The ''lex Poetelia Papiria'' was a law passed in

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

that abolished the contractual form of

Nexum ''Nexum'' was a debt bondage contract in the early Roman Republic. A debtor pledged his person as collateral if he defaulted on his loan. Details as to the contract are obscure and some modern scholars dispute its existence. It was allegedly abolish ...

, or

debt bondage Debt bondage, also known as debt slavery, bonded labour, or peonage, is the pledge of a person's services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation. Where the terms of the repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, the pe ...

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

dates the law in 326 BC, during the third

consulship A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

of Gaius Poetelius Libo Visolus,Livy, ''History of Rome'' VIII.28, "The Perseus Digital Library". Retrieved on May 10, 2007. but

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...

dates the law in 313 BC, during the

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship a ...

of Poetelius's son.Varro. ''On the Latin Language: Book VII''. Trans. Roland G. Kent. ''On the Latin Language I: Books V-VII''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1938. pp. 359-361

References

External links

The Roman Law Library, incl. ''Leges''
Roman law Debt bondage {{AncientRome-law-stub

See also

References

External links