Roman Law Terms

The bringing of a criminal charge, normally (until the early Empire) by a private citizen who, acting as the accuser (delator) lodged a complaint with a magistrate. If accepted, the magistrate would register the charge (inscriptio), which could not then be withdrawn without permission of the court.

an action given by the praetor on the facts of the case alone where no standard civil law action was applicable.

An adoption where a dependent person (alieni iuris) is transferred to one family to another, involving the change of paterfamilias

An adoption where an independent person (sui iuris) is transferred from one family to another, coming under the patria potestas of the pater familias of his adoptive family. This could be done only to save a family from extinction.

relatives through the male line, descended from a common male ancestor without any artificial break in the line of relationship (such as emancipation). Persons of either sex may be agnates, but the line could only be transmitted through males. If the common male ancestor (pater familias) was alive, the agnates were all in his patria potestas. Agnatic relations existed through adoption as fully as through blood.