_Private Rights of Roman Citizens._
The right of liberty comprehended not only liberty from the power of
masters, but also from the dominion of tyrants, the severity of
magistrates, the cruelty of creditors, and the insolence of more
powerful citizens. After the expulsion of Tarquin, a law was made by
Brutus, that no one should be king at Rome, and that whoever should form
a design of making himself a king, might be slain with impunity. At the
same time the people were bound by an oath that they would never suffer
a king to be created.
Citizens could appeal from the magistrates to the people, and the
persons who appealed could in no way be punished, until the people
determined the matter; but they were chiefly secured by the assistance
of the tribunes.
None but the whole Roman people in the _comitia centuriata_ could pass
sentence on the life of a Roman citizen. No magistrate could punish him
by stripes or capitally. The single expression, "I am a Roman citizen,"
checked their severest decrees.
By the laws of the twelve tables, it was ordained, that insolvent
debtors should be given up to their creditors, to be bound in fetters
and cords, and although they did not entirely lose the rights of
freemen, yet they were in actual slavery, and often more harshly treated
than even slaves themselves.
To check the cruelty of usurers, a law was afterwards made that no
debtors should be kept in irons, or in bonds; that the goods of the
debtor, not his person, should be given up to his creditors.
The people, not satisfied with this, as it did not free them from
prison, demanded an entire abolition of debt, which they used to call
new tables; but this was never granted.
Each clan and family had certain sacred rights, peculiar to itself,
which were inherited in the same manner as effects. When heirs by the
father's side of the same family failed, those of the same gens
succeeded in preference to relations by the mother's side of the same
family. No one could pass from a Patrician family to a Plebeian, or from
a Plebeian to a Patrician, unless by that form of adoption which could
only be made at the _comitia curiata_.
No Roman citizen could marry a slave, barbarian or foreigner, unless by
the permission of the people.
A father among the Romans had the power of life and death over his
children. He could not only expose them when infants, but when grown up
he might imprison, scourge, send them bound to work in the country, and
also put them to death by any punishment he pleased.
A son could acquire no property but with his father's consent, and what
he thus acquired was called his _peculium_ as of a slave.
Things with respect to property among the Romans were variously divided.
Some were said to be of divine right, and were held sacred, as altars,
temples, or any thing publicly consecrated to the gods, by the authority
of the Pontiffs; or religious, as sepulchres--or inviolable, as the
walls and gates of a city.
Others were said to be of human right, and called profane. These were
either public and common, as the air, running water, the sea and its
shores; or private, which might be the property of individuals.
None but a Roman citizen could make a will, or be witnesses to a
testament, or inherit any thing by it.
The usual method of making a will after the laws of the twelve tables
were enacted, was by brass and balance, as it was called. In the
presence of five witnesses, a weigher and witness, the testator by an
imaginary sale disposed of his family and property to one who was called
_familiae emptor_, who was not the heir as some have thought, but only
admitted for the sake of form, that the testator might seem to have
alienated his effects in his life time. This act was called _familiae
mancipatio_.
Sometimes the testator wrote his will wholly with his own hand, in which
case it was called _hologr{)a}phum_--sometimes it was written by a
friend, or by others. Thus the testament of Augustus was written partly
by himself, and partly by two of his freedmen.
Testaments were always subscribed by the testator, and usually by the
witnesses, and sealed with their seals or rings. They were likewise tied
with a thread drawn thrice through holes and sealed; like all other
civil deeds, they were always written in Latin. A legacy expressed in
Greek was not valid.
They were deposited either privately in the hands of a friend, or in a
temple with the keeper of it. Thus Julius Caesar is said to have
intrusted his testament to the oldest of the vestal virgins.
A father might leave whom he pleased as guardian to his children;--but
if he died, this charge devolved by law on the nearest relation by the
father's side. When there was no guardian by testament, nor a legal one,
the praetor and the majority of the tribunes of the people appointed a
guardian. If any one died without making a will, his goods devolved on
his nearest relations.
Women could not transact any business of importance without the
concurrence of their parents, husbands, or guardians.