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

216 UNIVERSITAS. UNIVERSITAS.
of the Municipes. Sometimes the word Curia is (in Cn2reianam), but the dissolution only exused as equivalent to Civitas: and sometimes the tended to mischievous associations, as may be
Decuriones are spoken of as a Juristical person, safely inferred from the nature of the case, and
which has property as such. (2) Vici; which even the words of Asconius, if carefully examined,
have no political self-existence, but are attached are not inconsistent with this conclusion. In
to some Respublica; yet they are juristical per- the Digest (47. tit. 22. s. 1, 2, 3) we find the rule
sons, can hold property, and maintain suits. (3) that no collegium could be formed without the
Fora, Conciliabula, Castella. These were places permission of a Senatusconsultum or the Caesar
between Civitates and Vici as to extent and im- and persons who associated unlawfully were guilty
portance; they belonged to a Respublica, but had of an cxtraordinarium crimen. The rule of lawthe rights of juristical persons: they are not men- means that no union of persons could form a
tioned in the legislation of Justinian, but the names juristical person without the consent of the proper
occur in the Tablet of Heraclea, in the Lex Galliae authority; and this is quite distinct from the
Cisalpinae, and in Paulus (S. R. iv. tit. 6. s. 2.) i other provision contained in the same rule, which
In the later period of the Empire, Provinces were punished associations of persons who acted as corviewed as juristical persons. porations, for this part of the rule relates only to
In the writings of the Agrimensores, commu- such associations as were dangerous, or of an undenities, and, particularly, colonies (coloni), are desir- fined character.
nated by the appropriate name of Publicae Per- There were also in the Imperial period the
sonae, and property is spoken of as belonging to Collegia tenuiorum, or associations of poor people,
the Coloni, that is, the Colonia, Coloni being used but they were allowed to meet only once a month
here in the same sense in which Municipes was and they paid monthly contributions. (Dig. 47.
used as above explained. tit. 22. s. 1, 3.) A man could only belong to one
Other juristical persons were (I) Religious of them. Slaves could belong to such a collegium,
bodies, as Collegia of Priests, and of the Vestal with the permission of their masters.
Virgins, which could hold property and take by Communities of cities and towns have a kind of
testament. (2) Associations of official persons, natural or necessary existence; and other bodies,
such as those who were employed in administra- called corporations, have been fashioned by a kind
tion: the body of Scribae became one of the most of analogy to them, and like them can have pronumerous and important, as they were employed in perty, and be represented like them by an agent,
all branches of administration; the general name wherein consists the.essence of a juristical person.
was Scribae, a term which includes the particular Some of these corporations, like communities of
names of librarii, fiscales and others; they were cities and towns, were of a permanent character,
divided into subdivisions called Decuriae, a term as Colleges of Priests, Decuriae, and Companies
which even under the Republic and also under of artisans; others had a temporary character,
the Empire denoted the corporations of Scribae; as Societates and Sodalitates. All these corpothe individual members were called decuriati, and rations are designated by the namne either of Colsubsequently decuriales; the decuriati had great legium or Corpus, between which there is no legal
privileges in Rome and subsequently in Constalti- distinction; for it appears that one corporation
nople. (Cic. ini V7err. iii. 79, ad Quint. Frat. ii. 3; was called a Collegium and another a Corpus, as it
Tacit. Al2zn. xiii. 27; Sueton. Autg. 57, Claud. 1.) might happen. But both of these terms denote a
(3) Associations for trade and commerce, as Fabri, Corporation, as above explained, as opposed to a
Pistores, Navicularii, the individuals of which had Civitas or Respublica. The members of such cora common profession, on which the notion of their porations were Collegae and Sodales, which is a
union was founded; but each man worked on his more general and an older term than Sodalitas.
own account. Associations properly included under Altogether they were called Collegiati and CorpoSocietates [SOCIETAS]: such associations could be rati: the members of particular kinds of corporadissolved by the notice of any member, and were tions were Decuriati, Decuriales, Socii. The coamactually dissolved by the death of a single member. mon name which includes all Corporations and
Some of these associations, such as those for work- Civitates is Universitas, as opposed to which any
ing Mines, Salinae, and farming the Portoria were individual is singularis persona.
corporate bodies, though they had the name of Socie- The notion of individual property as a unity is
tates. (4) Associations, called Sodalitates, Sodalitia, founded on the notion of the unity of the owner.
Collegia Sodalitia, which resembled modern clubs. But this notion of unity, when once established,
In their origin they were friendly associations for may for certain purposes be arbitrarily assumed,
feasting together; in course of time many of them and accordingly it is applied to the case of Peculibecame political associations, but fromtthis we must am, Dos, anid Hereditas, and modern writers have
not conclude that their true nature really varied; designated these as cases of a Universitas Juris.
they were associations not included in any other The name Universitas Juris does not occur in th6
class that has been enumerated, but they differed Roman law. On this subject see Puchta, Inst.
in their character according to the times. In ii. ~ 222. The nature of Succession is explained
periods of commotion they became the central under SuccEssIo.
points of political factions, and new associations, it The term Universitas was adopted in the middle
mnay-be reasonably supposed, would be formed ex- ages to denote certain great schools, but not uts
pressly for political purposes. Sometimes the Schools: the term denoted these places as corporapublic places were crowded by the Sodalitia and tions, that is, as associations of individuals. The
Decuriati (Cic. ad Quint. Fract. ii. 3), and the adjunct which would express the kind of persons
Senate was at last compelled to propose a lex which associated would depend on circumstances: thus
should subject to the penalties of Vis those who in Bologna, the expression Universitas Scholariunt
would not disperse. This was followed by a gene- was in common use; in Paris, Universitas Magisral dissolution of collegia according to Asconius trorum. Tile School as such was called Schola,