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

PRAECINCTIO PRAEDA. 951
quid &c.i where the Florentine reading has been PRAECO'NES, criers, were employed for vafollowed. But Bynkershoek (Op. Omn. i. p. 76) rious purposes: 1. In sales by auction, they freamends the reading into Si quod, &c., the propriety quently advertised the time, place, and conditions
of which may be doubted. [PRAEDA.] of sale: they seem also to have acted the part of
If a man made a will before he was taken cap- the modem auctioneer, so far as calling out the
tire, and afterwards returned the will was good biddings and amusing the company, though the
jure postliminii. If he died in captivity, the will property was knocked down by the magister aucwas good by the Lex Cornelia. The law of tionis. (Heor. Ars Poet. 419; Cic. ad Ait. xii. 40,
Postliminium applied to. time of peace as well as de OJF. ii. 23.) [AUcTIo.] 2. In all public as
war, when the circnmstances were such that the semblies they ordered silence. (Liv. iii. 47; Plaut.
person or the thing could become. the property of Poen. prol. 1].) 3. In. the comitia they called
another nation (Dig. 49. tit. 15. s. 5), as for the centuries one. by one to give their votes, proinstance of a nation that had neither an amicitia, nounced the vote of each century, and called out
hospitium, nor a foedus with Rome; for, such the names of those rwho were elected. (Cic. c.
might be the relation of a nation to Rome, and yet Verr. v. 15, pr2 Mill.i 35.) They also recited the
it might not be HI-ostis. A nation was not Hostis, laws that epre to be passed. 4. In trials, they
in the later acceptation of that term, till the Reo- summoned the accuser and the accused, the plaintiff
mans had declared war against it, or the nation and defendant. (Suet. Tib. 11.) 5. In the public
had declared war against Rome. Robbers and games, th(y invited thie people to attend, and proPirates were not hostes, and a person w.ho was claimed the victors. (gici ad'anm. v. 12.) 6. In
captured by them did not become a slave, and solenin funerals they also, invited people to attend
therefore had no need of the Jus Postliminii. by a certain form:n; hencethiese funerals were called
There are some remarks on Postliminium in Walter, Funera Ipdictiva; (Festus, s. v. Qisirites; Suet.
Geschichte des fR'm. Rechts, p. 50, and the notes, Ja-. 84.) 7. WXhele things were lost, they cried
Ist ed. [G; L.] them and searched for them. (Plaut. Merc. iii. 4.
POSTSIGNA'NL [EXERCITUS, p. 502, b.].78T; Petron.; 57.) 8. In the infliction of capital
PO'STUMUS. [HEREs, p. 601, a.] puinishment, they sometimes conveyed the comPOTESTAS. [PATeIAA POTESTAS.] mands of the magistrates to the lictors. (Liv. xxvi.
PRA'CTORES (7rpaCTOpES), subordinate offi- 15;)
cers (hvoyla v7rxper-ias,_ says Pollux, viii. 114) who Their office, called praeconiumn, appears to have
collected the fines- and penalties (rrleaha&s and been regarded as rather disreputable: in the time
T~rliubas-a) imposed by magistrates and courts of of Cicero a law was passed preventing all persons
justice, and payable to the.state. The magistrate who had been praecones from becoming decuriones
who imposed the fine,, or the /y7b&v 8&MKaetr7vpiov, in the mrxmicipia. (Cic, ad Faco. vi. 18.) Under
gave notice thereof irn writing to the 7rp4cy.opes.;the early emperors, however, it became very proHe was then said E7r1ypdaepEr Tb[. T'rjluea roe7s fitable (Juv. iii. 157, vii. 6; Martial, v. 56. 1],.7pd'KTrOpOiV, and the debtor's name 7rapaeoOyvaL vi. 8. 5'),. which was. no doubt partly owing to
Tos 7rpcczropotv. If the fine, or any Tart thereof fees, to which they, were e.titled in the courts of
was to go to a temple, the like notice was sent to justice and on other occasions, and' partly to the
the Trayila of the god: or- goddess to whoim the jbribes. which they received from the suitors, &c.
temple belonged. (Aesch. c. Timerveh. 5; Andoc. PRAECO'NIUM. [PRAECoNES.]
de Mlyst. 1], ed. Steph.; Demosth. c. T/ieocr. 1328.) PRAEDA signifies. moveable things taken by
The name of the debtor, xwith the sum which he an enemy in:war. Such things were either diswas condemned to pay, was. entered by the mrpatK - tributed by the Imperator among the soldiers (Liv.
~ropes in a tablet in the Acropolis. Hence the ii. 42, vi. 13; Sall. Jug. 68), or sold by the
debtor was said to be eyyeypa/.que vos Tp &'7,jUO,, quaestors, andi the prpouce was brought into the
or Ev,rp &tcponrdAeL. It was the business of the Aerarium: —
prpdc'opes to demand payment of this sum, and, if captive dus,
they received it, to pay it ofver to the r, re uos ei depraeda de Qaestoribus."
and also to erase the name of the debtor in the re- (Plaut. Cpt. i. 2. 1.)
gister (ieakei\eme or &raheispev). Such erasure
usually took place in the presence of some members The difference between Praeda and Manubiae
of the senate. An dE3eYSEs lay against any man is explainled by Gellius (xiii. 24) to be this:who made or caused to be made a fraudulent entry Praeda is the things themselves that are taken in
or erasure of a debt. (Harpoc. and Suidas, s. sv. war, and Maltbiae is "pecunia per quaestorem
AypaQplov, a&roelcTare, ev3e1yYpaXpu: Andoc. d potpuli Romani ex praeda vendita contracta:" nor
lMAyst. 11, ed. Stepbh.; Demosth. c. Aristog. 778, can any objection to this explanation be derived
c. Theoc. 1338.) The collectors took no steps to from the words of Cicero (de Leg. Agr. ii. 22).
enforce payment; but after the expiration of the When prisoners were sold, they were said to be
ninth'rpvTavela from the registering of the debt, sold " sub corona," the true explanation of which
(or in case of a penalty imposed on a,ypeap expression is probably that given by Gellius (est
v{'peoos, after the expiration of eleven days), if it auteri alia, &c. vii. 4). The mode of sale of other
still remained unpaid, it was doinbled, and an entry things than slaves vas at first probably in detail,
made aceordingly. (Aeseh. c. Tinmearch. 3, ed. but afterwards in the lump, that is, the whole
Steph.; Demnosth. c. Pant. 973, c. Theocr. 1322, praeda might be sold to the highest bidder, or it
c. Neaer. 1347.) Thereupon immediate measures might be sold in large masses which contained a
might be taken for seizure and confiscation of the great number of separate things, in which cases
debtor's goods; but here the irpITopes had no the whole or the mass would pass to the purchaser
further duty to perform, except perhaps to give in- as a universitas, and he might retail it if he chose.
formation of the default to the senate. [C. R. K.] This mode of sale in the lump was called "%sectionem
PRAECI'NCTT. O [AMPHITiHFATRUM, P. 87.] venilre," and the purchaser was called sector. It