4. Common mistake

We have already seen that it does not seem to have mattered whether only the purchaser mistook the object of the sale for something else, or whether his mistake was shared by the vendor.

Frequently the latter will have been the case; both Ulp. D. 18, 1, 14 and lul. D. 18, 1, 41, 1 do in actual fact provide examples of a common mistake. In these instances, the invalidity of the contract cannot have been based on a lack of consensus, for both parties were entirely ad idem. They had the same idea about the substance of the object. But it was a (common) misconception. Their consensus related to a different object: aliud pro alio venisse videtur. In their agreement the parties were supposed to identify the object of the transaction. In this they had failed. They had identified an object that did not in fact exist. In this sense the transaction was therefore frustrated, or incomplete, and hence no actions could arise therefrom.

5.

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