Summary

Creditor fructus percepit, On pledge with a pactum antichreticum. – May the pledgee take the benefits of the res? Pledge did not allow it, there would have been theft (furtum usus). In fact, the thing given as pledge was excluded from any economic use. However, Roman law attests an agreement called ἀντίχρησις, which allowed the creditor to have the fruits of the res, under some conditions. Among the jurists only Marcianus uses this Greek term (in D.13,7,33 and D.20,1,11,1).

In this paper, I wish to demonstrate that the antichresis has become part of Roman legal thought. The legal sources attest a late appearance of the antichresis (very late 2nd and early 3rd century AD), but some Severian constitutions suggest that it may already have been known in practice. The Greek word indicated its foreign origin, but Roman jurists called it simply pignus.