Our sources leave it uncertain whether the law forbids that a thief be
killed by day, unless he defend himself, with a weapon, or the law
permits that a thief be killed, if he so defend himself.

[48] A southern spur of the Capitoline Hill, which overlooks the
Forum, and named after Tarpeia, a legendary traitress, who, tempted by
golden ornaments of besieging Sabines, opened to them the gate of the
citadel, of which her father was a governor during the regal period.
As they entered, the enemy by their shields crushed her to death:
Tarpeia was buried on the Capitoline Hill, whereon stood the citadel,
and her memory was preserved by the name of the Tarpeian Rock (Rupes
Tarpeia), whence certain classes of condemned criminals, in later
times, were thrown to their death.

[49] Our sources tell us that a person who searched for stolen
property on the premises of another searched alone and naked, lest he
be deemed later to have brought concealed in his clothing any article,
which he might pretend then to have found in the house, save for a
loincloth and a platter, on the latter of which he probably placed the
stolen articles when found. We hear also that a man could institute a
search in normal dress, but only in the presence of witnesses. If in
the latter case stolen goods were discovered, the thief on conviction
was condemned to pay thrice their value for _furtum conceptum_
(detected theft). But in either case, if the accused householder could
prove that a person other than himself for any reason had placed the
stolen articles in his house, he could obtain from that person on
conviction damages of thrice their value for _furtum oblatum_
("planted" theft). Search by platter and loincloth (_lanx et licium_)
became obsolete; search with witnesses present survived.