#Total war rome ii emperor edition nexus free

Īccording to the Augustan-era historian Livy, nexum was abolished because of the excessive cruelty and lust of a single usurer, Lucius Papirius.

#Total war rome ii emperor edition nexus free

Livy's narrative of the Gallic sack of Rome implies that many farmers became destitute due to disruption of the enemy army and, in the aftermath, he recounts agitation to free the plebs from bondage. The traditional accounts of the early Republic, with their depiction of the patriciate's domination over Roman public land ( Latin: ager publicus), imply that inequality in land ownership forced peasants into exploitative servitude to work land for the patriciate. History ĭebt bondage was common both in Rome and other archaic societies as a consequence of poverty coupled with the limited and variable carrying capacity of the land. An indebted paterfamilias, or legal head of the Roman household, might offer his son for nexum, instead of himself. Creditors might profit more from a nexum contract, as they received a motivated contractual worker instead of a slave. Though nexi were often beaten and abused by their creditors, they maintained (if sometimes only in theory) their Roman citizenship and rights.

ĭespite constraining a free person's liberty ( libertas), nexum was probably preferred to slavery or death for debtors: non-repayment of debts under the Twelve Tables resulted either in the total loss of citizenship rights through enslavement and sale across the Tiber or in the physical cutting up of the debtor's body. Some scholars doubt nexum's specific existence. If it was not a means to repay debt through labour in lieu of payment, it may have been a signal to ensure prompt repayment in allowing a creditor to 'proceed with personal execution on the debtor' if the borrower did not repay promptly. The purpose of the contract is also unclear. Additionally, it is possible that there were many variations of the nexum contract, and that the details of nexum contracts were worked out on a case-by-case basis. In any case, such contracts were voluntary – in contrast to standard debt bondage in which a person was enslaved for failure to pay debts – and it is likely that a person reduced to bondage probably remained there permanently. It is also possible that a debtor may have had their debts repaid by a third party in exchange for becoming a bondsman of that third party. In the last case, the debt would have been 'worked off'. Nor is it clear how nexum absolved a debt: a nexus may have been required to labour until repayment of debt, labour in lieu of interest on debt, or labour in lieu of payment itself.

It remains unclear whether debtors entered into a nexum contract initially with their loan or if they voluntarily did so after they could not pay off an existing debt. Nexum was a form of mancipatio, a symbolic transfer of rights that involved a set of scales, copper weights and a formulaic oath. It was allegedly abolished either in 326 or 313 BC. Details as to the contract are obscure and some modern scholars dispute its existence.

A debtor pledged his person as collateral if he defaulted on his loan. Nexum was a debt bondage contract in the early Roman Republic. Debt bondage contract in early Roman Republic