Definition
In Roman civil law, a caupona was an inn or tavern — a commercial establishment providing lodging, food, drink, or some combination of these to travelers and the public for payment. The term appears in the Institutes and Digest of Justinian and is relevant primarily in the context of Roman law's special liability rules imposed on innkeepers (caupones) for the safety of guests' property.
Why It Matters in Research
Caupona matters less as a standalone term than as the institutional anchor for a significant body of Roman civil law governing innkeeper liability. Researchers encountering caupona in primary or secondary sources on Roman law should look immediately to the receptum nautarum cauponum stabulariorum — the undertaking of sailors, innkeepers, and stablekeepers — which imposed strict quasi-contractual liability on caupones for loss or damage to guests' property, regardless of fault. This doctrine, preserved in Digest 4.9 and referenced in Institutes 4.5.3, is an early precursor to the common law's strict liability rules for innkeepers, and tracing that lineage requires understanding what a caupona was and what legal obligations attached to its operation.
In the Law Mind corpus, caupona is most likely to appear in treatises and dictionaries dealing with Roman law foundations or in historical discussions of hospitality law. It rarely appears in case law or modern statutory material. If you encounter the term in a 19th-century treatise on innkeeper liability or bailment, the author is almost certainly situating common law doctrine within its Roman law ancestry — a rhetorical and analytical move common to that era's legal scholarship.
The term is also occasionally distinguished from related Latin terms: a stabulum (stable or inn with stabling facilities) and a taberna (shop or tavern, often without lodging). These distinctions matter when reading Roman law sources closely, since different liability rules could attach depending on the nature of the establishment.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st ed.) offers a slightly garbled entry — "An inn public cause; and paramount is the reason or tavern" — which appears to be a typographical or transcription error; the intended text almost certainly reads "An inn or tavern," consistent with the 2nd edition and Burrill. The 2nd edition of Black's corrects to the clean definition: "An inn or tavern." Burrill's entry is the most useful of the three, citing not only Institutes 4.5.3 but also Digest 4.9.1.5, 4.9.5, and 47.5 — providing the researcher with a direct path into the relevant Justinianic sources. All three dictionaries agree on the core meaning; none offers analysis of the liability doctrine attached to the term, which is where the real legal content resides. Researchers relying solely on these dictionary entries will miss the significance of the caupona as a regulatory category in Roman law.
Jurisdictional Note
Caupona is a term of Roman civil law with no direct counterpart in modern common law jurisdictions. Its significance in Anglo-American legal research is historical and comparative. Civilian jurisdictions with Roman law heritage may use derivative concepts, but the term itself is not operative in any modern legal system.