Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

tied up with personality and reputation, iniuria reflects a wider variety of cultural values (and some of the most Roman-specific ones) than other areas of law. So, for instance, it is clear that a woman’s reputation was normally thought of in terms of her reputation for chastity. Interestingly, the same seems to have been true for youths of either sex. Adult men, on the other hand, were not thought to be insulted by implications that they were sexually aggressive or available. Another point about gender is made by the rules for derivative iniuria . Men could be insulted by actions against related women, but the reverse did not hold. Men had broader responsibility (a fact that they used in turn to justify greater authority). Iniuria law also makes explicit other kinds of social hierarchy. Under a variety of circumstances the court could find that an act of iniuria was especially offensive ( atrox ). One of these circumstances involved iniuria done to a person of distinguished social rank by a person of lower rank. In the American law of defamation, the famous have less pro tection for various reasons, among them the idea that these people can defend themselves. The Roman law reflected the opposite view: these people had more reputation to lose, and so their loss was worth more.

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