The Twelve Tables | Page 4

If a water-course directed through a public place shall do damage to
a private person, to the [same] private person shall be [the right to bring]
an action (actio), that damage shall be repaired for the owner.
9. Branches of a tree may be lopped all around to a height of fifteen
feet.[34] If a tree on a neighbor's farm [be bent crooked] by the wind
[and] lean over one's farm, [one can take] legal action (agere) for
removal of that [tree or at least of the offending part of it].
10. [The owner of a tree] may gather its fruit which falls upon another's
farm.

TABLE VIII. TORTS OR DELICTS
1. If any person had sung or had composed a song,[35] which caused
slander[36] or insult to another person ... he should be clubbed to
death.[37]
2. A person who had sung an evil spell ...[38]
3. If a person has broken another's limb (membrum),[39] unless he
make agreement [for compensation] with him, there shall be retaliation
in kind (talio).[40]
4. If a person has broken or has bruised a bone with hand club, he [shall]
undergo a penalty of 300 [asses, if] to [an injured] freeman, [or] of 150
[asses,] if to [an injured] slave.
5. If a person shall have done [simple] harm (iniuria) to another,

penalties shall be 25 asses.
6. [If] a person shall have caused loss ... [41]
7. If a quadruped shall be said to have caused damage (pauperies),
legal action (actio) [shall be sanctioned] either for the surrender of the
thing which made the damage[42] or for the offer of assessment for the
damage.
8. [If a person] pasture [his] cattle [on a neighbor's land, he shall be
liable to a legal action].[43]
9. He who has enchanted crops[44] ... nor should he decoy another's
corn ... [45]
10. For pasturing on or for cutting secretly by night [another's] crops
acquired by tillage [shall be] in the case of an adult hanging and death
[by sacrifice] to Ceres;[46] a person under the age of puberty (under 15
years of age) [shall] either be scourged at the discretion [of the
magistrate] or make composition by [paying] double [damages] for the
harm [done].
11. Who shall have destroyed by burning a building or a stack of corn
set alongside a house is ordered to be bound, scourged, burned to death,
provided that knowingly and consciously he shall have committed this;
but if this be by accident [, that is] by negligence, either he is ordered to
repair the damage or, if he be too poor to be competent for such
punishment, he shall be chastised more lightly.
12. Any person who shall have felled wrongfully (iniuria) other
persons' trees shall pay 25 asses for every [tree].
13. If theft has been done by night, if [owner] has killed him (the thief),
he (the thief) shall be [held] killed lawfully (iure).
14. It is forbidden that a thief be killed by day ... Unless he (the thief)
defend himself with a weapon, even though he (the thief) shall have
come with a weapon, unless he (the thief) shall use that weapon and

shall resist, you shall not kill him. And even if he (the thief) resist, [you]
shall shout [, that some persons may hear and assemble].[47]
15. In the case of all other thieves caught in the act [it is ordained] that
freemen be scourged and be adjudged [as bondsmen] to the person
against whom the theft has been committed, provided that they had
done this by day and had not defended themselves with a weapon; that
slaves caught in the act of theft be whipped with scourges and be
thrown from the rock;[48] that boys below the age of puberty (under 15
years old) be flogged at [the magistrate's] discretion and that damage
done by them be repaired.
16. Thefts which have been discovered through [use of] platter and
loincloth [shall be punished just as if the culprits had been caught in the
act]. For cases of stolen goods discovered (furtum conceptum) [by other
means than by platter and loincloth] or introduced (furtum oblatum) the
penalty is triple [damages].[49]
17. If a person plead on case of theft, in which [the thief] shall not be
caught in the act, [the thief] shall compound for the loss by [paying]
double [damages].[50]
18. A stolen thing is debarred from prescription (usucapio).[51]
19. No person shall practise usury at a rate of more than
one-twelfth[52] ... [if he do,] a usurer shall be condemned for quadruple
[damages].
20. In a suit concerning an article deposited [with a person who has
failed to return the article] legal action (actio) for double [damages is
granted].
21. [If] guardians (tutor et curator) [be suspected of mal-administration,
there is] the right