Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

798 NEXUM. NOBILES.
rand consequently could mancipate themselves either NO'BILES, NOBI'LITAS. In the early
matrimonii causa or fiduciae causa, whereby how- periods of the Roman state the Patricians were the
ever they did not, like the nexi, come into a con- Nobles as opposed to the Plebs. The Patricians
dition similar to that of slaves, but only into a possessed the chief political power and the distincstate of dependence similar to that of a child. tion which power gives. Livius, who wrote in
The nexi were, as a matter of course, in mancipio, the age of Augustus, and is not very careful in the
and consequently alieni juris, but for that very use of terms, often designates the Patricians by
reason greatly different from the addicti. How- the term Nobilis (vi. 42); and yet Nobilis, in its
ever, they could, like them, be put in chains, until proper historic sense, has a different meaning.
the power of putting debtors in chains was al- In B. C. 366, the plebeians obtained the right of
together abolished." being eligible to the consulship, and finally they
The meaning of the provision in the Twelve obtained access to all the curule magistracies.
Tables, cited by Gellius, as to cutting the debtor Thus the two classes were put on the same footing
in pieces has been a subject of much discussion. as to political capacity. Those plebeians who had
Taylor in his essay (Comment. ad L. Deceinvis'alen obtained a curule magistracy were thus elevated
de Inope Debitore in partis dissecando) attempts to above their own body, and the personal distinction
prove that Gellius misunderstood the old law, and of a father would confer distinction on his descendthat the words of the Twelve Tables " partis ants. It is in the nature of aristocratical institu.
secanto: si plus minusve secuerint se fraude esto," tions to perish if they are exclusive; but they
mean that the several creditors are intitled to have perpetuate themselves by giving a plebeian class
the " partis," that is, the " operae " of the addictus the power of entering within their narrow limits.
divided or distributed among them; and he goes on Those who are received within the body of nobles
to explain the rest of the law in these terms: are pleased at being separated from their former
" Communis sit servus eorum, qui quidem ad- companions, and are at least as exclusive in their
fuerint; et sine fraude esto, si ceteri toties proci.. notions as the original members of the class which
tati suas quoque partis in Debitore non vindica- they have joined.
verint." But the arguments of Taylor are by no This was the history of Nobilitas at Rome. The
means satisfactory. The conjecture that the descendants of plebeians who had filled curule
6" partis " are the shares of the creditors arising magistracies formed a class called Nobiles or men
from the sale of the debtor, is also unsupported by " known," who were so called by way of distinction
any proof. This monstrous enactment, if we take from " Ignobiles " or people who were not known.
it literally, shocks all our notions of humanity, but The Nobiles had no legal privileges as such; but
it has been well observed that it is by no means they were bound together by a common distinction
inconsistent with the spirit of the old Roman law; derived from a legal title and by a common interest;
and the fact of an actual division of a debtor's body and their common interest was to endeavour to
not being on record, is no proof against, and hardly confine the election to all the high magistracies to
furnishes a presumption against the existence of the members of their body, to the Nobilitas. Thus
such a law. The Romans had no prisons for the descendants of those Plebeians who had won
debtors. The creditor was the debtor's jailer, and their way to distinction combined to exclude other
we know that in the oldest time he was often a Plebeians from the distinction which their own
cruel keeper. When there were several creditors ancestors had transmitted to them.
who claimed the body of a debtor, he might be The external distinction of the Nobiles was the
kept by any one for the benefit of himself and the Jus Imaginum, a right or privilege which was aprest till the sixty days were over; but after that parently established on usage only, and not on any
time, if the creditors could not agree among them- positive enactments. These Imagines were figures
selves, there was no possible mode of settling their with painted masks of wax, made to resemble
conflicting claims than that which the law of the the person whom they represented (Plin. II. ir.
Decemviri gave them, and which they might adopt xxxv. 2. expressi cera vtieus); and they were
if they chose. Such a law could never be carried placed in the Atrium of the house, apparently in
into effect in any country, as the legislators must small wooden receptacles or cases somewhat in the
have well known, and thus while its terms fully form of temples (5SkAlva va'La, Polyb. vi. 53).
satisfied the claims of the creditors, in practice it The Imagines were accompanied with the tituli
may have turned out really favourable to the debtor. or names of distinction which the deceased had
(See the remarks of Gellius on this part of the acquired; and the tituli were connected in some
law, xx. 1.) But the solution of the difficulty is way by lines or branches so as to exhibit the
quite a different matter from the fact of its ex- pedigree (stemma) of the family. (Compare the
istence, which is in no way to be questioned be- passages quoted in Becker, p. 222, note 53.) These
cause we cannot explain it. Imagines were generally enclosed in their cases,
The various authorities on the subject of the but they were opened on festival days and other
Nexum and Addictio are referred to by Rein, Das great ceremonials, and crowned with bay (lanRInm. Privatreclht, p. 313, &c. The writer of this reatae): they also formed part of a solemn funeral
article has not had the advantage of seeing the procession. The most complete account of these
essay of Savigny, Ueher das altrimsischle Schlddrecl7t, Imagines is in the passage of Polybius, which has
Berlin, 1834. The whole subject is still en- been already referred to; but there is frequent
cumbered with difficulty, as will appear from a mention of them in the Roman writers.
reference to the various writers on this subject. These were the external marks or signs of a
The note of Walter (Geschichlte des MImsz. Rechts, Nobilis Familia; a kind of heraldic distinction in
p. 642. n. 6) appears to contain the true statement substance. The origin of this use of Imagines
as to the difference between the effect of a Nexum from which the notion of a Roman Nobilitas must
and a Res Judicata; but he rejects the notion of a not be separated, is uncertain. The term Nobilitas,
man selling or pledging himself. [G. L.] as already observed, is applied by Livius to a