XXIX.10 That laws that seem contrary sometimes derive from the same spirit

, par Stewart

Today one goes into a man’s house to summon him to stand trial ; that could not be done among the Romans. [1]

The call to stand trial was a violent act, [2] and like a sort of corporal constraint [3] ; and you could no more enter a man’s house to summon him to trial than you can seize a man today in his house when he is condemned only for civil debts.

Roman laws [4] and ours equally admit the principle that the house of every citizen is his asylum, and no violence must be done to him there.

Notes

[1Law 18 following In jus vocando.

[2See the law of the Twelve Tables.

[3Rapit in jus (Horace, Satire 9). That is why one could not call to judgment those to whom one owed a degree of respect.

[4See law 18 following In jus vocando.