Parricide

Parricide (Latin "parricida", killer of a close relative) stemming from (Latin "parri", alike or equal, and "-cida", -cide, or killer) is defined as:

Various definitions exist of the term parricide. The biggest discrepancy is whether or not the killing has to be defined as a murder (usually killing with malice aforethought) to qualify as a parricide.

In pre-revolutionary France, cases of notoriously accidental killings were still treated as parricides, with the offenders facing the extra harsh penalties destined for authors of such heinous crimes.

Ancient Rome had a unique punishment for parricide, which is described in gruesome detail in Steven Saylor's novel Roman Blood, based on one of Cicero's actual murder trials. The felon was severely scourged, then sewn into a stout leather bag with a dog, a snake, a rooster, and a monkey, and the bag was thrown into the river Tiber. Plutarch records that the old laws of Romulus had no penalty for parricide because it was considered a crime too evil ever to be committed. Lucius Hostius reportedly was the first parricide in Rome, sometime after the 2nd Punic War.