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

MANCIPIUM MANCIPIUM. 0727
son who effected the manumission thereby acquired than five witnesses, who must be Roman citizens
a kind of patronal right, which was of some im- and of the age of puberty (pilberes), and also in
portance in the matters of hereditas and tutela. the presence of another person of the same condition,
(Savigny, System, &c. i. 360.) who holds a pair of brazen scales and hence is
The strict practice of Mancipatio, as applied to called Libripens. The purchaser (qui mancispio ctchildren, had fallen into disuse in the time of Gains, cipit), taking hold of the thing, says: I affirm that
and probably still earlier, and it had then become this slave (honma) is mine Ex Jure Quiritiunm, and
a mere legal form by which the Patria Potestas he is purchased by me with this piece of money
was dissolved [EMANCIPAT10]; except a person (aes) and brazen scales. He then strikes the scales
was mancipated ex noxali causa. In case of delicts with the piece of money, and gives it to the seller
by the son, the father could mancipate him (ex szosoali as a symbol of the price (quasi pretii loco)." The
causa mancipio dare), and one act of mancipatio same account of the matter is given more briefly by
was considered sufficient (Gains, iv. 75 —73; Ulpian (Frac. xix.). This mode of transfer apLiv. viii. 28; but the son had a right of action for plied to all Res Mancipi whether free persons or
recovering his freedom, when he had worked out slaves, animals or lands. Lands (praedia) might
the amount of thedamage. (Mos. etRom. Leg. Coll. be thus transferred, though the parties to the
ii. 3.) Justinian put an end to the noxae datio mancipatio were not on the lands; but all other
in the case of children, which indeed before his things, which were objects of mancipatio, were onlytime had fallen into disuse. (Inst. 4. tit. 8. s. 7.) transferable in the presence of the parties, because
In his time, Gaius remarks (i. 141), that men corporeal apprehension was a necessary part of the
were not kept in mancipii causa (isn eo jure) for ceremony. The purchaser or person to whom the
any long time, the form of mancipatio being only mancipatio was made did not acquire the possession
used (except in the case of a noxalis causa) for the of the mancipatio; for the acquisition of possession
purpose of emancipation. But questions of law was a separate act. (Gaius, iv. 131). Gains calls
still arose out of this form; for the three mancipa- Mancipatio " imaginaria quaedam venditio," for
tiones, which were necessary in the case of a son, though the law required this form for the transfer
might not always have been observed. Accord- of the Quiritarian ownership, the real contract of
ingly a child begotten by a son who had been sale consisted in the agreement of the parties as to
twice mancipated, but born after the third manci- the price. The party who transferred the ownerpatio of his father, was still in the poower of his ship of a thing pursuant to these forms was saidl
grandfather. A child begotten by a son who was "mancipio dare;" he who thus acquired the
in his third mancipatio, came into his father's power ownership was said " mancipio accipere." (Plaut.
if he was manumitted after that mancipation; but Trinsum. ii. 4. 18.) The verb "Cmancipare " is
if the father died in mancipio, the child became sometimes used as equivalent to "Cmnancipio dare."
sui juris. (Gaius, i. 135.) Horace (Ep. ii. 2. 159) uses the phrase "manciplt
Coemptio, by which a woman came in manum, usus," which is not an unreasonable licence: he
was effected by mancipatio, and the coemptio might means to'say that "usus' or usucapion has the
be either matrimonii causa, or fiduciae causl. The same effect as mancipatio, which is true; but usus
fiduciae causa coemptio was a ceremony which was only had its effect in the case of Res Mancipi,
necessary when a woman wished to change her where there had been no Mancipatio or In Jure
tutores, and also when she wished to make a will; Cessio. Both Mancipatio and In Jure Cessio
hut a senatusconsultum of Hadrian dispensed with existed before the Twelve Tables (Frag. Vat. 50).
the ceremony in the latter case. (Gaius, i. 1 15, &c.) Mancipatio is used by Gains to express the act
Dion Cassius (xlviii. 44) says that Tiberius Nero of transfer, but in Cicero the word Mancipium is
transferred or gave (EddemcsKE) his wife to Octavianus, used in this sense. (Cic. de Qf. iii. 16, de Oral.
as a father would do; and the transfer of his wife i. 39.)
Marcia by the younger Cato to Quintus Hortensius The division of things into Res Mancipi and
(Plut. Cat. 1ain. c. 25) is a well-known story. If in Nec Mancipi, had reference to the formalities reboth these cases the wife was In Manu, she must quisite to be observed in the transfer of ownership,
have been mancipated. Mancipatio in such case It is stated in the article DOMINIUM, what things
would be equivalent to a divorce; at any rate, in were things Mancipi. To this list may be added
both the cases which have been mentioned, the children of Roman parents, who were according to
second marriage must have been preceded by a the old law Res Mancipi. [MANCIPII CAUSA.]
consent to dissolve the marriage, which would be The Quiritarian ownership of Res Mancipi could
sufficient if the wife was not in mannu, and would only be immediately transferred by Mancipatio or
require the form of mancipatio if she was in manu. In Jure Cessio; transfer by tradition only mnade
(Gains, i. 1 37.) such things In bonis. The Quiritarian ownership
The situation of a debtor who was adjudicated of Res nec mancipi was acquired by tradition only,
to his creditor resembled that of a person who was when there was a justa causa. QuiritarianownerIn mancipii causa. [G. L.] ship is called mancipium by the earlier Roman
MANCFPIUM. The etymology of this word writers: the word dominiunm is first used by later
is the same as that of the word Mancipatio, of writers, as for instance Gains. Mancipatio could
which Gaius (i. 121) says, " Mancipatio dicitur only take place botwveen Roman citizens or those
quiad manu res capitur." The term Mancipium who had the Commercium; which indeed appears
then is derived from the act of corporeal appre. from the words used by the purchaser. (Gains, i.
hension of a thing; and this corporeal apprehen- 119; Ulp. Frag. xix. 3.)
sion is with reference to the transfer of the owner- The only word then by which this formal transfer
ship of a thing. It was not a simple corporeal of ownership was made was Mancipium, which
apprehension, but one which was accompanied with occurs in the Twelve Tables. (Dirksen, Uebersicht,
certain forms described by Gains (i. 119):- &c. p. 395.) The word nexum or nexus is also
"Mancipatio is effected in the presence of not less sometimes used in the same sense. Cicero (Thy.
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