Rome, without any addition as to Ephesus.
This is an overclaim, because by alleging that the money is due at Rome
simply, the plaintiff deprives his debtor of the advantage he might have
derived from paying at Ephesus. On this account an arbitrary action is
given to a plaintiff who sues at a place other than that agreed upon
for payment, in which the advantage which the debtor might have had in
paying at the latter is taken into consideration, and which usually is
greatest in connexion with commodities which vary in price from district
to district, such as wine, oil, or grain; indeed even the interest
on loans of money is different in different places. If, however, a
plaintiff sues at Ephesus--that is, in our example, at the place agreed
upon for the payment--he need do no more than simply allege the debt,
as the praetor too points out, because the debtor has all the advantage
which payment in that particular place gives him. Overclaim in respect
of specification closely resembles overclaim in respect of place, and
may be exemplified by a man's stipulating from you 'do you promise
to convey Stichus or ten aurei?' and then suing for the one or the
other--that is to say, either for the slave only, or for the money only.
The reason why this is an overclaim is that in stipulations of this sort
it is the promisor who has the election, and who may give the slave
or the money, whichever he prefers; consequently if the promisee sues,
alleging that either the money alone, or the slave alone, ought to be
conveyed to him, he deprives his adversary of his election, and thereby
puts him in a worse position, while he himself acquires an undue
advantage. Other cases of this form of overclaim occur where a man,
having stipulated in general terms for a slave, for wine, or for purple,
sues for the particular slave Stichus, or for the particular wine
of Campania, or for Tyrian purple; for in all of these instances he
deprives his adversary of his election, who was entitled, under the
terms of the stipulation, to discharge his obligation in a mode other
than that which is required of him. And even though the specific thing
for which the promisee sues be of little or no value, it is still an
overclaim: for it is often easier for a debtor to pay what is of greater
value than what is actually demanded of him. Such were the rules of the
older law, which, however, has been made more liberal by our own and
Zeno's statutes. Where the overclaim rel