Lex Poetelia Papiria

{{Short description|Roman 4th century BC law}}

{{Italic title}}

The lex Poetelia Papiria was a law passed in Ancient Rome that abolished the contractual form of nexum, or debt bondage.{{cite book|author=A. Arthur Schiller|title=Roman Law: Mechanisms of Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tk52EsGqNUgC&pg=PA209|year=1978|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-90-279-7744-1|pages=209–}} Livy dates the law in 326 BC, during the third consulship of Gaius Poetelius Libo Visolus,Livy, History of Rome VIII.28, "The Perseus Digital Library". Retrieved on May 10, 2007. but

Varro dates the law in 313 BC, during the dictatorship of Poetelius's son.Varro. On the Latin Language: Book VII. Trans. Roland G. Kent. On the Latin Language I: Books V-VII. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1938. pp. 359-361