Legal Definitions - inventio

In Roman law, inventio refers to a finding or a thing found. This concept became particularly significant during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, establishing principles for how ownership of newly discovered property, especially valuable items or 'treasure,' would be determined. Generally, the person who found the item would either acquire full legal title to it or would share ownership with the individual on whose land the discovery was made.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of inventio:

• Discovery of Ancient Artifacts: Imagine a Roman farmer tilling his field and unearthing a beautifully preserved bronze statue from an older civilization. This act of finding the statue constitutes an inventio. Under the principles of Roman law, the farmer, as the finder, might gain full ownership of the statue, or he might be required to share its value or ownership with the landowner (if he was not the owner of the field himself).

• Unearthing a Cache of Coins: During the construction of a new public bathhouse in a Roman city, workers excavate a site and discover a clay pot filled with hundreds of gold and silver coins. This discovery is an inventio. The legal question would then arise as to who has rights to this valuable find: the workers who unearthed it, the city (as the landowner), or perhaps even the Roman state, depending on the specific circumstances and the interpretation of the law regarding 'treasure.'

• Finding a Lost Valuable Item: Consider a Roman citizen walking along a public road who spots a valuable gemstone, clearly dropped and lost by someone else. The act of discovering this gemstone is an inventio. While not 'treasure' in the same sense as ancient buried items, the principles of inventio could still apply to determine the finder's rights. The finder might be entitled to keep the gemstone if the original owner could not be identified, or if it was deemed abandoned, reflecting the idea of acquiring title to a found thing.