ant, deposes
on oath that the latter owes him the money which is the object of the
action, and payment is not made to him, the praetor most justly grants
to him an action in which the issue is, not whether the money is owing,
but whether the plaintiff has sworn to the debt.

12 There is also a considerable number of penal actions which the
praetor has introduced in the exercise of his jurisdiction; for
instance, against those who in any way injure or deface his album;
or who summon a parent or patron without magisterial sanction; or who
violently rescue persons summoned before himself, or who compass such a
rescue; and others innumerable.

13 'Prejudicial' actions would seem to be real, and may be exemplified
by those in which it is inquired whether a man is free born, or has
become free by manumission, or in which the question relates to a
child's paternity. Of these the first alone belongs to the civil law:
the others are derived from the praetor's jurisdiction.

14 The kinds of action having been thus distinguished, it is clear that
a plaintiff cannot demand his property from another in the form 'if it
be proved that the defendant is bound to convey.' It cannot be said that
what already belongs to the plaintiff ought to be conveyed to him, for
conveyance transfers ownership, and what is his cannot be made more his
than it is already. Yet for the prevention of theft, and multiplication
of remedies against the thief, it has been provided that, besides the
penalty of twice or four times the value of the property stolen, the
property itself, or its value, may be recovered from the thief by a
personal action in the form 'if it be proved that the defendant ought to
convey,' as an alternative for the real action which is also available
to the plaintiff, and in which he asserts his ownership of the stolen
property.

15 We call a real action a 'vindication,' and a personal action, in
which the contention is that some property should be conveyed to us, or
some service performed for us, a 'condiction,' this term being derived
from condicere, which has an old meaning of 'giving notice.' To call
a personal action, in which the plaintiff contends that the defendant
ought to convey to him, a condiction, is in reality an abuse of the
term, for nowadays there is no such notice as was given in the old
action of that name.

16 Actions may be divided into those which are purely reparative, those
which are purely penal, and those w