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

PORTORIUUI. POSSESSIO. 4S5
Cass. xxxvii. 51 Cic. ad Ait. ii. 16.) It appears; weselns in1 Im17. Slutat, 1BralnschweiF'1803, 2
however, that the cause of this abolition was not vols.; Jlegewisch, Versucli iiber die IRle. FTntinany complaint by the people of the tax itself, but zen, Altona, 1804.) [L, S.]
of the portitores, i. e. the persons wlio collected it, PORTUMNA'LIA, or PORTUNA'LIA, 1
and who greatly annoyed the merchants by their festival, celebrated in honour of Portumnus, or
UIfair conduct and vexatious proceedings. [PUBLI- Portunus, the god of harbours. (Varro, De Ling'.
CANI.] Thus the republic for a time only levied Lat. vii. 19, ed. MUiller.) It was celebrated on
import and export duties in the provinces, until the 17th day before the Kalenlds of September.
Julius Caesar restored the duties on commodities (Chlendclriumn Alqcfi.)
imported from foreign countries. (Suet. C(ues. 43.) POSCA, vinegar mixed with water, was the
During the triumvirate new portoria were intro- common drink of the lower orders among the
duced (Dion Cass. xlviii. 34), and Augustus partly Romans, as of soldiers when on service (Spart.
inclreased the old import duties and partly insti- IHadr. 1 0), slaves (Plaut. MAfl. iii. 2. 23), &c.
tuted new ones. The subsequent: emperors in- POSE'IDO'NIA (WroreldsVla), a festival *held
creased or diminished this branch of the revenue every year inl Aegina in honour of Poseidon.;
as necessity required, or as their own discretion (Athen. xiii. p. 588; Plut. Qltuest. Gf'. 44.) It
dictated. seems to have been celebrated by all the inhabitAs regards the articles subject to anl import ants of the island, as Athenaeus (xiii. p. 590)
duty, it may be stated in general terms, that all calls it a panegyris, and mentions that during one
commodities, including slaves, which were im- celebration Phryne, the celebrated hetaera, walked
ported by merchants *for the purpose of selling naked into the sea in the presence of the assemthem again, were subject to the portoriusn; bled Greeks. The festival is also mentioned by
whereas things which a person brought with him Theodoretus (Tl/ercp. 7), but no5 particulars are
for his own use, were exempted from it. A long recorded respecting the way in which it Iwas celelist of such taxable articles is given in the Digest brated. (Colmp. Miiller, Aeyinet. p. 148.) [L. S.]
(39. tit. 4. s. 16; compare Cic. c. Iresi ii. 72, 74). POSSE'SSIO. Paulus (Dig. 41. tit. 2. s. 1)
Manly things, however, -which belonged more to observes, CC Possessio appellate est, ut et Labeo
the luxuries than to the necessaries of-life, such as ait, a pedibus, quasi positio: quia niaturalitei
etnucrhs and handsome youths, had to pay an tenetur ab eo qui insistit." The absurdity of the
iumport duty, even though they were imported by etymnology and of the reason are equal. The elepersons for their own use. (Suet. De clrf. Rlet. ments of Possidere are either pot (pot-is), and
I; Cod. 4.- tit. 42. s. 2.) Things which were isa- sedere; or the first part of the word is related to
ported for the use of the state were'also exempt capsd, and the cognate Greek fornnof t7rOTL (,rpos).
fi:oin the portorium. But the governors of pro- Possessio, in its primary sense, is the power by:illces (praesides), When they sent persons to pur- virtue of which a mail has such a mastery over a
chlase things for the use of the public, had to write corporeal thing as to deal with it at his pleasure
a list of stuch things for the publicani ( poetitoses) and to exclude other persons from meddling with
to enat;le the latter to see whether more things it. This condition or power is called Detention,
wvere imported than what were ordered (Dig. 39. and it lies sit the bottom of all legal senses of the
tit, 4-. s. 4); for the practice of smuggming appears word Possession. This Possession is no legal state
to liave been as common amlong the Romans as in or condition, but i:t may be the source of rights,
modern times. Respecting the right of the porti- and it then becomes Possessio in a juristical or
tores to search travellers and merchants, see PUB — legal sense. Still even in this sense, it is not in
I ICA NI; Such goods as were duly stated to the any way to be confounded with Property (proportitores were called scrispta, and those which prietas). A man may have the juristical possesWere not, inscripta. If goods subject to a duty sion of a thing rwithout being the proprietor; and a
were concealed, they were, on their discovery, con- mall may be the proprietor of a thing without havfiscated. (Dig. 39. tit. 4. s. 16.) ing the Detention of it, or even the juristical pos
Respecting the amllount of the import or export session. (Dig. 41. tit. 2. s. 12.) Ownership is the,
duties we -have, but very few statements in the legal capacity to operate on a thing:according to a
ancient -writers. In the time of Cicero the por- maln's pleasure and to exclude everybody else frons
toliull in the ports of Sicily was one-twentieth doing so. Possession, in the sense of Detention,
(vicesims) of the value of taxable articles (Cic. is the actual exercise of such a power as the owner
c. Verr. ii. 75); and as this was the customary has a right to exercise.
riate in Greece (Bcklh, Pulbl. Ecosn. p. 325, 2d Detention becomes juristical possession and the
edit.), it is probable that this was the average foundation of certain rights,, when -the Detasiner
slmn raised in all the other provinces. In the has the intention (animus) to deal with the thing
times of the emperors the ordinary rate of the por- as his owIn. If lie deal with it as the ploperty of
torium appears to have been the fortieth part another, as exercising over it the rights of another,
(quadragesimza) of the value of imported goods. he is not said " possidere "in a juristical sense;
(Suet. Vespas. 1; Quintil. Declcaem. 359; Synimach. but le is said " alieno no I ine possidere." This
Epist. v. 62, 65.). At a late period the exorbitant is the case with the Commodatarius and with him
sum of one.eighth (octave, Cod. 4. tit. 61. s. 7) is who holds a deposit. (Dig. 41. tit. 2. s. 18, 30.)
mentioned as the ordinary import duty; but it is WXhen the Detention is made a juristical Posuncertain whether this is the duty for all articles sessio by virtue of the aninlus, it lays the foundof commerce, or merely for certaiIn things. ation of a right to the Interdicts, and by virtue of
The portorium was, like all other vectigalia, Usucapion it L may become ownership. The right
farmed out by- the censors to the publicani, who to the Interdicts is simply founded on a juristical
collected it through the portitores. [VECTIGALIA; possession, in whatever way it may have originated,
Pulvnr, crN.] (Burmnain, De Vectigaliuss Populi
Roie. pp. 50-77; I. Bosse, Griznsdzii#c des Fiazs- " Sedibus." - Ed. Flor.
3P