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[German version] (excessive claim, cf. Cod. Iust. 3,10) - or, more commonly, plus petere - is a figure of Roman law intimately related to the artful construction of the formula in the Roman formula procedure. The pluspetitio led to sanctions or reactions in procedural law, which could range from loss of a case to corrective action (as today with the award of legal costs) within a legal dispute. According to Gaius [2] (Inst. 4,53ff.; 68), classical Roman law of the 1st-3rd cents. AD distinguished between four manifestations of the pluspetitio: re, tempore, loco, causa (factual, temporal, local or causal). Examples would be a claim for an excessively large ( re) sum or a sum that was not yet due ( tempore, the decisive deadline being the litis contestatio ), or a claim lacking indication of the agreed place of performance ( loco, cf. Dig. 13,4), or where a claimant demanded a particular performance and thereby deprived the respondent of his material elective right ( causa). If the pluspetitio was contained in the intentio of the formula, this led cat…

[German version] The attestation of a legal transaction (for its validity) or another action (as evidence in a trial) according to Roman law. The enforceability of legal positions has always been dependent on the possibility of proving the conditions for their coming into existence. The importance of witnesses for criminal proceedings is evident; however, it was no less so for civil trials. Although documentary evidence surpassed the evidence of witnesses for the latter branch of law toward the end of Antiquity,…

[German version] ‘Laying on hand’ occurs twice in connection with the most ancient type of Roman trial, the legis actio : first, anyone wishing to accuse another may, if the defendant refuses to attend, force him to appear before the praetor by manus iniectio, i.e. the use of force. The defendant may escape only by means of a vindex (a person who guarantees the appearance of the defendant at a fixed later date; see lex XII tab. 1-4). The second context for this a measure of compulsion - also involving a vindex - was that of the enforcement of a confirmed debt ( legis actio per manus iniectionem, lex X…

[German version] means the affirming repetition of a formal contractual declaration by the magistrate. It is already attested as such by Gell. NA 17,2,10 for Twelve Tables proceedings. Macrob. Sat. 1,16,14 refers to do, dico, addico ( tria verba sollemnia) as the words probably ceremoniously and formally pronounced by the magistrate during the most important steps in conducting the case, which were, moreover, only permissible on dies fasti (Varro, Ling. 6,30). The magistrate's affirmation was probably the most constitutive law-creating act, occurring for instance in in iure cess…

[German version] can in a legal context be any communication made to another person, orally or in writing, in pursuit of a legal objective. The person making the declaration and the person receiving it do not have to be private individuals but can also be office-holders or even the curule aediles' edict (Dig. 21,1,37). If such a communication is addressed to someone who is absent, it is termed …

[German version] Arbitration, unlike criminal and civil jurisdiction, which operate with the force of the state, is invoked voluntarily by the disputing parties. It has neither been proven nor completely refuted that because of this lack of state influence arbitration represents the beginning of all jurisdiction (thus for Rome esp. [1]). In Roman sources in any case arbitration has an independent position alongside all three types of state trial (  …

[German version] A central concept of Roman  procedural law, it appears in several different senses: in the wider sense for the whole process, in the narrower sense (esp. in the context of the legis actio and formulary procedure which are divided into different procedural stages) for the last stage which took place before the judge (  iudex ). Upon transition to the cognitio procedure (  cognitio ) and concomitant elimination of the procedural stages, iudicium then only referred to the whole process for which the word processus has been in habitual usage since the MA. Additional …

[German version] In general civil law the specific designation of a thing or person (Dig. 6,1,6). This term lies at the origin of the interpretative formula falsa demonstratio non nocet (‘a wrong expression does not affect the matter's validity’), which was used by the Romans mainly when interpreting a will (Inst. Ius. 2,20,30) and which is still current today. In the context of civil proceedings demonstratio, set out at the beginning of a large number of legal arguments, refers to the concise exposition of the circumstanc…

[German version] is occasionally used generally for a demand or a request in Roman law as a synonym of petitio . For a Roman formula lawsuit in the 3rd cent. AD (in the context of the edict title de postulando; cf. also Cod. Iust. 2,6) Ulpian defines postu…

[German version] In Roman law, satisdatio (the giving of a security) constituted a special form of the cautio (warranty). Anyone obliged to the satisdatio had to provide a guarantor at regular intervals (Dig. 2,8,1). The guarantor had to be idoneus (“fit”, i.e. solvent); this could be established by an arbiter (a judge with administrative discretion) (Dig. 2,8,9 and 10 pr). It was also a fundamental requirement that the bondsman was of the same legal status as the party furnishing security. Cases in which a satisdatio could be arranged by the praetor or where it was even prescribed ipso ju…

