Pignus Nominis and Antichresis

Abstract This chapter reviews two contractual variations of pledge which evolved in the second and third centuries ad and which offered alternatives to the creditor selling the pledged assets. From the second century ad the praetor would protect pledge agreements in which the pledged assets were defined as contractual claims owed by third parties (pignus nominis). From the third century ad there is evidence that the granting of a pledge could be accompanied by an agreement pursuant to which the creditor was entitled to use the charged property and to take its (natural or civil) fruits (antichresis). The value of the use or these fruits would then serve as payment of principal or interest. Classical Roman law knew several variants of antichresis: implied, default, and independent antichresis. For both variants of pledge the jurists were prepared to make drastic changes to the actio Serviana in order to give legal effect to a conventio pignoris, or an independent pactum antichreticum.