Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

ACTIA ■

ACTIO.

ACTIA (<x/cTta), a festival celebrated every
four years at Actium in Epirus, with wrest- [
ling, horse-racing, and sea-fights, in honour
of Apollo. There was a celebrated temple of
Apollo at Actium. After the defeat of An-
tony off Actium, Augustus enlarged the
temple, and instituted games to be celebrated
every five years in commemoration of his
victory.

ACTIO, is defined by a Roman jurist to be
the right of pursuing by judicial means what
is a man's due. The old actions of the Ro-
man law were called legis actiones or legi-
timae, either because they were expressly
provided for by the laws of the Twelve Ta-
bles, or because they were strictly adapted to
the words of the laws, and therefore could
not be varied. But these forms of action
gradually fell into disuse, in consequence of
the excessive nicety required, and the failure
consequent on the slightest error in the plead-
ings, and they were eventually abolished by
the Lex Aebutia, and two Leges Juliae, ex-
cept in a few cases. In the old Roman con-
stitution, the knowledge of the law was most
closely connected with the institutes and
ceremonial of religion, and was accordingly
in the hands of the patricians alone, whose
aid their clients were obliged to ask in all
their legal disputes. App. Claudius Caecus,
perhaps one of the earliest writers on law,
drew up the various forms of actions, pro-
bably for his own use and that of his friends :
the manuscript was stolen or copied by his
scribe Cn. Flavius, who made it public ; and
thus, according to the story, the plebeians
became acquainted with those legal forms
which hitherto had been the exclusive pro-
perty of the patricians. After the abolition
of the old legal actions, a suit was prosecuted
in the following manner :—An action was
commenced by the plaintiff summoning the
defendant to appear before the praetor or
other magistrate who had jurisdictio; this
process was called in jus vocatio; and, ac-
cording to the laws of the Twelve Tables, was
in effect a dragging of the defendant before
the praetor, if he refused to go quietly; and
although this rude proceeding was somewhat
modified in later times, we find in the time
of Horace that if the defendant would not go
quietly, the plaintiff called on any bystander
to witness, and dragged the defendant into
court. The parties might settle their dispute
on their way to the court, or the defendant
might be bailed by a vindex. The vindex
must not be confounded with the vades. This
settlement of disputes on the way was called
transactio in via, and serves to explain a
passage in St. JIatthew, v. 25. When before
the praetor, the parties were said jure agere.

The plaintiff then prayed for an action, and
if the praetor allowed it (dabat actionem), he
then declared what action he intended to
bring against the defendant, which he called
edere actionem. This might be done in writ-
ing, or orally, or by the plaintiff taking the
defendant to the album [Album], and show-
ing him which action he intended to rely on.
As the formulae on the album comprehended,
or were supposed to comprehend, every pos-
sible form of action that could be required by
a plaintiff, it was presumed that he could
find among all the formulae some one which
was adapted to his case; and he was, ac-
cordingly, supposed to be without excuse if
he did not take pains to select the proper
formula. If he took the wrong one, or if
he claimed more than his due, he lost his
cause (causa cadebat); but the praetor some-
times gave him leave to amend his claim or
intentio. It will be observed, that as the
formulae were so numerous and comprehen-
sive, the plaintiff had only to select the for-
mula which he supposed to be suitable to
his case, and it would require no further
variation than the insertion of the names of
the parties and of the thing claimed, or the
subject-matter of the suit, with the amount
of damages, &c, as the case might be. When
the praetor had granted an action, the plain-
tiff required the defendant to give security
for his appearance before the praetor (in
jure) on a da)' named, commonly the day but
one after the in jus vocatio, unless the matter
in dispute was settled at once. The defen-
dant, on finding a surety, was said vades dare,
vadimonium promittcrc, or facere; the surety,
vas, was said spondere; the plaintiff, when
satisfied with the surety, was said vadari
reum, to let him go on his sureties, or to
have sureties from him. When the defen-
dant promised to appear in jure on the day
named, without giving any surety, this was
called vadimonium purum. In some cases,
recuperatores [Judex] were named, who, in
case of the defendant making default, con-
demned him in the sum of money named in
the vadimonium. If the defendant appeared
on the day appointed, he was said vadimo-
nium sistere; if he did not appear, he was
said vadimonium deseruissc; and the praetor
gave to the plaintiff the bonorum posscssio.
Both parties, on the day appointed, were
summoned by a crier (praeco), when the
plaintiff made his claim or demand, which
was very briefly expressed, and may be con-
sidered as corresponding to our declaration
at law. The defendant might either deny
the plaintiff's claim, or he might reply to it
by a plea, exceptio. If he simply denied the
| plaintiff's claim, the cause was at issue, and