Impaired Consciousness, Madness and Mental Incapacitation in the Roman Law

ABSTRACT:This paper explores common ideas shared by doctors and jurists in the Roman Empire concerning conditions with mental compromise. Recent scholarship has been reluctant to see an ongoing debate between experts in these two disciplines. Conversely, I will argue that it is possible to unveil a fluent exchange of ideas and concepts between legal commentators and medical writers around issues of mental incapacity, if we frame those cases as impaired consciousness (and not mental illness). To prove this point I will draw on some examples from the Digest, which will be placed in dialogue with contemporary medical texts.