Definition
In Roman civil law, the triple value of a thing — a measure of damages or penalty set at three times the assessed worth of the subject matter in dispute or wrongdoing. The term appears primarily in the context of *actio in triplum*, an action brought to recover triple the value of property, typically as a penal remedy for certain wrongs such as theft or fraud. The triplum functioned not merely as compensatory relief but as a punitive multiplier, reflecting the Roman law tradition of calibrating civil penalties to deter wrongful conduct.
Common Confusion
TRIPLUM should not be confused with *duplum* (double value) or *quadruplum* (quadruple value), which were other fixed multipliers used in Roman penal actions. The Roman civil law system employed a graduated scale of such penalties — simplex (single), duplum, triplum, quadruplum — depending on the nature and circumstances of the wrong. Researchers encountering penalty provisions in civil law texts should identify which multiplier applies, as the distinction determines the measure of recovery and often signals the category of offense involved.
Why It Matters in Research
TRIPLUM is a term of Roman civil law that survives almost exclusively in historical and comparative legal sources. Researchers will encounter it primarily in:
— Translations and commentaries on Justinian's *Institutes* and *Digest*, where penal actions using fixed multipliers were systematically organized.
— Early modern civil law treatises and glossators' works that carried Roman penal action terminology into continental European legal scholarship.
— Historical common law sources that occasionally reference Roman law analogies when discussing treble damages or punitive recovery.
The practical research trap is anachronism: *triplum* describes a specific civil law mechanism with formal procedural character, not a general principle of treble damages. Modern American treble damages statutes (antitrust, patent, RICO) share the arithmetic but are structurally unrelated to the Roman actio in triplum. Citing Roman triplum as a precursor to modern statutory treble damages requires care — the resemblance is numerical, not doctrinal.
Researchers working in comparative law or legal history should also note that the actio in triplum applied in particular circumstances defined by Roman law — it was not a general remedy available at a plaintiff's election. Understanding which wrongs triggered triplum liability versus duplum or quadruplum liability requires consulting the underlying Roman sources, particularly the Institutes and Digest, rather than relying solely on dictionary definitions.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary and Burrill's Law Dictionary are in complete agreement on this term, offering virtually identical entries: *triplum* is the triple value of a thing, illustrated by the phrase *actio in triplum*. Black's adds a citation to Justinian's *Institutes* (4, 6, 21, 24), which anchors the term in its primary Roman source.
Both dictionaries treat the term briefly, as befits a technical term of Roman law with limited direct application in Anglo-American practice. Neither dictionary attempts to trace the term's influence on common law development or statutory treble damages, a gap that is understandable given the scope of historical legal dictionaries but one researchers should be aware of. The brevity of both entries reflects the term's character: it is a precise, bounded concept from Roman civil law, not a term with a rich common law interpretive history.
Jurisdictional Note
TRIPLUM has no operative force in modern common law jurisdictions as a term of positive law. Its relevance in U.S., English, or Commonwealth legal research is historical and comparative only. Civil law jurisdictions with Roman law roots may preserve analogous concepts in doctrine or scholarly usage, but the term itself rarely appears in modern statutory or judicial texts.