GakuseiDon

I did Latin at high-school but that was many years ago. I was hoping someone here might be able to help with a sentence from the Octavian please?

The sentence is in this passage:

"Et qui hominem summo supplicio pro facinore punitum et crucis ligna feralia eorum caerimonias fabulatur, congruentia perditis sceleratisque tribuit altaria, ut id colant quod merentur".

Doherty translates this as:

"And some say that the objects of their worship include a man who suffered death as a criminal, as well as the wretched wood of his cross; these are fitting altars for such depraved people, and they worship what they deserve"

The Roberts-Donaldson English Translation is:

"and he who explains their ceremonies by reference to a man punished by extreme suffering for his wickedness, and to the deadly wood of the cross, appropriates fitting altars for reprobate and wicked men, that they may worship what they deserve"

What I want to know is: does that passage say that the man was punished because he was wicked? Or is the more neutral sounding "as a criminal" correct? I was wondering what the sense of the passage is.

Thank you!

The Evil One

the key phrase seems to be pro facinore, which means (so far as I can tell as a non-speaker of Latin) "for bad deeds/crimes/villainy".

Attonitus

a man punished with death for his crimes

GakuseiDon

Thanks for that, guys! I thought that was the case. It makes more sense in the context of which it is used in Octavian.

I'd be interested if anyone disagrees with this?