Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/183

Rh (nexum) of repayment. In addition to the capital, the debtor had to pay interest, which under ordinary circumstances probably amounted to ten per cent. per annum. The repayment of the loan took place, when the time came, with similar forms. If a debtor did not fulfil his obligations towards the state, he was without further ceremony sold with all that he had; the simple demand on the part of the state was sufficient to establish the debt. If on the other hand a private person lodged information with the king as to the deforcement of his property (vindiciæ), or if repayment of the loan received did not duly take place, the procedure depended on whether the facts relating to the cause required to be established by proof or were already clear. The latter cannot well be conceived in the case of actions as to property, but in actions as to loans the ground of action could be easily established according to the current rules of law by means of witnesses. The establishment of the facts assumed the form of a wager, in which each party made a deposit (sacramentum) against the contingency of his being worsted; in important causes when the value involved was greater than ten oxen, a deposit of five oxen, in causes of less amount, a deposit of five sheep. The judge then decided who had gained the wager, whereupon the deposit of the losing party fell to the priests for behoof of the public sacrifices. The party who lost the wager and allowed thirty days to elapse without giving due satisfaction to his opponent; and the party whose obligation to pay was established from the first (and consequently, as a rule, the debtor who had got a loan and had no witnesses to attest repayment) became liable to proceedings in execution, "by laying on of hands" (manus injectio); the plaintiff seized him wherever he found him, and brought him to the bar of the judge simply to demand the acknowledged debt. The party seized was not allowed to defend himself; a third party might indeed intercede for him and represent this act of violence as unwarranted (vindex), in which case the proceedings were stayed; but such an intercession rendered the intercessor personally responsible, for which reason, in the case of freeholders, other freeholders alone could act as intercessors. If neither satisfaction nor intercession took place, the king