N EX U M (Lat.). In Roman Law. The transfer of the ownership of a thing, or the transfer of a thing' to a' creditor as a secu rity. • In one sense nexum Mar/datum; in an other sense, mancipium and nexum are opposed, in the same way as hale and 'mortgage or pledge are opposed. The formal part of both transactions consisted in a trasfer per tee et Ubrann. The per son who became nexus by the effect of a nexum placed himself in a servile Condition, not becoming a slave, his tingenuitas beibg only in suspense, and was said nexum inire. The phrases next datio, next liberatin, respectively exp•ess the contracting and the release'. from: the obligation.
The Roman law as payment of borrowed money was very strict. A' curious passage of GelT Hue (xx. 1) gives us the ancient mode of legal' pro cedure in the case of debt, aa fixed by the Twelve Tables. If- the debtor admitted the debt, or had been condemned in the amount of the debt by a judex, he had thirty dap; allowed him for payment. At the expiration of this' time he was 'liable:to the manna injectio, and ultimately to be assigned over to • the creditor (addictus) by the sentence of,the prffltor. The creditor was required to keep him for sixty days in chains; during which time he publicly exposed the debtor, on three nundince, and pro claimed the amount of his debt. If no person re leased the prisoner by paying the debt, the creditor might sell him as a slave or put him to death. If there were several creditors, the letter of the law allowed them to cut the debtor in pieces and take their share of his body in proportion to their debt.
Gellius says that there was no instance of a creditor ever having adopted this extreme mode of satisfy ing his debt. But the creditor might treat the debtor, who was addictus, as a slave, and compel him to work out his debt ; and the treatment was often very severe. In this passage Gellius does not speak of naxi, but only of addicti, which is some times alleged as evidence of the identity of nexus and addictus, but it proves no such identity. If a nexus is what he is here supposed to be, the laws of the Twelve Tables could 'not apply; for when a man became nexus with respect to one creditor, he could not become nexus to another; and if be be came nexus to 'several at once, in this case the cred itors must abide by their contract in taking a joint security. This law of the Twelve Tables only ap; plied to the case of a debtor being assigned over by a 'judicial sentence to several creditors, and it 'pro vided for a settlement of their conflicting claims. The precise condition of a nexus has, however, been a subject of much discussion among scholars. See Smith, Diet. Rom. & Gr. Antiq.; MANCIPItM. Nexum was apparently a contract for the repay ment of a money loan, the security for which was the debtor's own person. Launspach, State of Fam ily in Early Rome 229.