COMMENTARII (Lat. = Gr. brovijara)

This article appears in Volume V06, Page 766 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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COMMENTARII (Lat. = Gr. brovijara) , notes to assist the memory, memoranda. This

original

ORIGINAL

idea

IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

of the word gave rise to a variety of meanings: notes and abstracts of speeches for the assistance of orators; family memorials, the origin of many of the legends introduced into early Roman history from a desire to glorify a particular family; diaries of events occurring in their own circle kept by private individuals,the day-book,

drawn

DRAWN

up for Trimalchio in

Petronius

PETRONIUS (G. (?)1

(Satyricon, 53) by his actuarius (a slave to whom the duty was specially assigned) is quoted as an example ; memoirs of events in which they had taken

part

PART

drawn

DRAWN

up by public men, such were the " Commentaries " of Caesar on the
Gallic and Civil wars, and of Cicero on his consulship. Different departments of the imperial administration and certain high functionaries kept records, which were under the charge of an official known as a commentariis (cf. a secretis, ab epistulis). Municipal authorities also kept a

of their official acts.
The Comrne;;tarii Principis were the

of the official acts of the 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 receipt of

special

SPECIAL

privileges. These must be distinguished from the commentarii diurni, a daily

court

journal

JOURNAL
JOURNAL (through Fr. from late Lat. diurnalis, daily)

. At a later period records called ephemerides were kept by order of the emperor; these were much used by the Scriptores Historiae Augustae (see AUGUSTAN HISTORY). The Commentarii Senatus, only once mentioned (Tacitus, 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 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 kings, and forming a

record

RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

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

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