Legal Definitions - lex Fabia de plagiariis

The lex Fabia de plagiariis was an ancient Roman law specifically designed to address the illegal practices of kidnapping and the unlawful harboring of slaves. It aimed to protect both free individuals from being unlawfully enslaved and slave owners from the theft or concealment of their property.

Here are some examples illustrating how this law would have applied:

• Imagine a scenario in ancient Rome where a unscrupulous individual, seeking to profit, seizes a free Roman citizen who is traveling alone on a road outside the city. This individual then transports the citizen to a distant port with the intention of selling them into slavery in a foreign land.

  This situation directly falls under the purview of the lex Fabia de plagiariis because it involves the kidnapping of a free person with the explicit goal of unlawfully enslaving them, a practice the law was created to prevent.

• Consider a wealthy Roman senator whose household slave escapes and manages to reach a different city. An artisan in that city, knowing the individual is a runaway slave, decides to offer them shelter, food, and work, actively concealing their presence from any search parties sent by the senator.

  This example illustrates the "harboring of slaves" aspect of the lex Fabia de plagiariis. By knowingly providing refuge and concealment to an escaped slave, the artisan would be in violation of the law, as they are interfering with the rightful owner's property and preventing the slave's return.

• Picture a group of bandits raiding a rural Roman estate. Instead of just stealing valuables, they forcibly capture several of the estate's agricultural slaves, intending to transport them to another region and sell them to a new owner as if they were their own property.

  Here, the lex Fabia de plagiariis would apply because it involves the kidnapping or theft of existing slaves. The law protected slave owners from having their human property unlawfully taken and resold, treating such an act as a serious offense.