Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/98

 92 THE FAMILY. BOOK II.. companied with a sacrifice to the gods.' Every trans- fer of property needed to be authorized by religion. If a man could not, or could only with difficulty, dispose of" land, for a still stronger reason he could not be deprived of it against his will. The aj^propriation of land for public utility wa3 un- known among the ancients. Confiscation was resorted to only in case of condemnation to exile" — that is to 8ay, when a man, deprived of his right to citizenship, could no longer exercise any right over the soil of the city. Nor was the taking of property for debt known in the ancient laws of cities.^ The laws of the Twelve Tables assuredly do not spare the debtor; still they do not permit his property to be sold for the benefit of the creditor. The body of the debtor is held for the debt, not his land, for the land is inseparable from the family. It is easier to subject a man to servitude than to take his property from him. The debtor is placed in the hands of the creditor ; his land follows him, in some sort, into slavery. The master who uses the physical strength of a man for his own profit, enjoys at the same time the fruits of his land, but does not become the proprietor of it. So inviolable above all else, is the right of property."* ' Stobffius, 42. ^ A law of the Eijeans forbade the mortgaging of hind. Aris- tot., Polit., VII. 2. Mortgages were unknown in ancient Eonian law. What is said of mortgages in the Athenian law before Solon is based on a doubtful passage of Plutarch. to insolvent debtors, we read, Si volet suo vivito ; then the debtor, having become almost a slave, still retains something for him- self; his land, if he has any, is not taken from liim. The ■rrangements known in lioman law under the names of fidu-
 * This rule disappeared in the democratic age of the cities.
 * In the article of the law of the Twelve Tables which relates