Summary

Rem de qua controversia est prohibemur in sacrum dedicare, D. 44,6,3: Prohibition to dedicate the future matter in dispute into sacred sites. – The only surviving source of the prohibition of dedication is D. 44,6,3, an extraction of Gaius’ commentary concerning the Twelve Tables. It forbids the ‘in sacrum dedicare’ of a ‘rem de qua controversia est’ – both terms of unsecure meaning. This article aims to prove that the first term does not have the creation of a sacred thing in mind, but refers to the dedication of objects in temples as sacred sites, and that the second one relates especially to a future matter in dispute. The prohibition of dedication ensures the litis contestatio of the legis actio sacramento in rem and protects the pretender from a more powerful adversary, in particular a municipality, by according a legis actio sacramento in personam against the person having dedicated. Because the votive offerings to public temples were given into the arca of the temple, which was part of the aerarium. Thus, donations from the owner became res publicae.