De iure fisci et populi libri
Ex libro II
The Same, On the Rights of the Treasury, Book II. There are certain reasons for which the reputation of those who give information is not injured; for instance, when this is not done in order to obtain a reward, and where persons denounce an adversary for the purpose of avenging a wrong; or where anyone prosecuted the case in the name of a municipality; and it is to be observed that this has many times been set forth in the Imperial Constitutions. 1The Divine Hadrian stated in a Rescript addressed to Favius Arrianus: “There is no doubt that he injures his own case who, being able to introduce documents having reference to the case of the Treasury does not do so, when the truth cannot otherwise be ascertained, and the documents are suppressed because it is thought that they will injure his case. “But there is no question that the said documents will not injure any other case than the one in which their production is demanded.” 2In like manner, the Divine Brothers stated in a Rescript, in answer to the petition of Cornelius Rufus, that documents should be produced whenever an inquiry is made with reference to the right to receive property, or the right of ownership, or anything of this kind, in a pecuniary case, but not in one in which the death penalty is involved. 3The Senate decreed that, if neither the informer nor the possessor summoned by the three edicts should appear, the sureties of the informer will be liable; and he will be deprived of the right to bring an accusation afterwards in a public case, and the right of the possessor will remain the same as if he had not been denounced. 4Whenever an informer who has been ordered to appear fails to do so, and this is not proved to have been effected by the fraudulent conduct of the possessor, the Divine Hadrian stated in a Rescript that judgment should be rendered in favor of the latter, in such a way that it shall be mentioned therein that the informers are also included in the edict. 5The Divine Pius stated in a Rescript addressed to Cæcilius Maximus that the Constitution of his Father, by which an informer is required to give the name of his principal, and if he does not do so, he shall be placed in chains, does not cause the informer to be released from punishment, if he has a principal, but that the principal shall be punished, just as if he alone had made the denunciation. 6Our Emperor, Severus Augustus, decided that slaves who denounced their masters should not be heard, but should be punished; and also that freedmen who instigated other persons against their patrons should be punished by the Governors of provinces. 7Many Imperial Rescripts exist by which it is provided that no one is injured by a mistake, when, being ignorant of the law, he denounced himself. But there is also a Rescript of the same Emperor extant, by which it appears that it can be maintained that anyone who informs against himself will only not be injured in case he is such a person as can be ignorant of the law merely because of his rusticity, or where the person is a woman.
Callistratus, On the Rights of the Treasury, Book II. When an informer, who began proceedings alone without mentioning anyone as having directed him to do so, afterwards desists, giving as an excuse that the person who employed him has withdrawn, the Divine Brothers stated in a Rescript that he should be punished.