Manūs Iniectio
(laying on of the hand). In the oldest Roman legal procedure a kind of execution levied on
the person of one who had been condemned to pay a certain sum. If this was not done within
thirty days of the condemnation, the plaintiff could seize the debtor and bring him before the
praetor, who handed him over to the creditor with the word
addico
(I hand over), unless he paid there and then, or a
vindex came forward to
pay for him or to show there was no ground for complaint. The creditor kept the debtor in
chains at his house for sixty days; if his claims had not been satisfied during this period,
he might kill him or sell him as a slave in foreign parts. From the fourth century on wards a
less severe arrangement was usual; the relation of the
addictus to his
creditor was that of a
homo liber in mancipio. See Bekker,
Die
Actionen des röm. Privatrechts, vol. i.; Karlowa,
Der röm.
Civilprocess, i. 45; and
Mancipium.
