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•PRAEJUDICIUM;
tit. 28. s. 1 ; Orelli, Inscript. n. 3116.) The prae- fects of the city had every month to make a report to the emperor of the transactions of the senate (Symmach. Epist. x. 44), where they gave their vote before the consulares. They were the medium through which the emperors received the petitions and presents from their capital. (Symmach. Epist. x. 26. 29, 35 ; Cod. 12. tit. 49.)* At the election of a pope the praefect of Rome had the care of all the external regulations. (Symmach. Epist. x. 71—83.) [L, S,]
PRAEFICAE. [funus, p. 558, b.]
PRAEFURNIUM. [balneae, p. 19% b ;
PORNAX.]
PRAEJUDICIUM. This word, as appears from its etymology, has a certain relation to Judir eium, to which it is opposed by Cicero (Divinat. 4) : " de quo non praejudicium, sed plane jam judicium factum." The commentator, who goes under the name of Asconius, observes on this passage, that a praejudicium is something, which when established becomes an exemplum for the judices (judicaturi) to follow ; but this leaves us in doubt whether he means something established in the sam.e cause, by way of preliminary inquiry, or something established in a different, but a like cause, which would be what we call a precedent. Quintilian (Inst. Orat. v. 1. 2) states that it is used both in the sense of a precedent, in which case it is rather exemplum than praejudicium (res ex paribus causis-fadieatae] • and also in the sense of a preliminary inquiry and determination about something which belongs to the matter in dispute (judiciis ad ipsam eausam pertinentibus)) from whence also comes the name Praejudicium. This latter sense is in conformity with the meaning of Praejudiciales Actiones or Praejudicia in which there is an Intentio only and nothing else. (Gaius, iv> 44.) These accordingly were called Praejudiciales. Actiones which had for their object the determination of some matter, which was not accompanied by a condemnatio. " A praejudicium is an actio, which has not any condemnatio as a consequence, but only a judicial declaration as to the existence of a legal relation. The name of this kind of actions comes from the circumstance that they serve as preliminary to other and future actions. All these Actiones are in rem, that is, they avail not exclusively against a determinate person who owes a duty, like actions which are founded on Obligationes." (Savigny, tfi/stcm, &c. vol. i. p. 356.) For instance, the question might be, Whether a man is a father or not, or Whether he has a Potestas over his child : these were the subject of Praejudiciales Actiones. If a lather denied that the child who was born of his wife, or with which she was then pregnant, was Ins child, this was the subject of a w Praejudicium cum patre de partu agnoscendo." If a Judex should have declared that the child must be maintained by the reputed father, there- must still be the Praejudicium to ascertain whether the reputed father is tha true father. If it was doubtful whether the mother was his wife, there must be a praejudicium on this matter before the praejudicium de partu agnoscendo. These praejudical actions then, were, as it appears, actions respecting Status ; and they were either Civiles or Praetoriae. It was a Civilis Actio when the question was as to libertas ; the rest seem to have been Praetoriae Actiones. Quintilian makes a third class of Praeju-dicia, " cum de eadem causa. pronuntiatum est," &c.
PRAES.
Sometimes Praejudicium means inconvenience^ damage, injury, which sense appears to arise from the notion of a thing being prejudged, or decided without being fairly heard ; and this sense of the word seems to be very nearly the same in which it occurs in our law in the phrase " without prejudice to other matters in the cause.1′
(Gaius, iii. 123, iv. 44 ; Dig. 25. tit. 3 ; Dig. 22. tit. 3. s. 8 ; Dig. 43. tit. 30. De liberis exhibendis : Inst. 4. tit. 6. s. 13 ; and Theophilus, Paraphr. ad Inst. 4. tit. 6. s. 13.) [G. L.]
PRAELUSIO. [gladiatores, p. 575, a.]
PRAENOMEN. [nomen.]
PRAEPETES. [augur, p. 175, b.]
PRAEPOSITUS, which means a person placed over, was given as a title in the later times of the Roman empire to many officers: of these the most important was the Praepositus Sacri Cu-Hculi, or chief chamberlain in the emperor’s palace. (Cod, 12, tit. 5,; Cod. Theod. 6. tit. 8.) Under him was. the Primicerius, together with the Cubi-cularii and the- corps of Silentiarii, commanded by three deeuriones, who preserved silence in the interior of the palace. (Cod. 12. tit. 16 ; Walter, Qesch. des R’dm. Rechts, § 340, 2d ed.)
PRAEROGATIVA. [cqmitia, pp. 338, b, 339, b.]
PRAES. If we might trust a definition by
o «.’
Ausonius (Idyll, xii. 9), he was called Vas who gave security for another in a Causa Capitalis ; and he who gave security for another in a civil action was Praes. But this authority cannot be trusted, and the usage of the words Vas and Praes was certainly not always conformable to this definition. According to Varro (Ling. Lat. vi. 74, ed. Mtiller), any person was Yas, who promised Vadimonium for another, that is, gave security for another in any legal proceeding. Festus (s. v. Vadeni) says that Vas is a Sponsor in a res capitalis. If Vas is genus, of which Vas in its spocial sense, and Praes are species, these definitions will be consistent. (Comp. Sallust. Jug. 35, 61 ; Horat. Sat. i. 1. 11, and Heindorf’s note.) Under Manceps Festus remarks, that Manceps signifies him who buys or hires any public property (qui a populo emit conductive), and that he is also called Praes because he is bound to make good his contract (praestare quod promisit as well as he who is his Praes, (See also Varro, I. c.) According to this, Praes is a surety for one who buys of the state, and so called because of his liability (praestare). But the etymology at least is doubtful, and we are inclined to think, false. The passage of Festus explains a passage in the Life of Atticus (C. Nep. 6), in which it is said that he never bought anything at public auction (ad hasiam publicam) and never was either Manceps or Praes. A case is mentioned by Gel-lius (vii. 19) in which a person was committed to prison who could not obtain Praedes. The gooda of a Praes were called Praedia (Pseudo-Ascon. in Very. ii. 1. 54), and in Cicero (/. c.) and Livy (xxii. 60) "praedibus et praediis " come together. The phrase "praedibus cavere,"to give security, occurs in the Digest (10. tit. 3. s. 6), where some editions have " pro aedibus cavere." (See the various readings ed. Gebauer and Spangenberg.) The phrase " praedes vend ere " means to sell, not the praedes properly so called, but the things which are given as a security.
Praediatores are supposed by Brissonius to be the same as Praedes (Cic. pro Balb. c. 20, ad Alt. xii»