[German version] A lawsuit brought before the praetor concerning credited money or some other res certa could be concluded before the   litis contestatio if the plaintiff made the defendant take an oath on the validity of the claim involved in the suit. The defendant hereupon had the choice of paying or denying the claim; the latter is the abiuratio (Isid. Orig. 5,26,21). If he abjured, the plaintiff's   actio…

[German version] The PB (confiscation of goods) was practiced at Rome as a consequence of a conviction from time immemorial (cf. Liv. 2,5,2; 2,8,2; 3,55,7). The PB originally surrendered the culprit and his assets as a consecratio (dedication) to the deity in the sense of a proscription (probably destruction of belongings, perhaps also transfer to temple property). In the later Republican period (probably from 169 BC, cf. Liv. 43,16,10), it developed into a (mandatory) supplementary punishment in case of conviction for certain political offences, probably an expression of the incipient civil war atmosphere of the 2nd cent. BC, as well as for crimes sued under martial law. Thereafter, from the Principate, the PB started to become disengaged from these individual offences, instead being connected with the nature of punishment for (seri…

[German version] A term adopted into contemporary languages in the meaning of ‘appeal against a sentence’, appellatio in Rome originally referred only to prevention by magisterial decree. An intercessory action of this kind connects the areas of meaning of appellatio and   provocatio , (Cic. Quinct. 65; Liv. 3,563; Plin. HN 6,90). They caused immediate and irrevocable discontinuance of the current process or action as well as, in some cases, referral to the person invoked or a new decision by him. In p…

[German version] Either the payment order pronounced in a civil law trial (Dig. 2,12,6: iudicatum facere vel solvere), or the entire judgement; the latter primarily in the expression res iudicata; e.g. Dig. 42,1,1: res iudicata dicitur, quae finem controversiarum pronuntiatione iudicis accipit: quod vel condemnatione vel absolutione contingit (‘ res iudicata is the end of the proceeding that has been brought about by the judgement, which is either sentencing or acquittal’). In the masculine form iudicatus means a sentenced person, e.g. Dig. 42,2,1: confessu…

[German version] In most of the lawsuit formulae reported by Gaius (but also by others, e.g. Dig. 46,4,18,1) the blanket name Aulus Agerius (= is qui agit), stands for the plaintiff, where the actual name is to be inserted in the specific case (expressly the l. Rubria: CIL I 205), while the defendant is called Numerius Negidius (= is a quo numerati…

[German version] Literally, ‘one who dispenses justice’, i.e. ‘judge’. Usually, this means the individual judge in Roman law ( iudex privatus; iudex unus) who in a separate stage of the proceeding that usually ended a legal dispute ( apud iudicem) conducts the deliberation of the evidence and passes a judgement roughly suggested by the  praetor in the first proceeding stage ( in iure,   ius ). While the term iudex was already exchangeable with that of   arbiter at the time of the Law of the Twelve Tables (5th cent. BC), the   recuperatores and   centumviri constitute sep…

[German version] From re-capere, li…

[German version] The term editio is derived from the verb edere (‘to present, to show, to announce’) and has several meanings within the legal realm: (1) The editio actionis (Dig. 2,13) refers to the announcement required, in order for a trial to be sub judice in the formulary procedure, from the plaintiff towards the defendant, stating the type of charge(-formula) the plaintiff intends to initiate against the defendant. As long as the defendant accepts the formula ( …

[German version] [1] Aphorism, v. Gnome [1] II A; Proverbs Aphorism, v. Gnome [1] II A; Proverbs Paulus, Christoph Georg (Berlin) [German version] [2] Legal verdict Literally etymologically derived from the root sin, the sense of something uttered; in Roman legal terminology, e.g. the sense of a private legal action (cf. e.g. Dig. 28,1,1 on a tes…

[German version] is the formalised notice of a witness, associated with a tweak of the ear (Plin. HN 11,103), before the permitted use of force by the plaintiff against a defendant who does not comply with the in ius vocatio and does not offer any …

[German version] describes according to Gai. Inst. 4,15 an agreement of the parties to appear on the day after next before a iudex (Fest. 355,1; Prob. 4,9: in diem tertium sive perendinum; for Roman calculations of court dates cf. Gell. NA 10,24,9), as had already been provided for in the Twelve Tables. It did not require the form of a stipulation because the consequences of missing it were considered sufficient as a sanction. How the transition from the procedure …

[German version] The principle of sentencing to a fine associated with formulary procedure (Gai. Inst. 4,48) made it necessary in civil procedure for all actions not aimed at a fixed sum to be expressed in money value. Both process and result of the estimate required for this are called aestimatio litis.; it was carried out by the judge, or sometimes by the plaintiff ( …

