Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Documents

Novius Eunus as a pledge. Also the spaces between the col umns in the lower level of the same granary, where he has 200 sacks of legumes, which he has received as a pledge from the same Eunus. Month-to-month from 1 July, at a rate of HS 1. Done at Puteoli. This document records two contracts: primarily a lease (of • storage space) but also a pledge (cf. [8] ) to a third party (of the grain stored there). This is not unlike modern rental agreements, where the goods stored serve as security for payments on the storage space. (It is likely, but not explicit, that the pledge is tied to the lease.) Roman law requires a cash price to make a valid lease, • but the amount here is purely nominal (imagine rent ing a space for a dollar or a pound per month). This sug gests that the two sides have a more complicated business relationship than the rental represented here. Eunus and Cypaerus are probably business partners, or even freed man and patron. Here Cypaerus is represented by his slave Diognetus. Since • Roman law did not like to create business agents, and since slaves could not own or acquire on their own behalf, they could be used to extend the reach of their owners, allow ing them to do business without showing up in person. The text clearly reads “I leased,” but some feel that this is a (mistaken) direct quotation, and that Cypaerus actually did the leasing. If so, then the same error also occurs in the next document.

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