8.28
This year
(326 B.C.) was marked by the dawn, as it were, of a new era of liberty for
the plebs; creditors were no longer allowed to attach the persons of their
debtors. This change in the law was brought about by a signal instance of
lust and cruelty upon the part of a moneylender. L. Papirius was the man in
question. C. Publilius had pledged his person to him for a debt which his
father had contracted. The youth and beauty of the debtor which ought to
have called forth feelings of compassion only acted as incentives to lust and
insult. Finding that his infamous proposals only filled the youth with horror
and loathing, the man reminded him that he was absolutely in his power and
sought to terrify him by threats. As these failed to crush the boy's noble
instincts, he ordered him to be stripped and beaten. Mangled and bleeding
the boy rushed into the street and loudly complained of the usurer's lust and
brutality. A vast crowd gathered, and on learning what had happened
became furious at the outrage offered to one of such tender years, reminding
them as it did of the conditions under which they and their children were
living. They ran into the Forum and from there in a compact body to the
Senate-house. In face of this sudden outbreak the consuls felt it necessary to
convene a meeting of the senate at once, and as the members entered the
House the crowd exhibited the lacerated back of the youth and flung
themselves at the feet of the senators as they passed in one by one. The
strongest bond and support of credit was there and then overthrown through
the mad excesses of one individual. The consuls were instructed by the
senate to lay before the people a proposal "that no man be kept in irons or in
the stocks, except such as have been guilty of some crime, and then only till
they have worked out their sentence; and, further, that the goods and not the
person of the debtor shall be the security for the debt." So the nexi were
released, and it was forbidden for any to become nexi in the future.