Twelve Tables of Rome
Table III. Creditor Rights
| 1 | All valid debts must be paid. |
| 2 | A Creditor may demand surety of a possession of equal value until a debt is paid |
| 3 | When anyone, appropriates property deposited as surety for a debt without permission, he shall be condemned to pay double its value. |
| 4 | When anyone is found to demand interest on a debt greater than the unciarum fœmus (standard rate), he shall pay quadruple the original debt to the borrower by way of penalty. |
| 5 | When a debt has been acknowledged, or when a judgement of debt has been pronounced, twenty-eight days is the proper period [for paying the debt]. |
| 6 | After that period, the debtor may be arrested by force (manus iniecto). Let him be brought into court. |
| 7 | If he does not satisfy the judgement, and if no one in court offers himself as guarantor (vindicit), [the creditor] may take him with him [as a slave, to work off the debt]. He may bind him either in fetters or in chains; he may secure him with a weight of not more than 15 pounds, or less if he wishes. |
| 8 | A debtor may be released from chains and fetters if they make good the payment due on the debt or secure terms with the creditor. A debtor may be kept in chains for no more than sixty days and then three consecutive market days. As long as a debtor is kept in chains and fetters it is the creditor that is responsible for providing food for the debtor, or the debtor may choose to arrange their own food. |
| 9 | If they do not come to another agreement, debtors are held in bonds for sixty days. |
| 10 | During that time they are to be brought before court in the forum on three successive market days, and the amount for which they are liable shall be publicly announced. |
| 11 | On the third market-day, they either suffer capital punishment or are delivered up for sale abroad, beyond the Tiber. [reduced to slavery to the creditor] |
| 12 | Where a debtor is delivered up to several creditors after the debt owed to them is publicly proclaimed three times and no settlement is reached, [any multiple] creditors shall cut [the debtor] into pieces. If anyone of them should obtain more or less (of the flesh) than he is entitled to, he shall not be responsible (for the death of the debtor). |
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