Parricide, the monstrous, and the enemy Being cast “outside the law” in the ancient Roman world

The penalty reserved for parricide in Roman antiquity is highly unusual. However, this punitive action does not lack meaning as it shows justice seeking to establish the extremity of the offence committed by the criminal, who has challenged the very foundation of social organization. The offender is thus expelled from the city, just like those individuals whom Rome viewed as monstrous. The procedure against parricide seems to herald contemporary understandings of enemy criminal law.