Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

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loan itself. On the other hand, even those “contracts” were technically just evidence of agreements that were created orally, by hand-over, or by the mere fact of agreement, so in practice a record like this might serve the same function. The debtor, Euplia, needs the approval of her tutor because • she is contracting an obligation. Since she is not a Roman citizen, it is not clear that the whole apparatus of guard ianship actually applied to her, but it may have seemed safer or just customary. Moreover, this extension of Roman practice may have been encouraged by the fact that many other legal systems of the day had at least roughly similar notions of guardianship of women. Titinia did not need any approval, since she did not acquire any new obligations. 15 September 39. I, Gaius Novius Eunus, have written that I owe HS 1,250 in cash to Hesycus Euenianus, slave of Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, left after all accounts have been calculated, which I received from him as a loan and which sum I promised on oath to Jupiter Best and Greatest and the guardian spirits of the late Augustus and of Gaius Caesar Augustus that I would return either to Hesychus himself or to Gaius Sulpicius Faustus next 1 November, and if I do not pay up on this day, I will not only be guilty of perjury, but I will be obliged in the amount of HS 20 per day as a penalty. Hesychus, slave of Gaius Caesar, asked for a formal promise for the above-mentioned [13] TPSulp 68

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