Definition
A Latin term from Roman civil law denoting a woman guilty of adultery. In classical Roman legal usage, *adultera* was the feminine-gendered designation for an adulteress, carrying specific legal consequences under Roman statutory law — most notably under the *Lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis*, which criminalized adultery and prescribed penalties including loss of property rights and civil status.
The term appears in the Digest of Justinian (compiled 533 CE), a foundational text of civil law tradition, where it is used in the context of criminal prosecution and the legal consequences flowing from a woman's commission of adultery.
Why It Matters in Research
ADULTERA is a Roman law term that does not migrate into English common law. Researchers encountering it in American or English legal sources are reading from civil law treatises, civil law-influenced materials, or historical comparative law scholarship — not from domestic case law or statute.
The term appears in the Digest citations carried forward into both editions of Black's, meaning it enters American legal reference literature as borrowed Roman law vocabulary, not as operative American law. A researcher who sees ADULTERA in a 19th-century American legal text should treat it as a signal that the author is drawing on civilian sources — likely in a comparative or historical argument.
The gendered structure of the Roman law framework matters: Roman law developed distinct terms for the male offender (*adulter*) and female offender (*adultera*), and the legal consequences were not symmetrical. This asymmetry is historically significant in scholarship on the development of adultery law and gender-differentiated legal liability.
Researchers working in ecclesiastical law, Louisiana civil law, or comparative law sources will encounter *adultera* more frequently than those working in common law jurisdictions.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's Law Dictionary (1st and 2nd editions) give nearly identical entries: the term is defined as "an adulteress; a woman guilty of adultery," with citations to Digest 48.5.4 (pr.) and 48.5.15.8. The consistency across editions reflects that this is a stable borrowed term, not one that evolved in American legal usage. Neither edition provides substantive elaboration on the Roman law framework in which the term operated, nor do they distinguish *adultera* from the male cognate *adulter*. The entries serve as a cross-reference point for civilian sources rather than as a guide to American doctrine.
What the historical dictionaries omit is notable: they do not explain the *Lex Iulia* context, the procedural rules governing who could bring an accusation against an *adultera* under Roman law, or the property forfeiture consequences that made the designation legally consequential. Researchers needing that context must consult primary civilian sources directly.
Jurisdictional Note
ADULTERA as a technical legal term has no operative force in American common law jurisdictions. It appears as functional legal vocabulary only in civil law systems with Roman law roots. In Louisiana, which retains a civil law tradition, related adultery concepts have historical statutory expression, though the specific Latin terminology is not used in modern Louisiana codes.