Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Social Control

restricted only if they caused damage to the property or repu tation of the owner (Chapter 18). Over the course of the late Republic and early Empire, how ever, more and more of this behavior came to be discouraged or even criminalized. Vis , a criminal offense that originally encompassed riot and sedition, was extended “downward” to more private, individualized acts of violence (see Chapter 19). Public possession of weapons (at least in the city of Rome) was restricted by laws. At first (around 50 bc) this was on a tempo rary basis, but the rules were made permanent perhaps a few decades later. Augustus’ law on adultery restricted the right of retaliation. Many (though not all) of the traditional forms of self-help became actionable as defamatory (see the next section and Chapter 18). Duress became a reason to void contracts nor mally enforced without regard for external circumstance (see Chapter 12 on stricti iuris ) in 80 bc. The most important antiviolence developments, however, probably surround late second-/early first-century changes in the law of possession. In general, the praetors developed methods known as interdicts to protect possession of property (Chapter 14). There were several of these designed for somewhat different circumstances, but at least two forbid the use of force to recover property. All but one share a common set of excep tions. That is, they would not protect your possession of some property from various attacks if you had obtained it yourself by “force, stealth, or [temporary] permission of the owner.” The one interdict without these exceptions is also instructive. It is designed to grant recovery of land seized by organized

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