De Debito
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary · Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
Breve. L. Lat. Writ of debt.
Reg. Orig. 139. F. N. B. 119, C —121.
DE DEBITORE IN PARTES SECAN- DO. Lat. Of cutting a debtor in pieces. The title of a law in the" Twelve Tables, the meaning of which has been difl Ferently interpreted; some writers contending for the literal signification, while others have supposed it to be only a figurative expression, denoting a division of the debtor^ estate. The latter view has been adopted by Montesquieu, Bynkershoek, Heineccius and Taylor. Esprit des Lois, liv.
29, c. 2. B^k, Obs. Jur. Rom. 1. 1, c. 1. Heinecc.
Ant. Rom. lib.
3, tit. 30, § 4.
Tayl. Comment, in Leg. Decemv. The literal meaning, on the other hand, is advocated by Aulus Gellius and other writers of antiquity, and receives support from an expression (semoto omni cruciatu) in the Roman code itself. Aul. Oel. Noctes Atticce, lib.
20, c. 1. Code, 7. 7. 8.
This is also the opinion of Gibbon, Gravina, Pothier, Hugo and Niehbuhr. Gibbon's Rom. Emp. vol.
3, p. 183, (Am. ed.) Gravina de Jur. Nat. Gent, et XII.
Tab. sec.
72.
Pothier, Introd. Pand. Hugo Hist, du Droit Rom. tom. i., p.
233, sec. 149.
Niehbuhr, Hist. Rom, vol. ii. p.
697. 1 Kent's Com, 623, note.