[German version] (literally: ‘death of a lawsuit’). According to Gai. Inst. 4,104 a means introduced by the l. Iulia iudiciorum privatorum specially for the iudicium legitimum…

[German version] A court orator who appears in court as a champion of a party. Whilst Cic. De or. 1,202 uses the term in an obviously derogatory sense as being distinct from a true orator, and whilst a similar evaluation is evident in Gai. Dig. 1,2,1 ( causas dicentibus), causidicus is later applied in inscriptions (CIL 5,5894) and constitutions as a neutral vocational title alongside (Cod. Iust. 2,6,6) or identical (Cod. Theod. 2,10,5) to   advocatus . As such, a causidicus belonged to the state controlled professional association (Cod. Iust. 2,7,11, 1) of orators appearin…

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[German version] The written formula is the essential component of the type of trial which replaced the   legis actio procedure; by means of the lex Aebutia, 2nd cent. BC, as well as the two leges Iuliae, 17 BC) and which consequently is generally described as a formula trial. Despite a slow development, this classical procedural type is distinguished from its predecessor by having far greater flexibility and by being more adaptable to individual cases in the late Republic and the Principate. The text of the suit was no longer ceremonial and…

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[German version] This type of Roman trial developed from the reign of Hadrian (2nd cent. AD) as a special form of the civil inquiry of cognizance ( cognitio ). Its peculiarity consisted in the fact that the decisive legal issue (i.e.…

[German version] is the debtor in a process of legal action who, after being convicted, had not paid the sum owed within 30 days and had consequently been brought before the magistrate by the creditor by means of manus iniectio and had been handed over by the magistrate by   addicere to the creditor for enforcement. If the debtor did not pay or provide a vindex at the latest before the magistrate, the creditor could take the addictus home with him and, according to …

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[German version] [1] Guarantor in Roman procedural law A vindex, (probably with the same etymology as vindicta ) was a guarantor in Roman procedural law. He played a role in two parts of the trial--in the summoning and in the execution, each time in the context of the manus iniectio…

[German version] [1] Dismissal from Roman military service The word missio was a technical term for dismissal from Roman military service. During the Principate, honesta missio usually followed after completion of the normal period of service (20 years in the legions, 16 in the praetoriae cohortes, 25 in the Auxilia and the equites …

[German version] I. In civil law Defensor is not a technical legal term for the defence counsel (but probably nevertheless thus in Quint. Inst. 5,3,13), but rather had various meanings, especially as the sponsor of the defendant primarily in a civil case, and here particularly of the absent defendant ( indefensus). To take on such a defence was the duty of a friend (Dig. 4,6,22 pr.). Termed defensor civitatis, he is also the judicial representative of corporations ( universitates, Dig. 3,4,1,3), above all of statutory public bodies (e.g. communities, provinces; cf. CIL X,1201 and passim).  Advocatus Paulus, Christoph Georg (Berlin) Bibliography R. M. Frakes: Some Hidden Defensores Civitatum in the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus, in: ZRG 109, 1992, 526-532 Kaser, RZ, 164, 437 …

('probation'; 'test'; 'evidence'; 'proof'.) [German version] I. Law In Roman law, probatio included, without clear distinction, the central phase in every civil trial: the hearing of the evidence as a whole, the issue of apportioning the burden of proof and, finally, the list of submissions of evidence. The hearing of evidence by the iudex ('judge') is scarcely…

[German version] [1] Legal term There are many different senses of deductio in specialized legal language: in civil case-law the expression in iudicium deducere usually indicates the transition of the dispute to the judgement stage, and so approximately corresponds to the modern concept of pendency. Deductio in domum is the ceremonial introduction of a wife into her husband's house (Dig. 23,2,5). A further frequent use of …

[German version] I. Alter Orient Even in the cuneiform laws (Cuneiform, legal texts in) going back to the middle of the 3rd millennium, it is impossible to discern an epoch in which it was true that virtually only the strong were able to claim their rights [7]. On the basis of Old Babylonian letters and some stipulations of the Codex Ḫammurapi…

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[German version] [1] Public announcement by magistrates Edictum (from edicere) is a binding public announcement by Roman office bearers (  magistratus ), which presented either concrete orders or a ‘governmental agenda’ [1. 58] for the coming term of office. The word suggests an originally oral announcement [2. 178], but the historically documented form is a recording on an   album (‘white wooden plate’) at the magistrate's office. Literary tradition refers to edicts by   …

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[German version] [1] Hasta, hastati In the Roman army of the middle Republic, the hasta served primarily as a thrust lance for close combat although it could also be thrown; it had a wooden shaft and an iron point. The hasta was adapted to the…