§8.28.1eo anno plebei Romanae velut aliud initium libertatis factum est, quod necti desierunt; mutatum autem ius ob unius faeneratoris simul libidinem simul crudelitatem insignem.
In that year, a sort of second beginning of liberty was made for the Roman plebs, because they ceased to be bound; moreover, the law was changed on account of the lust and at the same time the signal cruelty of a single usurer.
§8.28.2L. Papirius is fuit, cui cum se C. Publilius ob aes alienum paternum nexum dedisset, quae aetas formaque misericordiam elicere poterant, ad libidinem et contumeliam animum accenderunt.
That was L. Papirius, to whom when C. Publilius had surrendered himself as a bondsman for his father's debt, his age and beauty, which might have elicited pity, inflamed the creditor's mind to lust and insult.
§8.28.3florem aetatis eius fructum adventicium crediti ratus, primo perlicere adulescentem sermone incesto est conatus; dein, postquam aspernabantur flagitium aures, minis territare atque identidem admonere fortunae; §8.28.4postremo, cum ingenuitatis magis quam praesentis condicionis memorem videret, nudari iubet verberaque adferri.
Thinking the flower of his youth an additional profit upon his loan, he at first attempted to entice the young man with impure language; then, when the youth's ears rejected the shameful proposal, he began to terrify him with threats, and repeatedly to remind him of his fortune; finally, seeing him more mindful of his free birth than of his present condition, he ordered him to be stripped and the lashes to be applied.
§8.28.5quibus laceratus iuvenis cum se in publicum proripuisset, libidinem crudelitatemque conquerens faeneratoris, §8.28.6ingens vis hominum cum aetatis miseratione atque indignitate iniuriae accensa, tum suae condicionis liberumque suorum respectu, in forum atque inde agmine facto ad curiam concurrit; et, §8.28.7cum consules tumultu repentino coacti senatum vocarent, introeuntibus in curiam patribus laceratum iuvenis tergum, procumbentes ad singulorum pedes, ostentabant.
When the young man, lacerated by these blows, had rushed out into the public, complaining of the lust and cruelty of the usurer, a huge multitude of men, inflamed both by pity for his youth and by the indignity of the outrage, as well as by regard for their own condition and that of their children, ran together to the forum, and from there, having formed a column, to the senate-house; and, when the consuls, compelled by the sudden tumult, summoned the senate, they displayed the lacerated back of the young man to the fathers as they entered the senate-house, prostrating themselves at the feet of each.
§8.28.8victum eo die ob inpotentem iniuriam unius ingens vinculum fidei; iussique consules ferre ad populum, ne quis, nisi qui noxam meruisset, donec poenam lueret, in compedibus aut in nervo teneretur; pecuniae creditae bona debitoris, §8.28.9non corpus obnoxium esset.
on that day, by the unrestrained outrage of a single individual, a mighty bond of faith was broken; and the consuls were ordered to propose to the people that no one, except one who had merited punishment for a crime, until he had paid the penalty, should be held in shackles or in the neck-collar; and that for money lent, the goods of the debtor, not his person, should be liable.
ita nexi soluti, cautumque in posterum, ne necterentur.
Thus the bondsmen were released, and provision was made for the future that they should not be bound.