The Twelve Tables | Page 8

a private delict but as a breach of the public peace.
[38] Apparently an incantation against a person, for the ninth statute in
this Table treats such practice against property.
[39] The penalty points to an incurable maim or break, because the next
statute seems to provide for injuries which can be mended.
[40] Thus the injured person or his next of kin may maim or break limb
for limb. Cf. the Mosaic lex talionis recorded in Leviticus, 24. 17-21.
[41] Most scholars connect this fragment with damage to property and
conjecture that the rest of it must have been concerned with
compensation for accidental damage.
[42] That is, the animal which committed the damage may be
surrendered to the aggrieved person.
[43] From the context, wherein the unbracketed words are preserved,
we can reconstruct the sense of this statute.
[44] Not apparently into one's own fields, but to destroy these where
these were.
[45] Apparently into one's own fields by means of magical incantation.
[46] Properly the goddess of creation, occasionally (by extension) the
goddess of marriage, usually the goddess of agriculture, especially the

goddess of cultivation of grain and of growth of fruits in general.
Ceres is represented commonly as a matronly woman, always clad in
full attire of flowing draperies, crowned either with a simple ribband or
with ears of grain holding in her hand sometimes a poppy, sometimes a
scepter, sometimes a sickle, sometimes a sheaf of grain, sometimes a
torch, sometimes a basket full of fruits or of flowers, seated or standing
in a chariot drawn by dragons or by horses.
[47] That is, the slayer must call aloud, lest he be considered a
murderer trying to hide his own act.
Our sources leave it uncertain whether the law forbids that a thief be
killed by day, unless he defend himself, with a weapon, or the law
permits that a thief be killed, if he so defend himself.
[48] A southern spur of the Capitoline Hill, which overlooks the Forum,
and named after Tarpeia, a legendary traitress, who, tempted by golden
ornaments of besieging Sabines, opened to them the gate of the citadel,
of which her father was a governor during the regal period. As they
entered, the enemy by their shields crushed her to death: Tarpeia was
buried on the Capitoline Hill, whereon stood the citadel, and her
memory was preserved by the name of the Tarpeian Rock (Rupes
Tarpeia), whence certain classes of condemned criminals, in later times,
were thrown to their death.
[49] Our sources tell us that a person who searched for stolen property
on the premises of another searched alone and naked, lest he be deemed
later to have brought concealed in his clothing any article, which he
might pretend then to have found in the house, save for a loincloth and
a platter, on the latter of which he probably placed the stolen articles
when found. We hear also that a man could institute a search in normal
dress, but only in the presence of witnesses. If in the latter case stolen
goods were discovered, the thief on conviction was condemned to pay
thrice their value for furtum conceptum (detected theft). But in either
case, if the accused householder could prove that a person other than
himself for any reason had placed the stolen articles in his house, he
could obtain from that person on conviction damages of thrice their

value for furtum oblatum ("planted" theft). Search by platter and
loincloth (lanx et licium) became obsolete; search with witnesses
present survived.
[50] The ancient commentators take this statute to mean "double in
kind" not in value: for example, two cows surrendered for one cow
stolen.
[51] That is, neither a thief nor a receiver of stolen goods, whether
acquired through purchase or by other method, can acquire title to
property in stolen goods through long possession of such.
[52] The uncia (whence our "ounce") is the unit of division of the as
and is used also as one-twelfth of anything. One-twelfth of the principal
paid yearly as interest equals 8-1/3%.
[53] This originally is a religious penalty, whereby the person is
sacrificed. But sacer comes to mean "a person disgraced and outlawed
and deprived of his property."
[54] At a sale (mancipium or mancipatio) the buyer in the presence of
five adult citizens had his money weighed by another adult citizen who
held scales for this purpose.
This practice obtained originally ere the introduction of coinage.
[55] That is, enactments referring to a single citizen, whether or not in
his favor.
[56] Caput includes also privileges of citizenship (civitas).
[57] Commonly known as the comitia centuriata, an assembly which
comprised all citizens. To this assembly a citizen convicted in court on
a capital charge had the right of appeal (ius provocationis)