Note 495 — Chapter II · THE GROWTH OF THE REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION (continued 2)

Varro L.L. viii. 105 “Hoc (the condition of nexum) C. Poetilio Libone Visolo dictatore (313 B.C.) sublatum ne fieret; et omnes, qui bonam copiam jurarunt, ne essent nexi dissoluti.” Livy (viii. 28), who attributes the measure to 326 B.C., makes it a universal release of nexi: “jussique consoles ferre ad populum, ne quis, nisi qui noxam meruisset, donec poenam lueret, in compedibus aut in nervo teneretur: pecuniae creditae bona debitoris, non corpus obnoxium esset.”