The surrender of the slave or beast empowered the injured
party to do his will upon them. Payment by the owner was merely a
privilege in case he wanted to buy the vengeance off.
It will readily be imagined that such a system as has been
described could not last when civilization had advanced to any
considerable height. What had been the privilege of buying off
vengeance by agreement, of paying the damage instead of
surrendering the body of the offender, no doubt became a general
custom. The Aquilian law, passed about a couple of centuries
later than the date of the Twelve Tables, enlarged the sphere of
compensation for bodily injuries. Interpretation enlarged the
Aquilian law. Masters became personally liable for certain wrongs
committed by their slaves with their knowledge, where previously
they were only bound to surrender the slave. /2/ If a pack-mule
threw off his burden upon a passer-by because he had been
improperly overloaded, or a dog which might have been restrained
escaped from his master and bit any one, the old noxal action, as
it was called, gave way to an action under the new law to enforce
a general personal liability. /3/ Still later, ship-owners and
innkeepers were made liable [16] as if they were wrong-doers for
wrongs committed by those in their employ on board ship or in the
tavern, although of course committed without their knowledge.
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