Ad legem duodecim tabularum libri
Ex libro IV
Gaius, On the Law of the Twelve Tables, Book IV. It should be remembered that in the action for the establishment of boundaries the rule must be observed which, to a certain extent, coincides with the plan of the one which Solon is said to have passed at Athens, which is as follows: “Where a party builds a wall adjoining the land of another, he must not go beyond the boundary; if it is a wall built of masonry, he must leave a foot; if it is a house, two feet. If he digs a grave or a ditch, he must leave an open space equal in width to the depth of the same; if a well, the width of a pace. If he plants an olive or a fig-tree, he must place it nine feet from the adjoining land, and in the case of other trees he must leave five feet.”
Gaius, On the Law of the Twelve Tables, Book IV. Anyone who sets fire to a house, or a pile of grain near a house, shall be chained, scourged, and put to death by fire, provided he committed the act knowingly and deliberately. If, however, it occurred by accident, that is to say, through negligence, he shall be ordered to make good the damage; or, if he is insolvent, he shall receive a light chastisement. Every kind of building is included in the term house.
Gaius, On the Law of the Twelve Tables, Book IV. Members are those who belong to the same association which the Greeks call hetaireian. They are legally authorized to make whatever contracts they may desire with one another, provided they do nothing in violation of the public law. The enactment appears to have been taken from that of Solon, which is as follows: “If the people, or brothers, or those who are associated together for the purpose of sacrifice, or sailors, or those who are buried in the same tomb, or members of the same society who generally live together, should have entered, or do enter into any contract with one another, whatever they agree upon shall stand, if the public laws do not forbid it.”
The Same, On the Law of the Twelve Tables, Book IV. Those who speak of poison, should add whether it is good or bad, for medicines are poisons, and they are so called because they change the natural disposition of those to whom they are administered. What we call poison the Greeks style farmakon; and among them noxious drugs as well as medicinal remedies are included under this term, for which reason they distinguish them by another name. Homer, the most distinguished of their poets, informs us of this, for he says: “There are many kinds of poisons, some of which are good, and some of which are bad.” 1Javolenus says that fruit is whatever has a seed, as in the case of the Greeks who call all kinds of trees akrodrua.