CALUMUNIA

Form: in old Latin Kalumnia.

The Latin word for slander. It was technically applied to false accusations. The falsely accused person, if acquitted, had the right of accusing the prosecutor in his turn on the charge of calumnia before the same jury. In civil cases the penalty was a pecuniary fine in; criminal cases the calumniator lost his right to appear again as a prosecutor, and in early times was branded on the forehead with a K.