The two meanings of the deditio in the roman law

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show the two meaning of the Latin word deditio. The first meaning was used in the international relations of the Roman State and meant of the surrender and it was set by question-answer (contractual) form. The other meaning was the deliver of the Roman citizen to the enemy. We can find two groups of them in the sources: first was the deliver of a common citizen who committed offence against the ambassadors of the enemy, the second was the delivery of a formal general, how made an unwarranted peace-treaty. Both cases based on the offence against the Roman sovereignty. In the later
one the main question was, whether the delivered person, who have been not accepted by the enemy and after returned to Rome, can recover his former rights automatically or not. There were two different standpoints for that: the first and main said, he lost his citizenship by the decision-making, because it was a legal punishment. By the second however: the person lost his citizenship only by the acceptance by the enemy, without this he remained a Roman citizen. In the Mancinus-case we can observe both point of views in the sentences of jurists, but the former was the acceptable in this case as well.