

8. The nocturnal mischief of damaging or destroying a neighbor’s corn. The criminal was suspended as a grateful victim to Ceres. But the sylvan deities were less implacable, and the extirpation of a more valuable tree was compensated by the moderate fine of twenty-five pounds of copper.

Edward Gibbon · Project Gutenberg #734 (Milman edition) — public domain
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