Page 156 - 6205

local provisions. Its basis was indeed the Corpus Juris Civilis – the
codifying legislation of the emperor Justinian I – this legislation had been
interpreted, developed, and adapted to later conditions by generations of
jurists from the 11th century onward and had received additions from
nonRoman sources. Roman law was first truly realized with an attempt at
codification.
Roman law concerned itself with matters of succession (who was
to inherit what), obligations (including contracts, such as loans, entered
into by individuals), property and possessions, and persons (which
included family, slaves, and citizenship). In the early period, near-absolute
power (patria potestas) was retained by the paterfamilias, the landowner
and head of the household. It was he who legally owned all the property
(including slaves), even what property would normally be thought of as
belonging to his wife or children. A daughter remained under her father's
power until she might decide (or have it decided for her) to marry;
thereafter she would be put under her husband's power. In time, many of
the harsher aspects of this system were mitigated, but much remained
until the very end.
Valid, to influence, to use, try, lawyers, to undertake to bind,
questions, to stay, by law, unpleasantly rough, after that time

Task 9. Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right.

1. promulgated a) a native registered or naturalized member of a state,
nation, or other political community.
2. landowner b) a former title of the pagan high priest at Rome, later
used of popes and occasionally of other bishops, and
now confined exclusively to the pope
3. pontiff c) a person who owns land, esp. a large amount of land

4. patrician d) a monarch who rules or reigns over an empire
5. emperor e) a member of the hereditary aristocracy of ancient
Rome. In the early republic the patricians held almost
all the higher offices.
6. slave f) a person versed in the science of law, esp. Roman or
civil law;
a writer on legal subjects

152