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The Lex Poetelia abolished nexum, the Roman loan under which an insolvent debtor could be held in bondage by his creditor; Livy says the confined debtors were released and that from then on a debtor's goods, not his person, answered for money owed. Livy dates it to 326 BC and Varro to 313 BC.
The mechanism
RELEASE
How it was checked
- EvidenceT5 INDEPENDENT SECULAR; Status: ADDED 2026-09-19
- Letter eraTHE PROPHETS AND THE ROAD 776 BC to 4 BC
- SourcesRECORD — Britannica, 'nexum'; Livy, History of Rome 8.28 (trans. Canon Roberts), Perseus Digital Library; Wikipedia, 'Lex Poetelia Papiria' (for Varro's 313 BC date) · checked 19 September: Livy 8.28 (trans. Roberts), Perseus; Varro, De Lingua Latina 7.105 (Latin text), The Latin Library; Britannica (read in a browser; WebFetch is refused by the site), 'nexum'
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