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INSTITORIA ACTIO.
Choerilus, p. 155, ed.. Naeke ; Hesych. s.v,"2a-fjuaicbs rpoiros; Eust. in Horn. Od. xiii. p. 525), the swan, the tiger (Virg. Aen. x. 166), the bull (irpoTOfuL^jif ravpov, Schol. in A poll. Rhod. ii. 168). Plutarch mentions a Lycian vessel with the sign of the lion on its prow, and that of the serpent on its poop, manifestly intended to express the form of the chimaera. (D& Mul. Virt. p. 441, ed. Steph.) -After an engagement at sea, the insigne of a conquered vessel, as well as its aplustre, was often taken from it and suspended in some temple as ah offering to the god. (Pint. Themist. p. 217.) Figure-heads Avere probably used from the first origin of navigation. On the war-gallejrs of the Phoenicians, who called them, as Herodotus says (iii. 37), iraTaiKoi, i. e. " carved images," they had sometimes a very grotesque appearance.
Besides the badge which distinguished each individual ship, and which was either an engraved and painted wooden image forming part of the prow, or a figure often accompanied by a name and painted on both the bows of the vessel, other insignia, which could be elevated or lowered at pleasure, were requisite in naval engagements. These were probably flags or standards, fixed to the aplustre or to the top of the mast, and serving to mark all those vessels which belonged to the same fleet or to the same nation. Such were " the Attic" and " the Persic signals" (rb "’A.rrtK^v 0-77- jueToj/, Polyaen. iii. 11. § 11, viii. 53. § 1 ; Becker, CharikleS) vol. ii. p. 63). A purple sail indicated the admiral’s ship among the Romans, and flags of different colours were used in the fleet of Alexander the Great. (Plin. //. N. xix. 5.) [J. Y.]
FNSTITA (TrepmoStoi/), a flounce ; a fillet. The Roman matrons sometimes wore a broad fillet with ample folds, sewed to the bottom of the tunic and reaching to the instep. The use of it indicated a superior regard to decency and propriety of manners. (Hor. Sat. i. 2. 29 j^Ovid, Ars Amat. i. 32.) It must have resembled a modern flounce. By the addition of gold and jewellery it took the form of the more splendid and expensive cyclas.
When this term denoted a fillet, which was used by itself, as in the decoration of a thyrsus (Stat. Theb. vii. 654), it was equivalent to vitta or fascia. [tunica.] [J. Y.]
INSTITOR. [institoria actio.]
INSTITORIA ACTIO. This actio was allowed against a man who had appointed either his son or a slave, and either his own or another man’s slave, or a free person, to manage a taberna or any other business for him. The contracts with such manager, in respect of the taberna or other business, were considered to be contracts with the principal. The formula was called Institoria, because he who was appointed to manage a taberna was called an Institor. And the institor, it is said, was so called, " quod negotio gerendo instet sive insistat." If several persons appointed an institor, any one of them might be sued for the whole amount for which the persons were liable on the contract of their institor ; and if one paid the demand, he had his redress over against the others by a societatis judicium or communi dividundo. A great deal of business was done through the medium of institores, and the Romans thus carried on various lucrative occupations in the name of their slaves, which they could not or would not have carried on personally. Institores are coupled with Nautae by
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INSTITUTIONES.
Horace (Ep. xvii. 20), and with the Magister Navis (Carm. iii. 6. 30). (Gaius, iv. 71 ; Instit. ir. tit. 7 ; Dig. 14. tit. 3.) [G. L.]
INSTITUTIONS. It was the object of Justinian to comprise in his Code and Digest or Pandect, a complete body of law. But these works were not adapted to elementary instruction, and the writings of the ancient jurists were no longer allowed to have any authority, except so far as they had been incorporated in the Digest. It was, therefore, necessary to prepare an elementary treatise, for which purpose Justinian appointed a commission, consisting of Tribonianus, Theophilus, and Dorotheus. The commission was instructed to compose an institutional work which should contain the elements of the law (legum cunabula and should not be encumbered with useless matter (Prooem. Inst.). Accordingly, they produced a treatise, under the title of Institutiones, or Elementa (De Jims docendi Ratione)^ which was based on former elementary works of the same name and of a similar character, but chiefly on the Commentarii of Caius or Gaius, his Res Quotidianae, and various other Commentarii. The Institutiones were published with the imperial sanction, at the close of the year a. d. 533, at the same time as the Digest.
The Institutiones consist of four books, which are divided into titles. They treat only of Privatum Jus ; but there is a title on Judicia Publica at the end of the fourth book. The judicia publica are not treated of by Gaius in his Commentaries. Hein-eccius, in his Antiquitatum Romanarum Jurispru-dentiam illustrantium Syntagma, has followed the order of the Institutiones. Theophilus, generally considered Jo be one of the compilers of the Institutiones, wrote a Greek paraphrase upon them, which is still extant, and is occasionally useful. The best edition of the paraphrase of Theophilus is that of W. 0. Reitz, Haag, 1751, 2 vols. 4to. There are, numerous editions of the Latin text of the Institutiones. The editio princeps is that of Mainz, 1468, fol. ; that of Klenze and Boecking, Berlin, 1829, 4to> contains both the Institutiones and the Commentarii of Gaius ; the most recent edition is that of Schrader, Berlin, 1832 and 1836.
There were various institutional works written by the Roman jurists. Callistratus, who lived under Septimius Severus and Antoninus Caracalla, wrote three books of Institutiones. Aelius Mar-cianus wrote sixteen books of Institutiones under Antoninus Caracalla. Florentinus, who lived under Alexander Severus, wrote twelve books of Institutiones, from which there are forty-two excerpts in the Digest. Paulus also wrote two books of Institutiones. There still remain fragments of the Institutiones of Ulpian, which appear to have consisted of two books. But the first treatise of this kind that we know of was the Institutiones of. Gaius in four books. They were formerly only known from a few excerpts in the Digest, from the Epitome contained in the Breviarium, from the Collatio, and a few quotations in the Commentary of Boethius on the Topica of Cicero, and in Priscian.
The MS. of Gaius was discovered in the library of the Chapter of Verona, by Niebuhr, in 3.816. It was first copied by Goeschen and Bethman-Hollweg, and an edition was published by Goeschen in 1820. The deciphering of the MS. was a work of great labour, as it is a palimpsest, the writing on which has been washed out, and in some places erased with a knife, in order to adapt
