Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
70.
_Why call they those who are deprehended or taken in theft, pilferie or such like servile trespasses_, Furciferos, _as one would say, Fork bearers_. IS not this also an evident argument of the great diligence and carefull regard that was in their ancients? For when the maister of the family had surprised one of his servants or slaves, committing a lewd and wicked pranck, he commaunded him to take up and carrie upon his necke betweene his shoulders a forked piece of wood, such as they use to put under the spire of a chariot or waine, and so to go withall in the open view of the world throughout the street, yea and the parish where he dwelt, to the end that every man from thence forth should take heed of him. This piece of wood we in Greeke call στήριγμα, and the Romanes in the Latin tongue _Furca_, that is to say, a forked prop or supporter: and therefore he that is forced to carie such an one, is by reproch termed _Furcifer_.
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