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

POSSESSIO. POSSESSIO. 9 l7
the notion of Possession in the sense of Detention, relation to the jus in re, that proper possession has
there are some other meanings, " To have owner- to ownership. (Savigny, p. 166.)
ship" is sometimes expressed by Possidere, the In order to the acquisition of juristical Possessio,
thing, which is the object of ownership, is some- apprehension and animus are necessary. The aptimes Possessio, and the owner is Possessor. This prehension of a corporeal thing is such a dealing
use of the word occurs frequently in the Code and w ith it as empowyers the person who intends to
Pandect, and also in Cicero, Q'uintilianl. Horace, acquire the possession to operate on the thing to
and other writers. But it is remarked by Savign s the exclusion of' all other persons. Actual cor.
that these meanings of Possidere,. Possessio, &c., poreal contact with the thing is not necessary to
always refer to land as their object. The phrase apprehension.: it is. enough if there is some act on
" Possessio populi Romani," is applied by Cicero the part of the person wh'. intends to acquire posto public land, and it is translated by Plutarch session,. which gives him the physical capacity to
(Pomp. 39), tcriT.a roi,tous P*oo. P aoPw.ia _ operate on file thing at his pleasure. Thus in the
Possessio also denotes the relation of a defend- case of a piece of ground, he who enlters upon part
ant with respect to a plaintiff. For instance, when is considered to have entered upon the whole. A
ownership is claimed, the demand must be against man may acquire possession of what is contained
a person ill possession; but this does not mean in a thing by delivery of the key which gives him
that such person mlust have a juristical possession. access to the cointenlts, ill the presence of (apred)
In a Vindicatio accordingly the plaintiff is called the thi.a. The case menetioned in the Digest
Petitor, and the defendant is named Possessor, be- (Dig. 18. tit. 1. s. 74) is that of the key of a
cause in fact he has the possession of that which granary being delivered inu siglht of the granary
the plaintiff claims. The procedure by t-he Vindi- (apud iorrea). The deliveroy of the key is not a
catio was also adapte&; to the case of anl hereditas; symbolical delivery, as souse have supposed, bust
iand here also the term possessor was applied to it is thle delikery of the means of getting at the
the defendanlt. In many cases the. possessor was thing. (Comlpare Lold Hardwicke's remarks on
really such, and olle object of the hereditatis pe- this imatter, Ward v. Turner, 2 Vez.)
titio was to recover' single thisngs wvsichl the de- The animus consists ill the will to treat as one's
fendalt possessed pro herede or pro possessore. own the thing that is the object of our appreleniBut the term possessor wsas not limited to such sion. All persons therefore who are legally incases, for the defenldant is called possessor when competent to will, are incomipetent to acquire a
the petitio is not about a matter of possession. I-le juristical possession. Infantes and furiosi aro
is called Juris possessor, because lie refuses to do examples of such persons. If a lmai has tile desomrething wvhichl thile eres claims of him. to, do, tention.ofo a thingl, lie can acquire the Possessio by
or because he asserts his rioght to, a. portion;iofthle the aiinims alone; for the other condition lias
hereditas. (Savigny- p. 87..) been aliteadwl osipliedv with.
The juristicail lsotion of Pbssession: ilmplies a I-In order: tliat. juristical possessions may be acthing whslich cai'n be- thie- object of oxlusership: it quired, there mniustWlways be the animus on tile part
also implies th-st the Pbssessor' call be no othler of him whlo intends. to acquire the possession but
than a persoin who has a capacity for oxwnership.:the act of apprdmnsio no (o:ioilY) enay be effected
The nlotion of possession is such that onlyx one by another as his repslresenttCtivc, if that other does
person at a time can possess the whole of a thing the necessary acts, and xwith the intention of ac(plures easndemZ slenze- in soliduszs possidere 2oe f)OS- qusilstig the possession for the othler, and not for
eunt). When several persons possess a thing in himself. (Pasulus,,S. 5. 1;. tit. 2. s. 1.) There
common,so that their possession is, m-nutuall, limited, must be a certainl roeltioe between the person for
each in fact possesses only a fractional part of the whom possession is thus acqumired and'the person
thing, but does not possess the other parts, and vwho acquires it for him, eithec of legal power (pothough the division. ihto parts is only ideal, this testas), or of agency: the fosucer is the case of a
does not affect the legal consideration of the matter. slave or filiuls famnili;as who obeys a command, and
Persons may also possess the same thinio ill dif- the latter is thee caseof ml agaent who follows illferent senses, as in the case of the debtor and his structions (emcnsdatonm). A person, who isalreadcreditor who has receixved fromll himss a pignus. thle representative of another, and has the Possessio
Though things incorporeal cae not strictly obh of a thing, may by the animus alone cease to have
jects of possession, yet there is a Juris quasi pos- the Possessio for himself and lave it for that other,
sessio of them, as for instance in the case of ser- retaining only the bare detention,
vitutes. The exercise of a right of this kiind is Possessio, that is the Right of Possession, can
analogous to the possession of a corporeal thing: il 1be transferred, w ithout the transfer of owlvership.
other words, as real possession consists in the exer- In this case of derivativ e Possessio the apprehencise of ownership, so this kilmd of possession, wvhich sion is the same as slm the case of acquiring a
is fashioned fromll analogy to the other, consists in juristical possessio; but the animus With which
the exercise of a jus in re, or a right xvhicll is not the thing is apprehended, cannot be the "animus
ownership. In the case of Possession, it is the domuini," but merely the "ianimus possidendi,"
thing (cospuss) which is possessed, and not the that is, tle'wsill to acquire the Jus Possessionis,,property: by analogy then xwe should not say that which the Possessor transfers, and nothing more.
the servitus or thie jus in re is possessed. But as The Detention of a thing may be transferred within the case of a jus ill re there is nothing to which out the ownership, but the t'ansfer of the detenthe notion of possession canl be attached, vwhile.in tiomn is not alway's saccompanied by a transfer of thle
the case of ownership there is the thing to which Jus Posessio is. There are three classes listo
-wre apply the notion of possession, we are comn- which all acts may be distributed which are acpelled to resort to the expression Juris Quasi Pos- companied with a transfer of Detention: 1, those.sessio, by which nothing more is meant thasn the'which are never the foundation of a derivative
exercise of a jss in le-, xwhich exercise has the sarleis. Possessie,, those which alw iay-s sire, and 3, those