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

8 ACTA. ACTIA.
lieca, Acta Urbana, Actas Rerunl Urbanarmaro, Acta of Alexander Severus, seven of the fourteen cura.Populi, and they are frequently called simply tores urbis, whom he appointed, had to be present
Acta, The Greek writers on Roman history call when the acta were drawn up. (Lampridc. Alex.
them -a, ibrouzyl/larea, Ta 83rlI/(La 7ro/uvulLaSTa, Sev. 33.) The actual task of compiling them was
ar 8Alpdaoa?ypjlcAeara and Ta ICotIw b7rojuY'uarCa. committed to subordinate officers, called actucarii or
The nature of their contents will be best seen from actarii, who were assisted by various clerks, and
the following passage of Petronius (c. 53) where by reporters (notarii), who took down in short-hand
in imitation of them is given by the actuarius of the proceedings in the courts, &c. After the acta
Trimalchio: -" Actuarius - tamquam acta urbis had been drawn up, they were exposed for a time
recitavit: vii. Kal. Sextilis in praedio Cumano, quod in some public place in the city, where persons
est Trimalchionis, nati sunt pueri xxx., puellae could read them and take copies of them. Many
xL.; sublata in horreum ex area tritici millia nlo- scribes, whom Cicero speaks of under the name
dium quingenta; boves domiti quingenti. Eodem of operarii, made it their business to copy them
die Mithridates servus in crucem actus est, quia or make extracts from them for the use of the
Gaii nostri genio maledixerat. Eodem die in arcam wealthy in Rome, and especially in the provinces,
relatum est, quod collocari non potuit, sestertium where they were eagerly sought after and extencenties. Eodem die incendium factum est in hortis sively read. (Cic. ad Fans. viii. 1, xiii. 8; Tac.
Pompeianis, ortum ex aedibus Nastae villici. Jam A nn. xvi. 22.) After the acta had been exetiam edicta aedilium recitabantur, et saltuariorum posed in public for a certain time, they were detestamenta, quibus Trimalchio cum elogio exhae- posited, like the Acta Senatus,. in some of the reredabatur; jam nomina villicorutm et repusdiata a cord offices, or the public libraries.
circumitore liberta in balneatoris contubernio depre- The style of the acta, as appears from the pashensa; atriensis Baias relegatus; jam reus factus sage in Petronius, was very simple and concise.
dispensator; et judicium inter cubicularios actum." They contained a bare enumeration of facts without
From this passage, and from the numerous passages any attempt at ornament.
in ancient writers, in which the Acta Diurna are As to the time at which these acta were first
quoted (references to which are given in the works composed, there is a considerable variety of opinion
of Le Clerc and Liberkiihn cited below), itwould ap- among modern writers. It is maintained that the
pear that they usually contained the following mat- passage of Suetonius (CaOes. 20), quoted above,
teis: - 1. The number of births and deaths in the does not imply that the acta were first published
city, an account of the money paid into the treasury in the first consulship of Julius Caesar, and that
from the provinces, and every thing relating to the the meaning of it is, " that he first ordained that
supply of corn. These particulars would be ex- the acta diurna of the senate should be compiled
tracted from the tabulae publicae. By an ancient and published just as (tam quaen) those of the
regulation, ascribed to Servius Tullius (Dionys. iv. people had been." But although this interpreta15),. all births were registered in the temple of tion is probably the correct one, still there is no
Venus, and all deaths in that of Libitina; and we passage in the ancient writers in which the Acta
know that this practice was continued under the Diurna are decisivelymentioned, previousto Caesar's
empire, only that at a later time the temple of first consulship; for the dicariuem referred to by
Saturn was substituted for that of Venus for the Sempronius Asellio (Gell. v. 18), which is freregistration of births. (Jul. Cap. 1IA1. Aurel. 9.) quently brought forward as a proof of this early pub2. Extracts from the Acta Forensic, containing the lication, is the journal of a private person. There is
edicts of magistrates, the testaments of distinguished likewise no evidence to support an opinion adopted
men, reports of trials, with the names of those who by many modern writers that the publicationr of
were acquitted and condemned, and likewise a list the acta first commenced in a. c. 133 to supply the
of the magistrates who were elected. 3. Extracts place of the Annales Maximi, which were disconfrom the acta senatus, especially all the decrees and tinued in that year (Cic. cde Orat. ii. 12), while
acclamationes [ACCLAMATIO] in honour of the on the contrary the great difference of their conreigning emperor. 4. A court circular, containing tents renders it improbable that such was the case.
an account of the births, deaths, festivals, and The Acta Diurna continued in use to the downfall
movements of the imperial family. 5. An account of the western empire, or at least till the remov-al
of such public affairs and foreign wars as the of the seat of government to Constantinople, but
government thought proper to publish. 6. Curious they were never published at the latter city.
and interesting occurrences, such as prodigies and (Lipsius, Excursus (ad Tac. Ann. v. 4; Ernesti,
miracles, the erection of new edifices, the confla- Excursus ad Suet. J. Cazes. 20; Schlosser, Ueber
gration of buildings, funerals, sacrifices, a list of die Quzellen der spiitern latein. Geschlicltschreiber,
the various games, and especially amatory tales and besonders iiber Zeitunyen, &c. in the Arch/sivfsir Geadventures, with the names of the parties. (Comp. scicte, pp. 80 —106; Prutze, De Fontibus, quos in
Cic. ad Fasro. ii. 15.) The fragments of some conscribendis rebus idle a Tiberio unsque ad nsortemn'
Acta Diurna have been published by Pighius and Neronis gestis auctores veteres secuti videantur,
Dodwell, but their genuineness is too doubtful to Halle, 1840; Zell, Ueber die Zeitzzngen der ltlen,
allow us to make use of them as authorities. Friburg, 1834; but the two best works on the
It is certain that these acta were published subject are, Le Clerc, Des Journaux cliez les Rounder the authority of the government, but it is mnains, Paris, 1838, and Lieberkiihn, De Diurnis
not stated under whose superintendence they were Romanoorwun Actis, Weimar. 1840.)
drawn up. It is probable, however, that this duty A'CTIA ('AKTMa), a festival of Apollo, celedevolved upon the magistrates, who had the care brated at Nicopolis in Epeirus, with wrestling,
of the tabulae publicae, namely, the censors under musical contests, horse-racing, and sea fights. It
the republic (Liv. iv. 8, xliii. 16), and sometimes was established by Augustus, in commemoration
the quaestors, sometimes the praefecti aerarii under of his victory over Antony off Actiuim, and vwas
the empire. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 28.) By a regulation proal:blly the revival of an ancient festival; fbr