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[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 it is certainly the case that self-help played a legally recognized role [8], and modulated self-help is furthermore mooted for Hittite law [5]. Widespread use of the word 'judge' (DI.KU5/ dajjānum) from the Old Akkadian period (24th/22nd cents.…

('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 treated in the juridical writings; it was not regarded as an issue of law. The apportioning of the burden of proof was probably not observed as strictly as it is today…

[German version] According to Gai. Inst. 4,42 adiudicatio is that part of the trial formula giving the judge legally operative powers. These were required in the three actions for partition ( familiae erciscundae, communi dividundo, finium regundorum), because they were used to divide the existing items of property among the parties, or in the case of the last-named action, to clarify the dividing line. For this purpose the judge could both allocate legal items relating to the law of property (property, mortgage, usufruct, etc.) a…

[German version] In criminal proceedings the sentencing of the accused (Cic. Verr. 2,75). In civil proceedings the condemnatio is according to Gai. Inst. 4,43 that part of the proceeding formula that grants a private judge in the context of the suit brought forward (  intentio ) and the statement of facts (  demonstratio ) the power to sentence or acquit ( qua iudici condemnandi absolvendive potestas permittitur). It is only required in payment suits. Gai. Inst. 4,48ff. further states that condemnatio relates to a sum of money ( condemnatio pecuniaria). This restriction (which was o…

[German version] (lit. 'prior legal proceedings'). Already under Roman law, the fact that different law-courts had different jurisdictions could in certain circumstances prevent the final resolution of a case until the legal question at issue had been clarified by the competent court. Examples of such questions might include the allocation of inheritances, the ownership of a piece of land or the existence of a capital offence. There was, however, no general precedence of the iudicia publica ( iudicium ) over actiones privatae. To resolve the tensions between the as yet unres…

[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 (the physical bringing forward of the defendant). According to the Twelve Tables (tab. 1,1; tabulae duodecim ), the latter was permitted when the defendant did not voluntarily follow the order of the plaintiff to appear in front of the court magistrate ( vocatio in ius ). The defendant co…

[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 singulares Augusti, 26, later 28, years in the navy), often even several years later. Invalids received early missio causaria. Severe misconduct was punished by dishonourable discharge ( missio ignominiosa). Veterans who were dimissi honesta missione or 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 detailed terms in the Twelve Tables (3,3-5; Gell. NA 20,1,45), hold the man prisoner, albeit still as a free man. If the addictus was un…

I. Archaeology and urban studies [German version] A. Definition and Function Latin term for market, market place; rarely also the forecourt of a tomb (in the meaning of Greek drómos, e.g. Cic. Leg. 2,61) or part of a wine press (Varro, Rust. 1,54; Columella 11,2,71). As the mercantile and administrative centre of a Roman city ( Town/City), the forum, which took the form of a large open space framed by buildings, was essentially the equivalent of the Greek  agora. A location at the intersection of the   decumanus and   cardo in the city centre is the rule in …

[German version] A criminal offence that corresponds with modern obstruction of evidence and so implies a more or less definite obstruction of evidence in Roman civil procedure. Tabulae are written notes that served, e.g., to safeguard evidence; as such they belong to the evidence classified by Quintilian ( instrumenta, Inst. 5,5,1ff.). Paulus, Christoph Georg (Berlin) Bibliography G. Klingenberg, Das Beweisproblem beim Urkundendiebstahl, in: ZRG 96, 1979, 229-257 C. Paulus, Die Beweisvereitelung in der Struktur des dt. Zivilprozesses, in: Archiv für die civil…

[German version] is an argument and interchange which can take place in the Senate or in judicial (criminal or civil) proceedings. In the latter case altercatio stands in contrast to the self-contained lecture oratio continua regularly given at the beginning of a hearing by the counsel of both parties. As proceedings progressed they repeatedly gave rise to debate, due to evidence recorded or other findings, on the status of the dispute and the legal situation; it took place in the form of an altercatio, shown as an example in Dig. 28,4,3. Oratio like altercatio was the field of action f…

