agnate relative on father’s side
arbiter person who decides outcome
of a dispute
chattel slave
comitium meeting place
cudgel short club
gens clan
hindrance problem
intestate without a will
magistrate judicial authority
majority age of maturity, when considered
adult
proletariat lowest class in Rome (within
plebeians); don’t own land
usucapio ownership based on long use
or possession
Table I. 1. If anyone summons
a man before the magistrate, he must go. If the man summoned
does not go, let the one summoning him call the bystanders to witness and then take him by force.
2. If he shirks or runs away, let the summoner lay hands on him.
3. If illness
or old age is the hindrance, let the summoner provide a team. He need not provide a covered carriage with a pallet unless he chooses.
4. Let the protector of a landholder be a landholder; for one of the proletariat,
let anyone that cares, be protector.
6-9. When the litigants settle their case by compromise, let the magistrate announce it. If they do not compromise, let them state each his own side of the case in the comitium of the forum before noon. Afterwards
let them talk it out together, while both are present. After noon, in case either party has failed to appear, let the magistrate pronounce judgment in favor of the one who is present. If both are present the trial may last until sunset but no later.
