| EDICT
OF SERVILIUS ON MILITARY SERVICE ( 495 BC ) |
| ( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, p. 8, n. 4 ). |
| When
a war with the Volscians was imminent and the plebeians seemed averse
from enlistment, because of previous experience with patrician injustice
inflicted on them or on their property during their military service,
Publius Servilius Priscus Structus, a consul, calmed the people by an
edïct, proclaiming certain immunities for debtors absent with the
armed forces, and thus secured a satisfactory levy of the lower classes
in the City. |
ENGLISH TRANSLATION. |
| No
person shall hold a Roman citizen in bonds or in confinement, that he
may not have the opportunity to give his name before the consuls. No person shall seize or shall sell a soldier's property while he is in camp or shall detain his children or grandchildren. |