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

COENACULUM.

98

COLOXIA.

(triclinia), answering in shape to the square,
as the long semicircular couches (sigmata)
did to the oval tables. An account of the
disposition of the couches, and of the place
which each guest occupied, is given in the
article Triclinium.

COENACULUM. [Domus.]

COENA.T10. [Cof.na.]

COGXATI, COGNATIO. The cognatio was
the relationship of blood which existed be-
tween those who were sprung from a common
pair ; and all persons so related were called
cognati. The foundation of cognatio is a
legal marriage. The term cognatus (with
some exceptions) comprehends agnatus ; an
agnntns may he a cognatus, but a cognatus is
only an agnatus when his relationship by
blood is traced through males. Those who
were of the same blood by both parents were
sometimes called germani ; consanguinei were
those who had a common father only ; and
uteritti those who had a common mother
only.

COGNITOR. [Actio.]

COGNOMEN. [Nomkn-.]

COIIORS. [Exercitus.]

COLACRETAE OajAaKpeVou, also called
KtoAaypeVai), the name of very ancient magis-
trates at Athens, who had the management of
all financial matters in the time of the kings.
Cleisthenes deprived them of the charge of
the finances, which he transferred to the
Apodectae. [Apodkctaf..] From this time
the Colacretae had only to provide for the
meals in the Prytaneium, and subsequently to
pay the fees to the dicasts, when the practice
of paying the dicasts was introduced by
Pericles.

COLLEGIUM. The persons who formed
a collegium were called collegae or sodalcs.
The word collegium properly expressed the
notion of several persons being united in any
office or for an)* common purpose ; it after-
wards came to signify a body of persons, and
the union which bound them together. The
collegiiKii was the haipCa of the Greeks. The
legal notion of a collegium was as follows :—
A collegium or corpus, as it was also called,
must consist of three persons at least. Per-
sons who legally formed such an association
were said corpus habere, which is equivalent
to our phrase of being incorporated ; and in
later times they were said to be corporati,
and the body was called a corporatio. Asso-
ciations of individuals, who were entitled to
have a corpus, could hold property in common.
Such a body, which was sometimes also called
a universitas, was a legal unity. That which
was due to the body, was not due to the indi-
viduals of it ; and that which the body owed,
was not the debt of the individuals. The

common property of the body was liable to he
seized and sold for the debts of the body. It
does not appear how collegia were formed,
except that some were specially established by
legal authority. Other collegia were proba-
bly formed by voluntary associations of indi-
viduals under the provisions of some general
legal authority, such as those of the publi-
cani. Some of these corporate bodies resem-
bled our companies or guilds ; such were the
fabrorum, pistorum, &c. collegia. Others
were of a religious character ; such as the
pontificum, augurum, fratrum arvalium col-
legia. Others were bodies concerned about
government and administration; as tribunorum
plebis, quaestorum, decurionum collegia. Ac-
cording to the definition of a collegium, the
consuls being only two in number were not
a collegium, though each was called eollega
with respect to the other, and their union in
office was called collegium. When a new
member was taken into a collegium, he was
said co-optari, and the old members were said
with respect to him, recipere in collegium.
The mode of filling up vacancies would vary
in different collegia. The statement of their
rules belongs to the several heads of Augur,
Poxtifkx, &c.

COLONIA, a colony, contains the same
element as the verb colore, "to cultivate," and
as the word colon us; which probably origin-
ally signified a " tiller of the earth." (1)
Greek. The usual Greek words for a colony
are (177-01x10. and KXripovxia. The latter word,
which signified a division of conquered lands
among Athenian citizens, and which corre-
sponds in some respects to the Roman colonia,
is explained in the article Cleruchi. The
earlier Greek colonies, called airoixtai, were
usually composed of mere bands of adventur-
ers, who left their native country, with their
families and property, to seek a new home for
themselves. Some of the colonies, which
arose in consequence of foreign invasion or
civil wars, were undertaken without any
formal consent from the rest of the community;
but usually a colony was sent out with the
approbation of the mother country, and under
the management of a leader (oixicm?;) ap-
pointed by it. But whatever may have been
the origin of the colon}-, it was always con-
sidered in a political point of view indepen-
dent of the mother country, called by the
Greeks metropolis (p^tpotoAis), the " mother-
city," and entirely emancipated from its con-
trol. At the same time, though a colony was
in no political subjection to its parent state,
it was united to it by the ties of filial affec-
tion ; and, according to the generally received
opinions of the Greeks, its duties to the parent
state corresponded to those of a daughter to