A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

MĂGISTER ĔQUITUM. [[Dictator].]

MĂGISTRĀTUS was a person qui juri dicundo praeerat. The King was originally the sole Magistratus; he had all the Potestas. On the expulsion of the Kings, two Consuls were annually appointed, and they were Magistratus. In course of time other Magistratus were appointed; namely, dictators, censors, praetors, aediles, tribunes of the plebs, and the decemviri litibus judicandis. The governors of provinces with the title of propraetor or proconsul were also Magistratus. The word Magistratus contains the same element as mag(ister) and mag(nus); and it signifies both the person and the office, as we see in the phrase se magistratu abdicare. The auspicia maxima belonged to the consuls, praetors, and censors, and the minora auspicia to the other magistrates; accordingly the consuls, praetors, and censors were called Majores, and they were elected at the comitia centuriata; the other magistratus were called Minores. The former had the imperium, the latter had not. The magistratus were also divided into curules and those who were not curules: the magistratus curules were the dictator, consuls, praetors, censors, and the curule aediles, who were so called, because they had the jus sellae curulis. The magistrates were chosen only from the patricians in the early republic, but in course of time the plebeians shared these honours, with the exception of that of the Interrex: the plebeian magistratus, properly so called, were the plebeian aediles and the tribuni plebis.

MAJESTAS pretty nearly corresponds to treason in English law; but all the offences included under majestas comprehend more than the English treason. One of the offences included in majestas was the effecting, aiding in, or planning the death of a magistratus populi Romani, or of one who had imperium or potestas. Though the phrase crimen majestatis was used, the complete expression was crimen laesae, imminutae, diminutae, or minutae majestatis. The word majestas, consistently with its relation to mag(nus), signifies the magnitude or greatness of a thing. Accordingly, the phrases majestas populi Romani, imperii majestas, signify the whole of that which constituted the Roman state; in other words, the sovereign power of the Roman state. The expression minuere majestatem consequently signifies any act by which this majestas is impaired. In the republican period the term majestas laesa or minuta was most commonly applied to cases of a general betraying or surrendering his army to the enemy, exciting sedition, and generally by his bad conduct in administration impairing the majestas of the state. The old punishment of majestas was perpetual interdiction from fire and water. In the later imperial period, persons of low condition were thrown to wild beasts, or burnt alive; persons of better condition were simply put to death. In the early times of the republic, every act of a citizen which was injurious to the state or its peace was called perduellio, and the offender (perduellis) was tried before the populus (populi judicio), and, if convicted, put to death. Perduellis originally signified hostis; and thus the old offence of perduellio was equivalent to making war on the Roman state. The trial for perduellio (perduellionis judicium) existed to the later times of the republic; but the name seems to have almost fallen into disuse, and various leges were passed for the purpose of determining more accurately what should be majestas. These were a lex Apuleia, probably passed in the fifth consulship of Marius, the exact contents of which are unknown, a lex Varia B.C. 91, a lex Cornelia passed by L. Cornelius Sulla, and the lex Julia, which continued under the empire to be the fundamental enactment on this subject. This lex Julia is by some attributed to C. Julius Caesar, and assigned to the year B.C. 48. Under the empire the term majestas was applied to the person of the reigning Caesar, and we find the phrases majestas Augusta, imperatoria, and regia. It was, however, nothing new to apply the term to the emperor, considered in some of his various capacities, for it was applied to the magistratus under the republic, as to the consul and praetor. Horace even addresses Augustus in the terms majestas tua, but this can hardly be viewed otherwise than as a personal compliment, and not as said with reference to any of the offices which he held.

MALLĔŎLUS, a hammer, the transverse head of which was formed for holding pitch and tow, which, having been set on fire, was projected slowly, so that it might not be extinguished during its flight, upon houses and other buildings in order to set them on fire: it was therefore commonly used in sieges together with torches and falaricae.

MĀLUS. [[Navis].]

MANCEPS has the same relation to Mancipium that Auspex has to Auspicium. It is properly qui manu capit. But the word has several special significations. Mancipes were they who bid at the public lettings of the censors for the purpose of farming any part of the public property. Sometimes the chief of the publicani generally are meant by this term, as they were no doubt the bidders and gave the security, and then they shared the undertaking with others or underlet it. The mancipes would accordingly have distinctive names according to the kind of revenue which they took on lease, as Decumani, Portitores, Pecuarii.

MANCĬPĀTĬO. [[Mancipium].]

MANCĬPĬUM, MANCĬPĀTIO. These words are used to indicate the formal transfer of the ownership of a thing, and are derived from the fact that the person who received the thing took hold of it (mancipatio dicitur quia manu res capitur). It was not a simple corporeal apprehension, but one which was accompanied with certain forms described by Gaius the jurist:—“Mancipatio is effected in the presence of not less than five witnesses, who must be Roman citizens and of the age of puberty (puberes), and also in the presence of another person of the same status, who holds a pair of brazen scales, and hence is called Libripens. The purchaser (qui mancipio accipit), taking hold of the thing, says: I affirm that this slave (homo) is mine Ex Jure Quiritium, and he is purchased by me with this piece of money (aes) and brazen scales. He then strikes the scales with the piece of money, and gives it to the seller as a symbol of the price (quasi pretii loco).” This mode of transfer applied to all free persons or slaves, animals or lands, all of which persons and things were called Res Mancipi; other things were called Nec Mancipi. Lands (praedia) might be thus transferred, though the parties to the mancipatio were not on the lands; but all other things, which were objects of mancipatio, were only transferable in the presence of the parties, because corporeal apprehension was a necessary part of the ceremony. The party who transferred the ownership of a thing pursuant to these forms was said mancipio dare; he who thus acquired the ownership was said mancipio accipere. The verb mancipare is sometimes used as equivalent to mancipio dare. Mancipium may be used as equivalent to complete ownership, and may thus be opposed to usus and to fructus. Sometimes the word mancipium signifies a slave, as being one of the res mancipi.

MANDĀTUM, often signifies a command from a superior to an inferior. Under the empire the mandata principum were the commands and instructions given to governors of provinces and others.

MĂNĬPŬLUS. [[Exercitus].]