Legal Definitions - plagiarius

In ancient Roman law, a plagiarius was an individual who committed the crime of kidnapping. This term specifically referred to someone who unlawfully seized or abducted another person, whether a free citizen or a slave belonging to someone else.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of a plagiarius:

• Example 1: A wealthy Roman citizen, seeking to expand his workforce, secretly pays a criminal to abduct a freeborn individual from a neighboring village and force them into servitude on his estate.

  Explanation: The criminal, by unlawfully seizing and detaining the freeborn person against their will for the purpose of forced labor, would be considered a plagiarius under Roman law, as they committed the act of kidnapping.

• Example 2: A rival landowner, out of spite, orchestrates the forcible seizure of another citizen's skilled craftsman (who was a slave) and transports him to his own property, intending to use his labor without permission.

  Explanation: In this scenario, the individual who orchestrated the seizure of the slave would be a plagiarius because, under Roman law, kidnapping extended to the unlawful abduction of another's slave, treating it as a form of theft and deprivation of property from the owner.

• Example 3: During a period of political unrest in Rome, a faction leader orders the abduction of a prominent senator's child, hoping to use the child as leverage to influence the senator's vote in the Senate.

  Explanation: The person carrying out the abduction of the senator's child, holding them against their will to exert pressure, would be acting as a plagiarius, as their actions constitute the unlawful seizure and detention of a person.