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

DOMINUITM, DOMUS. 423
miinium), nor was it the same as in bonis. The that others had. Thus the property of a pupilhis
two things are distinguished by Ulpian (Frag. who was in tutela legitima, could not become the
xix.'20, 21). A bonae fidei possessor had a capa- property of another by usucapion; a fundamental
city for acquiring by usucapion the ownership of principle of law which Cicero was surprised that
the thing which he possessed. Hle had a kind of his friend Atticus did not know (Ad Att. i. 5).
action, actio publiciana in rem, by which, if he lost Ownership might be lost by the Maxima capitis
the possession before he had acquired the owner- diminutio; when it was the consequence of a conship by usucapion, he could recover it against all viction for a capital crime, the property was forexcept the owner, or such person as had a better feited to the state. [SECTIO BoNosoltu.] The
right than himself, in which latter respect he dif- media capitis diminutio only effected an incapacity
fered from him who had a thing in bonis, for his for quiritarian ownership: the person could still
claim was good against the person who had the retain or acquire property by the jus gentium;
bare ownership. (Dig. 6. tit. 2.) still if the media capitis diminutio was the conseAs to fundi provinciales, it was an old prin- quence of conviction for a capital crime, it had the
clple of Roman law that there could be no domi- same consequences as the Maxima. (Mackeldey,
nium in them, that is, no quiritarian ownership; Le/lrbuch, &c. 12th ed.; Ueber die VIrssceiedenen
nor were they said to be in bonis, but the occupier Arten des Eigenthumns, &c. von Unterholzner, Rhein.
had possessio and ususfructus. In fact the terms Mus. Erster Jahlrg.; Gaius, ii. 1, &c.; Ulp. Ir(g.
dominium and in bonis were not applicable to pro- tit. xix.; Thibaut, System, &c. ~ 146. &c., ~ 242,
vincial lands, nor were the fictions that were ap- &c., 9th ed.) [G. L.]
plicable to things in bonis applicable to provincial DOMINUS means master, owner [DoMuiNisu].
lands; but it is an ingenious conjecture of Unter- Dominus is opposed to Servus. as master to slace.
holzner, that the formnula actionis was adapted to Plinius, in his letters, always addresses Traija;us
the case of provincial lands by a fiction of their as Dominus; but this must be viewed rather as a
being Italic lands, combined with a fiction of their mode of showing his respect than any acknowledgbeing acquired by usucapion. In the case of the ment of a title. (C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi Ep.
ager publicus in Italy, the dominium was in the ed. G. H. Schaefer, p. 500, note.) Domiitialnus
Roman people, and the terms possessio and pos- claimed the titles of Domlinus and Dens. (Dion Cass.
sessor were appropriate to the enjoyment and the lxvii. 13, and the note of Reimarus; also Martialis,
person by whom the land was enjoyed. Still Ep. v. 8, and x. 72, when Domitianus was dead.)
the property in provincial land was like the pro- It is said, that Aurelianus first adopted the title
perty in bonis in Rome and Italy, and it conse- Dominus on his medals. (Eckhel, Ddct. NAusz. Vet.
quently became dominium after the distinction vol. vii. p. 482.) [G. L.]
between quiritarian and bonitarian ownership was DOMUS (oscos, olcia, and in old Greek;61os),
destroyed. a house. i. GREEK. - The arrangement of the
Ownership was also acquired in the case of oc- several parts of the dwellings of the Greeks forms
cupatio, accessio, &c. [AccEssIO; ALLUVIO; one of the most difficult subjects in their antiquities.
CoNFusIO.] The only regular description of the Greek house,
A man, who had a legal capacity, could acquire that of Vitruvius, is in many respects inconsistent
property either himself or by those who were " in with the allusions found in the Greek writers;
potestate.manu,mancipiove." Hecould even acquire while those allusions themselves are far too scanty
thus per universitatem, as in the case of an here- and obscure, to be woven into a clear description.
ditas; and he could also thus acquire alegacy. If a It is manifest, also, that the arrangement of the
slave was a man's in bonis, every thing that the slave parts differed much at different periods. To say
acquired belonged to the owner in bonis, and not to nothing of the early period when, according to trahim who had the bare quiritarian ownership. If a dition, rude huts of clay, or wood, or stone, began
man was the " bona fide possessor " of another per- to be used instead of the hollow trees, and caves, and
son, whether that person happened to be a freeman clefts in the rocks, in which the savage aborigines
supposed to be and possessed as a slave, or was the found shelter (Diod. v. 68, Pans. x. 17), we have to
property of another, the possessor only acquired the distinguish between the houses, or rather palaces,
ownership of that which the person so possessed ac- of the heroic age, to which Homer's allusions apply,
quired " ex re possid; ntis " and " ex operis suis." the houses of the historical period down to the
The same rule applied to a slave in which a marl time of Alexander the Great, and those after his
had only the ususfructus; and the rule was conl- time.
sistent with the rule just laid down, for ususfructus There were also considerable differences ketween
was not property. Sons who were in the power the arrangements of a town and a country house.
of a father, and slaves, of course, could not acquire All of these had two principal features in colmproperty for themselves. [PEcULIvUM.] mon. Firstly, in Greece, as in all warm climates,
Ownership was lost either with the consent of the general arrangement of a house of the bett r
the owner or against it. With the consent, when sort was that of one or more open courts, surhe transferred it to another, which was the general rounded by the various rooms. Secondly, in a
mode of acquiring and losing property; without Greek family the women lived in private apartthe consent, when the thing perished, when it be- ments allotted to their exclusive use. Hence the
camle the property of another by accession or usu- house was always divided into two distinct porcapion, when it was judicially declared to be the tions, namely, the Andronitis, or men's apart.
property of another, or forfeited by being pledged. ments (&8vpwYTrs), and the Gynaeconitis, or wo.Ownership was not lost by death, for the heres men's apartments (yvvalmcwv7Trs). In the earliest
was considered to be the same person as the de- times, as in the houses referred to by Homer, the
funct. women's apartmenits were in the upper story ( srpAs certain persons had not a capacity to acquire, coov). The saile arrangement is found at the time
so some persons had not the same liability to lose of the Peloponnesian war in the house spoken of; 4