voyage. Any excess paid was to be reckoned against the principal debt. Compound interest was forbidden altogether by Justinian, and in connexion with this the conversion of unpaid interest into principal was forbidden. And even simple interest ceased so soon as the amount paid equalled the amount of the principal (so Justinian 535). In loans of corn, wine, oil, etc., to farmers, Constantine allowed 50 per cent. interest; Justinian only ⅛th (12½ per cent.), and for money lent to farmers only 1/24 (= 4 1/6) He also forbad the land to be pledged to the lender. In action on a judgment four months were allowed for payment; after that simple interest at 12 per cent. was allowed.
Any son under his father's power was by a senate's decree of the Early Empire (Sc. Macedonianum) disabled from borrowing money. Repayment of any money so borrowed could not be enforced against either his father or his surety or against himself (if he became independent), unless he had recognised the debt by part payment. But the decree did not apply, where the creditor had no ground for knowing the debtor to be under power, or where a daughter required a dowry, or where a student was away from home and borrowed to cover usual or necessary expenses. The fact that the borrower was grown up and even perhaps in high public office did not prevent the decree's applying.
Other contracts made re, involved a transference not of property but of possession. Such are commodatum, gratuitous loan of something which is to be returned in specie, and depositum, transfer of something for safekeeping and return on demand or according to agreement. A third contract under this head was pignus, which calls for fuller notice.
Security for debt, etc. In order to secure a person's performance of an obligation, two means are commonly in use: (1) giving the promisee hold over some property of the promiser's; (2) getting a confirmatory promise from another person: in other words, pledge and surety.
The Romans had three forms of pledge: fiducia, pignus, hypotheca. Fiducia was an old form by which the creditor was made owner (for the time) of the property: by pignus he is made possessor; by hypotheca he is given simply a power of sale in case of default. Fiducia went out of use about the fourth century; it was analogous to and probably the origin of, our mortgage, the property being duly conveyed to the promiser, who could, subject to account, take the profits and on default of payment as agreed, could sell and thus reimburse himself. A power of sale was usually made by agreement to accompany pignus and hypotheca. In pignus it formed an additional mode of compulsion on the debtor besides the temporary deprivation of the use of his property: in hypotheca it constituted the essence of the security. Pignus was a very old form and always continued in use: hypotheca was no doubt borrowed from the Greeks, and we first hear of it in Cicero's time. It had the great convenience for the debtor that he could remain in possession of the object pledged, and as no physical transfer was required, it could
