ADALÉKOK A LEGIS ACTIO SACRAMENTO IN REM EREDETÉHEZ
Additives to Origin of Legis Actio Sacramento In Rem

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the present study is merely to highlight a possibility which will not consider the motifs of sacredness and private fight contradictory in the structure of legis actio sacramento in rem but will mingle them as organically complementing components. The sacred element can be clearly traced in the vindicatio procedure in the requirement of the verbatim recital of both the oath, the sacramentum and the carmen. The motif of the fight appears both in the etymology of the word vindicatio and in the employment of the spear. However, it is precisely the hasta that carries a religious extra semantic load in Roman imagination which cannot be disregarded in the case of archaic civil law trial. Adapting to the rules of the genre, Plautus presents a quasiproperty trial, the result of which is decided by restricted and controlled personal fight, employing the drawing of lots, thus calling for divine judgement. Based on all these, it can be rightly assumed that originally it was the ordalium, fought with weapons, that brought legis actio sacramento in rem to its form known today.

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