Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1012 SCRIPTURA. SCUTUMI.
SCIADEPI-lO'RIA. [IIVYDIAPHORIA.] kept upon them. To how much this duty amlounted
SCIOTHE'RICUMI. [HOROLOGsIUM.] is nowhere stated, but the revenue which the state
SCFPIO. [SCEPTRUM.] derived from it appears to have been very conSCIRI'TAE. [ExERCITUS, p. 485, b.] siderable. The publicani had to keep the lists of
SCO'RPIO. [TortlIENoTU.l.] the persons who sent their cattle upon the public
SCRIBAE. The Scribae at Rome were publlc pastures, together with the number and quality of
notaries or clerks, in the pay of the state. They the cattle. From this registering (scribere) the
were chiefly employed in making up the public duty itself was called scriptsvra,, the public pasture
accounts, copying out laws, and recording the pro- land aeyer scripturarius (Fest. s. v. Scriptznrari2s
ceedings of the different functionaries of the state. a yer), and the publicani or their agents who raised
The phrase scriptu7nf/icere (Liv. ix. 46; Gellius, the tax, scriptetr'arii. Cattle, not registered by the
vi. 9) was used to denote their occupation. Being publicani, were called pecsdces insecriptae, and those
very numerous, they were divided into companies who sent such cattle upon the public pasture were
or classes (decuriae), and were assigned by lot to punished according to the lex censoria (Varro, de
different magistrates, whence they were named Re Rust. ii. 1), and the cattle was taken by the
Quaestorii, Aedilicii, or Praetorii, from the officers publicani and forfeited. (Plaut. Triucul. i. 2. 42,
of state to whom they were attached. (Cic. Verr. &c.) The lex Thoria (Appian, de Bell. Civ. i. 2/;
iii. 79, c. Cat. iv. 7, pro Cluent. 45l; Plin. I-.. Cic. Brut. 36) did away with the scriptura in
xxvi. 1. s. 3.) We also read of a Navalis Scriba, Italy, where the public pastures were very numer.
whose occupation was of a very inferior order. ous and extensive, especially in Apulia (Varro, de
(Festus, s. v. Navalis.) The appointment to the Re Rust. 1. c.; Liv. xxxix. 29), and the. lands
office of a scriba seems to have been either made themselves were now sold or distributed. In the
on the nomillatio of the magistrate, or purchased. provinces, where the public pastures were also let
Thus Livy (xl. 29) tells us that a scriba was ap- out in the samre imanner (Cic. c. yerr. ii. 2, 3, pro
pointed by a quaestor: and we meet with the Leg. Mas. 6, ad Fasz. xiii. 65; Plin. HI. N. xix.
phrase decuriam esnere to " purchase a company," 15), the practice continued until the time of the
i. e. to buy a clerk's place. Horace, for instance, empire; but afterwards the scriptura is no longer
bought for himself a " patent place as clerk in the mentioned. (Compare Niebuhr, ltist. of Ronme,
treasury" (scri'ptuCn quCestorionz conspar-avit, Tate's vol. iii. p. 15, &c.; Burmann, VFectgy. Pop. Roam.
Horaeu, ed. i. p. 58). In Cicero's tinle, indeed, it c. 4.) [L. S.]
seems that any one might become a scriba or SCRU'PULUM, or more properly SCRIPULUAI
public clerk, by purchase (Cic. Verr. iii. 79), and or SlCRIPLUM (yodajuCa), the smallest denonmination
consequently, as freedmen and their sons were eli- of weight among the Romans. It was the 24th
gible, and constituted a great portion of the public part of the UNCIA, or the 288th of the LIBma,
clerks at Rome (Tacit. Ann. xiii. 27), the office and therefore about 18 grains English, which is
was not highly esteemed, though frequently held about the average weight of the scrupular aurei
by ingenui or freeborn citizens. Cicero (I. c.) still in existence. [AuvRvu.]
however informs us that the Scribae formed a re- As a square measure, it was the smallest division
spectable class of men, but he thinks it necessary of thle Jugerum, which contained 288 scrupula.
to assign a reason for calling them such, as if he [JucERauM.] Pliny (Hl. N. ii. 7) uses the word
were conscious that ihe was combating a popular to denote small divisions of a degree. It was in
prejudice. Very few instances are recorded of the fact to be applicable, according to the use of the
Scribae t.eing raised to the higher dignities of the As and its parts, to the 288th part of any unit.
state: Cu. Flavius, the scribe of Ap. Claudcius, was Though the scrupulum was the smallest weight
/raised to the office of cuerule aedile in gratitude in common use, we find divisions of it sometimes
for his making public the various forms of actions, mentioned, as the obolus -= - of a scruple, the seossiwhich had previously beeIn the exclusive property obolzus = - of an obolus, and the siliquGa -- of an
of the patricians [ACTIO], but the returninlg of- obolus, = I of a scruple, which is thus shown to
ficer refused to acquiesce in his election till he had have been originally the weight of a certain numgiven up his books (tabbzlas posuit) and left his ber of seeds. (Priscian. de Pond, v. 8 —13 -
profession. (Gellius, 1. c.) The private secreta- Semiobo pond
ries of individuals were called LIBRAsIr, and sometimes Scribae ab epistolis. In ancient tiles, as duplo
Festus (s. v.) informs us, scriba was used for a poet. Gralnma vocant, scripllum nosti dixeie priores.
(Ernesti, Clavis Ciceron. s.c.; Gittling, Gesc!s. dcer Semina sex ail siliquis latitailtia curvis
R;ism. Staatsves:f p. 374.) [R..] Attribunt scriplo, lentisve grana is octo,
SCRI'NIU1~M. [CAPs &.] [It. Y] Ant totidein speltas numnerant, tristesve lupinos
SCRIPLUM. [ScUiruLusr.] Bis duo.") [P. S.]
SCRIPTA DUO'DECIM. [LATRUNCULI.] SCULIPTURA. [SCALPTURA.]
SCRIPTU'RA was that part of the revenue of SCU;'TICA. [FLAGRUAo.]
the Roman republic which was derived from letting SCUTUM (mvpeos&), the Roman shield, worn
out those portions of the ager publicus which were by the heavy-armed infantry, instead of being
not or could not be taken into cultivation as pas- round like the Greek CLIPEUS, was adapted to the
ture land. (Fest. s. v. &al/luss.) The lamlle for form of the human body, by being made either
such parts of the ager publicus was: pasclta pub- oval or of the shape of a door (;5pa) which it also
lica, saltets, or sillvac. They were let by the cen- resembled inl being made of wood or wicker-workc,
sors to the publicani, lile all other vectigalia; and and from which consequenltly its Greek name was
the persons who sent their cattle to graze on such derived. Two of its forms are shown in the woodpublic pastures had to pay a certain tax or duty to cut at p. 711. That which is here exhibited is
the publicani, which of course varied according to also of frequent occurrence, and is given on theX
the number and quality of the cattle which they salme authority: in this case the shield is cur;ved