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COMMENTARII (Lat. = Gr. broµvijµara)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 766 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COMMENTARII (See also:Lat. = Gr. broµvijµara) , notes to assist the memory, memoranda. This See also:original See also:idea of the word gave rise to a variety of meanings: notes and abstracts of speeches for the assistance of orators; See also:family memorials, the origin of many of the legends introduced into See also:early See also:Roman See also:history from a See also:desire to glorify a particular family; diaries of events occurring in their own circle kept by private individuals,—the See also:day-See also:book, See also:drawn up for Trimalchio in See also:Petronius (Satyricon, 53) by his actuarius (a slave to whom the See also:duty was specially assigned) is quoted as an example ; See also:memoirs of events in which they had taken See also:part drawn up by public men, such were the " Commentaries " of See also:Caesar on the Gallic and See also:Civil See also:wars, and of See also:Cicero on his consulship. Different departments of the imperial See also:administration and certain high functionaries kept records, which were under the See also:charge of an See also:official known as a commentariis (cf. a secretis, ab epistulis). Municipal authorities also kept a See also:register of their official acts. The Comrne;;tarii Principis were the register of the official acts of the See also:emperor. They contained the decisions, favourable or unfavourable, in regard to certain citizens; accusations brought before him or ordered by him; lists of persons in See also:receipt of See also:special privileges. These must be distinguished from the commentarii diurni, a daily See also:court-See also:journal. At a later See also:period records called ephemerides were kept by See also:order of the emperor; these were much used by the Scriptores Historiae Augustae (see AUGUSTAN HISTORY). The Commentarii Senatus, only once mentioned (See also:Tacitus, See also:Annals, xv. 74) are probably identical with the ACTA SENATUS (q.v.). There were also Commentarii of the priestly colleges: (a) Pontificum, collections of their decrees and responses for future reference, to be distinguished from their Annales, which were See also:historical records, and from their Acta, minutes of their meetings; (b) Augurum, similar collections of augural decrees and responses; (c) Decemvirorum; (d) Fratrum Arvalium.

Like the priests, the magistrates also had similar notes, partly written by themselves, and partly records of which they formed the subject. But practically nothing is known of these Commentarii Magistratuum. Mention should also be made of the Commentarii Regum, containing decrees concerning the functions and privileges of the See also:

kings, and forming a See also:record of the acts of the See also:king in his capacity of See also:priest. They were drawn up in historical times like the so-called leges regiae (See also:jus Papirianum), supposed to contain the decrees and decisions of the Roman kings. See the exhaustive See also:article by A. von Premerstein in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie (1901); See also:Teuffel-See also:Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Lit. (Eng. trans.), pp. 72, 77-79; and the concise See also:account by H. Thedenat in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire See also:des antiquitis.

End of Article: COMMENTARII (Lat. = Gr. broµvijµara)

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