spasses against order and for police offences; they consisted
in a definite number (hence the name -multa-) of cattle or sheep.
It was in his power also to pronounce sentence of scourging.

Law of Private Offenses

In all other cases, where the individual alone was injured and
not the public peace, the state only interposed upon the appeal of
the party injured, who caused his opponent, or in case of need by
laying violent hands on him compelled him, to appear personally along
with himself before the king. When both parties had appeared and
the plaintiff had orally stated his demand, while the defendant had
in similar fashion refused to comply with it, the king might either
investigate the cause himself or have it disposed of by a deputy
acting in his name. The regular form of satisfaction for such an
injury was a compromise arranged between the injurer and the injured;
the state only interfered supplementarily, when the aggressor did
not satisfy the party aggrieved by an adequate expiation (-poena-),
when any one had his property detained or his just demand was not
fulfilled.

Theft

Under what circumstances during this epoch theft was regarded as
at all expiable, and what in such an event the person injured was
entitled to demand from the thief, cannot be ascertained. But
the injured party with reason demanded heavier compensation from
a thief caught in the very act than from one detected afterwards,
since the feeling of exasperation which had to be appeased was more
vehement in the case of the former than in that of the latter. If
the theft appeared incapable of expiation, or if the thief was not
in a position to pay the value demanded by the injured party and
approved by the judge, he was by the judge assigned as a bondsman
to the person from whom he had stolen.

Injuries

In cases of damage (-iniuria-) to person or to property, where the
injury was not of a very serious description, the aggrieved party
was probably obliged unconditionally to accept compensation; if,
on the other hand, any member was lost in consequence of it, the
maimed person could demand eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

Property

Since the arable land among the Romans was long cultivated upon
the system of joint possession and was not distributed until a
comparatively late age, the idea of property was primarily associated
not with immoveable estate, but with "estate in slaves and cattle"
(-familia pecuniaque-). I