Verberatio, ploratio e sacertà ai divi parentum

The essay deals with the legal-religious device of the so-called sacertas with regard to the particular case, dating back – according to the tradition – to the period of the kings, of the offence perpetrated by the puer and the nurus against the parens and the socer respectively. The analysis aims at explaining both the requirement, along with the actus reus (i.e. verberatio), of ploratio on the part of the offended, and the fall of the offender into sacertas to the divi parentum.