# Institutes of Gaius 4.1.20-25

Roman Law and Society, Institutes of Gaius, 4.1.20 to 4.1.25. Latin.

Canonical: https://interlinea.aeterna-institute.org/library/latin/roman-law-and-society/institutes-of-gaius/4.1.20

and by way of security, of a quantity of bronze or copper equal in value to double that of the property in controversy, half of which was lost by the one who was defeated, was originally the only method of civil procedure among the Romans. Little of the Judicis Postulatio is known to us but the name, which has reference to an application to the magistrate to appoint a judge or arbiter to hear the case, after joinder of issue; and therefore, that it made provision for arbitration. The Condictio was strictly a personal action for the recovery of a certain sum of money which had either been loaned, or paid by mistake. It was introduced as a convenient substitute for the preceding and more complex forms. The plaintiff, by appearing before the Prætor, could force the defendant to agree ( condicere ) to have a judge appointed within thirty days. The Manus Injectio enabled a surety who had paid the debt, to seize and imprison the principal until the latter had fully reimbursed him, if six months had elapsed after payment. The Pignoris Capio , as stated in the text, lay for the enforcement of obligations to soldiers for subsistence and pay, as well as to enable magistrates to compel parties against whom judgments had been rendered to comply with them. In effect, it was almost identical with levying a distress under the English law. The last two of the legis actiones , rather belong to the category of legal processes or forms of execution, than to lawsuits, in the strict sense of the term. We are indebted to Gaius for the most complete account of these curious old methods of judicial procedure and which, while far from satisfactory, is still more detailed than those of other Roman writers on jurisprudence, who, for the most part, only vaguely refer to the subject. The legis actiones were nominally abolished B. C. 167. — ed.

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Roman Law and Society, Institutes of Gaius. Text: The Latin Library (thelatinlibrary.com), used with permission. Changes: HTML markup removed and the text divided into reading sections by Interlinea.
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