Vivianus was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

jurist of the second century.

Ulpian Ulpian (; la, Gnaeus Domitius Annius Ulpianus; c. 170223? 228?) was a Roman jurist born in Tyre. He was considered one of the great legal authorities of his time and was one of the five jurists upon whom decisions were to be based according to ...

quotes his decision with regard to whether

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

s behaving in a strange or unbalanced manner should be considered defective goods, so that a purchaser could return them for a refund.

Vivianus' opinion

Under the law as stated by the aediles, property could be returned for ''vitium'', a fault or defect; but Vivianus gives the example of a slave who formerly behaved as if under some religious hysteria, but no longer did so. In this case, he explained, there was no longer any ''vitium'', and a purchaser could no more bring an action against the seller for sale of defective goods than if the slave had been sick, but since recovered. If, on the other hand, the slave persisted in his fanatical behaviour, then a ''vitium'' could still be said to exist; but Vivianus still concluded that the purchaser would have no action, because the aediles only intended for an action to be brought in the case of physical defects, and not mental ones.''Slaves and Religions in Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Modern Brazil'', Stephen Hodkinson, Dick Geary, eds., Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2012), pp. 84, 85.

References

Ancient Roman jurists 2nd-century Romans {{AncientRome-law-stub