Appunti sulla repressione penale delle usure

Abstract

Reading the few sources we have about procedural mechanisms of the penal repression of usury in te Republican age, we can assume that originally, perhaps already at the time of the XII Tables, usury was pursued through a private actio in quadruplum (legis actio sacramento in personam) exercised by the victim of offence. In addition to this action, from 344 BC, within the repressive system of the iudicia populi, we find public prosecutions of the feneratores by the aediles. Subsequently, against usurers was introduced by means of lex Marcia (196 BC?) a manus iniectio pura, still in quadruplum, exercised by any member of the public. Finally, with a law of Caesar, usury was prosecuted through a iudicium publicum.