Barratry

Barratry, the corrupt administration of public office for private gain, is punished in the Fifth Bolgia of the Eighth Circle of Hell, a place reserved for the fraudulent. In Dante's Inferno, the barrators are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch, a substance that clings and conceals, mirroring the sticky, secretive nature of their crimes. The episode is one of the most theatrically vivid in the poem, dominated by a troop of demons called the Malebranche who torment the sinners with hooks and gaffs, and it includes a daring escape that exposes both the sin and the limits of demonic authority.

The Setting and the Sin

The Fifth Bolgia is described as a vast ditch filled with a dense, boiling pitch, "which upon every side the bank belimed" (E02938-E02939). The pitch is so thick that only bubbles appear on its surface, and the sinners, when they dare to show themselves, do so only briefly, like dolphins arching their backs or frogs poking their muzzles out of water (E03080-E03088). This concealment is the essence of barratry: the sin of those who, holding public trust, use their office for private enrichment, operating in the shadows of administration. The pitch, black and adhesive, is the perfect contrapasso—it hides the sinners even as it burns them, just as their corrupt dealings were hidden beneath the surface of lawful procedure. The episode is introduced by a demon who arrives carrying a sinner from Lucca, an "elder of Saint Zita," and hurls him into the pitch, declaring that all the officials of that town are barrators except one, Bonturo (E02958-E02963). This sweeping condemnation establishes the sin as endemic to civic life.

The Malebranche and Their Torments

The guardians of the Fifth Bolgia are the Malebranche, a squad of twelve demons with names that evoke their vicious natures: Malacoda (Evil Tail), Alichino, Calcabrina, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, Libicocco, Draghignazzo, Ciriatto, Graffiacane, Farfarello, and Rubicante (E03039-E03044). They are armed with hooks and grappling-irons, and they patrol the banks of the pitch, ready to seize any sinner who dares to rise above the surface. When Virgil and Dante first approach, the demons threaten them, but Virgil invokes the divine will that permits their journey, and the leader Malacoda orders his troop to stand down (E03000-E03008). Malacoda then deceives Virgil, telling him that the next bridge is broken and directing him to follow a path along the bank, accompanied by ten of the demons as an escort (E03027-E03047). This escort becomes a grotesque procession, with the demons making obscene signals to one another, including one who "had made a trumpet of his rump" . The comedy is dark and deliberate: the barrators, who abused their offices, are now policed by a bureaucracy of devils who are themselves treacherous and unreliable.

The Interrogation of Ciampolo

Among the sinners, the demons hook one named Ciampolo, a native of Navarre who served the good King Thibault and practiced barratry there (E03109-E03115). Under interrogation by Virgil, Ciampolo reveals the names of other notable barrators: Friar Gomita of Gallura, a "vessel of all fraud" who took bribes to release his lord's enemies, and Don Michael Zanche of Logodoro (E03142-E03151). Ciampolo, hoping to escape, offers to whistle up more Italian barrators from the pitch if the demons will withdraw a little (E03158-E03166). The demons, suspicious but greedy for sport, agree, and Ciampolo seizes the moment to dive back into the pitch, escaping their clutches (E03182-E03184). Two of the demons, Alichino and Calcabrina, pursue him but end up grappling with each other and falling into the boiling pitch themselves, where their wings become so fouled that they cannot rise (E03194-E03205). The episode ends with the remaining demons fishing their comrades out with hooks, leaving Virgil and Dante to slip away (E03206-E03212).

The Broader Significance of Barratry in the Poem

Barratry is a sin of fraud, which Dante, following Aristotle and Aquinas, considers more contemptible than violence because it abuses the trust that binds human society. The Fifth Bolgia is placed in the Eighth Circle, reserved for the fraudulent, and its punishment reflects the hidden, sticky nature of the crime. The boiling pitch is a substance that both burns and obscures, just as barratry burns the common good while hiding the perpetrator's hand. The demons who guard it are themselves embodiments of the sin's moral chaos: they are undisciplined, deceitful, and ultimately self-defeating, as their own internal quarrels allow a sinner to escape. The episode also serves as a political commentary, naming specific corrupt officials from Lucca, Sardinia, and Navarre, and implying that barratry is a universal plague on governance. In the broader structure of the Inferno, the Fifth Bolgia is a turning point: it is the last circle before the hypocrites, thieves, and traitors, and its grotesque comedy gives way to the more somber punishments that follow. The barrators, who sold their offices, are themselves sold out by their demonic keepers, a final irony in a system where every betrayal finds its match.