[German version] The advocatus, as ‘one called on’, developed from adviser to the ultimate legal adviser in the late classical period (around AD 200). At first advocatus referred to a usually influential person, who supported someone as an act of friendship in court proceedings (both in criminal and -- notorious for being more boring, Cic. Opt. Gen. 9 f. -- civil law) -- simply by his presence or by his legal knowledge (general knowledge acquired through his training and education); cf. Ps.-Asc. on Cic. in Caec. 11. Here he is distinguished (at least theoretically) from the patronus, who …

[German version] In contrast to the right to have recourse to a court that is guaranteed by modern constitutional law, the judge in (Classical) Roman antiquity was allowed to declare that he considered himself unable to come to a decision: rem sibi non liquere (Gell. NA 14,2,25) when he could not condemn or acquit according to procedural formula ( formula ). If he swore an oath to this effect, the parties could have the same legal dispute heard by another judge. The same applied to an arbiter (Dig. 4,8,13,3) appointed by a private arbitration agreement and to c…

[German version] Literally ‘speaking law’. Where iurisdictio was split into various stages of procedure (in particular in iure, apud iudicem), it means the sovereign powers conferred on a Roman court magistrate for observing judicial practice. This term was originally used for private judicial practice, but in the 2nd cent. AD it was also extended to criminal judicial practice and to the procedure of cognition (  cognitio ), in the context of which iurisdictio describes the official judicial competences as a whole - in other words also the authority to pass judgemen…

[German version] Literally probably (from secare, 'to divide') a neutral person independent of the parties. According to the late Classical Roman jurist Modestinus (3rd cent. AD), sequester is the person to whom several entrust an item that is the subject of a dispute (Dig. 50,16,110). Until this period, the parties generally deposited the item whose replevy they disputed voluntarily and out of court. In occasional cases, e.g. Dig. 43,30,3,6 (custody of a child), however, the praetor could also make an official order for…

[German version] with the meaning of ‘receive, obtain’ (cf. Dig. 50,16,71pr.) characterizes several juristically relevant processes: as accipere hereditatem for instance (Dig. 28,5,77) the actual receipt of a legacy; as accipere censum the acceptance of a ‘tax declaration’ from the person liable to tax (Dig. 50,4,1,2); as accipere iudicem in more ancient times the acceptance of a judge appointed by a magistrate, later replaced by the meaning of a judge agreed between the parties. The meaning ‘accept’ refers for instance to accipere legem the acceptance of a law by the people; accipere…

[German version] The legis actio (LA) was the earliest form of Roman civil procedure and, therefore, characterized by considerable formality. It owed its name to a law from which the suit received its immutability but which Gaius (Inst. 4,11) was already at a loss to explain entirely. The formalities that had to be observed in this type of proceeding, which was reserved for Roman citizens and included precise repetition of certain formulas as well as correctly performing the required actions (Gai. I…

[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 fighting style of the  phalanx, but it remained in use when, in the 4th cent. BC, the Romans adopted a more flexible set-up in maniples (  manipulus ). According to Livy (Liv. 8,8,5-13), whose account, however, is not without its problems, in 340 BC the Roman army consisted of three battle rows, the hastati, the principes and the triarii. The triarii were a…

[German version] (‘Dispute announcement’) is a form of the Roman procedural opening that was in use for a relatively short time (essentially in the 4th cent. AD) but then stopped being practised because of its ponderousness. Its characteristic feature is that the litis denuntiatio (LD) addressed by the plaintiff to the defendant in written form is served upon the latter not directly and immediately but on the basis of a statement of claim application ( postulatio simplex) with the permission or even with the help of the court. This form of opening therefore represents a…

[German version] As a counter-exception, the replicatio was the means in the Roman civil formula procedure for the claimant to rebut an exception ( exceptio ) of the respondent. The latter then had recourse to a duplicatio, the former then to a triplicatio, etc. All these objections were incorporated into the trial formula ( formula ) and thus constituted the dispute presentation debated and substantiated before the iudex . An example of the replicatio is shown in Dig. 44,2,9,1, where the claimant is enabled to reply to the objection of legal force to the effect that …