THE MAKE-UP OF THE PECULIUM

Classical Roman jurists surmise that the peculium was originally a small and simple entity. Ulpian provides an etymological definition of the word pecu­lium: ‘quasi pusilla pecunia sive patrimonium pusillum’.^[577] Elsewhere, the same author and others specify that a peculium can contain all sorts of goods and commodities:

• movables, such as clothes, as long as they are kept for regular and personal use:^[578]

• real estate, be it agricultural land and buildings, or urban property;^[579]

• living beings, such as slaves’ slaves (vicarii) or animals;

• assets (credit, damages to be collected as a result of litigation, inheritance and legacies to come, peculia entrusted to vicarii) and liabilities (mostly debts = nomina).^[580]

The peculium can be empty of any or all of the above^[581] or consist exclusively of debts owed by the slave to his master.^[582] In the books, it also contains whatever the latter has deceivingly withdrawn from it.^[583] Last, it includes everything the slave has acquired and kept hidden from his master, insofar as it can be assumed that the latter would have let him have it, had he known about it.^[584]

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