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88G PERA.
to him for the purchase of a horse (aes equestre and also in respect of the allowance for the food of his horse (aes hordearium upon what belonged to the person whose duty it was to make the payment. Originally, such payments were fixed upon particular persons, and not made out of the Aera-rium (Liv. i. 43 ; Gaius, iv. 27). The Law of the Twelve Tables allowed a pignoris capio in respect of pay due for the hire of a beast, when the hire money was intended for a sacrifice. By a special law (the name is not legible in the MS. of Gaius) the publicani had the right pignoris capionis in respect of vectigalia publica which were due by any lex. The thing was seized (pignus capiebatur) with certain formal words, and for this reason it was by some considered to be a legis actio. Others did not allow it to be a legis actio, because the proceeding was extra jus, that is, not before the Praetor, and generally also in the absence of the person whose property was seized. The pignus could also be seized on a dies nefastus, or one on which a legis actio was not permitted.
It appears from a passage of Gaius, in which he speaks of the legal fiction that was afterwards in troduced into the Formula by which the publicani recovered the vectigalia, that the thing seized was only taken as a security and was redeemed by payment of the sum of money in respect of which it was seized. In case of non-payment, there must however have been a power of sale, and accordingly this pignoris capio resembled in all respects a pignus proper, except as to the want of consent on the part of the person whose property was seized. It does not appear whether this legis actio was the origin of the law of pledge, as subsequently de veloped ; but it seems not improbable. (Gaius, iv. 26, &c. ; Cic. Verr. iii. 11 ; Pignoris capio, Gell. vii. 10.) [G.L.]
PERA, dim. PE’RULA (irfjpa), a wallet, made of leather, worn suspended at the side by rustics and by travellers to carry their provisions (Mart. xiv. 81) and adopted in imitation of them by the Cynic philosophers. (,Diog. Laert. vi. 13 ; Briinck, Anal. i. 223, ii. 22, 28 ; Auson. Epig. 53.) The
PERGULA.
preceding woodcut is the representation of a goat herd with his staff and wallet from the column of Theodosius, formerly at Constantinople. (Menes- trier, Description de la Col. Hist. Par. 1702. pi. 16.) [J.Y.]
PERDUELLIO. [majestas, p. 725.]
PERDUELLIONIS DUUMVIRI were two officers or judges appointed for the purpose of try ing persons who were accused of the crime of perduellio. Niebuhr believes that they were the same as the quaestores parricidii, and Walter (Gesch. des Rom. Rechts, p. 24. note 19) agrees with him, though in a later part of his work (p. 855. note 20) he admits that they were distinct. It ap pears from a comparison of the following passages, — Liv. i. 26 ; Dig. i. tit. 2. s. 2. § 23 ; Fest. s. v. Parici and Sororittm,—either that some of the ancient writers confound the duumviri perduel- lionis and the quaestores parricidii, or that, at least during the kingly period, they were the same persons ; for in giving an account of the same occurrence, some writers call the judges quaestores parricidii, while others call them duum viri perduellionis. After the establishment of the republic, however, there can be no doubt that they were two distinct offices, for the quaestores were appointed regularly every year, whereas the duumviri were appointed very rarely and only in cases of emergency, as had been the case during the kingly period. (Liv. ii. 41, vi. 20 ; Dion Cass. xxxvii. 27.) Livy (i. 26) represents the duumviri perduellionis as being appointed by the kings, but from Junius Gracchanus (Dig. 1. tit. 13. s. 1 ; com pare Tacit. Annal. xi. 22) it appears that they were proposed by the king and appointed by the populus (reges populi suffragio creabanf). During the early part of the republic they were appointed by the comitia curiata, and afterwards by the comitia centuriata, on the proposal of the consuls. (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. § 23 ; Cic. pro RaUr. 4, &c.) In the case of Rabirius (b. c. 63), however, this custom was violated, as the duumviri were ap pointed by the praetor instead of by the comitia centuriata. (Dion Cass. I. c. ; Cic. L c. ; Suet. Caes. 12.) In the time of the emperors no duumviri perduellionis were ever appointed.
The punishment for those who were found guilty of perduellio was death ; they were either hanged on the arbor infelioc or thrown from the Tarpeian rock. But when the duumviri found a person guilty, he might appeal to the people (in early times the populus, afterwards the comitia centuriata), as was done in the first case which is on record (Liv. i. 26), and in the last, which is that of Rabirius^ whom Cicero defended before the people in an oration still extant. Marcus Horatius who had slain his sister, was acquitted, but was nevertheless obliged to undergo some symbolical punishment, as he had to pass under a yoke with his head covered. The house of those who were executed for perduellio, was razed to the ground, and their relatives were not allowed to mourn for them. (Dig. 3. tit. 2. s. 11. § 3 ; comp. Becker, Hcvndludi der Rom. Alterili. ii. 2. p. 329, &c.) [L. S.] PEREGRi’NUS. [civitas (roman.)] PE’RGULA, appears to have been a kind of booth or small house, which afforded scarcely any protection except by its roof, so that those who passed by could easily look into it. It served both as a workshop (Dig. 5. tit. 1. s. 19) and a stall where things were exhibited for sale. We
