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11,98
VINDICATIO.
of. the villa rustica^ and of all the business of the farm, except the cattle^ which were under the care of the mayister pecoris. (Varro, R. R. i. 2.) The duties of the villicus were to obey his master implicit^, and to govern the other slaves with moderation, never to leave the villa except to go to market, to have no intercourse with soothsayers^ to take care of the cattle and the implements of husbandry, and to manage all the operations of the farm. (Cato, /?. R. 5. 142.) His duties are described at great length by Columella (xi. 1, and i. 8), and those of his wife (vitiica) by the same writer (xii. 1), and by Cato (c. 143).
en-
The word was also used to describe a person to whom the management of any business was
trusted. (See the passage quoted in Forcellini’s Lexicon.) [P. S.]
VINALIA. There were two festivals of this name celebrated by the Romans: the Vinalia ttrbana orprioria^ and*the Vinalia rustica or altera. The vinalia urbana were celebrated on the 23rd of April (jx. Calend. Mai). This festival answered to the Geeek Tridoiyia, as ori this occasion the wine casks which had been filled the preceding autumn were opened for the first time, and the wine tasted. (Plin. fL N< xviii. 69. § 3.) But before men actually tasted the new wine, a libation was offered to Jupiter (Fest. s. v. Vinalia), which was called calpar. (Fest. s. v. Calpar.)
The rustic vinalia, which fell on the 19th of August (xiv. Calend. Sept.) and was celebrated by the inhabitants of all Latium, was the day on which the vintage was opened. On this occasion the flaraen dialis offered lambs to Jupiter, and while the flesh of the victims lay on the altar, he broke with his own hands a bunch of grapes from a vine, and by this act he, as it were, opened the vintage (vindemiam auspicafi; Varro, de Ling. Latt vi. 20), and no must was allowed to be conveyed into the city until this solemnity was performed. (Plin. H. N. xviii. 69. § 4.) This day was sacred to Jupiter, and Venus too appears to have had a share in it. (Varro, 1. c. ; de Re Rust. i. 1 ; Macrob. Sat. i. 4; Ovid, Fast. iv. 897, &c.) An account of the story which was believed to have given rise to the celebration of this festival is given by Festus (s. v. Rustica vinalia) and Ovid (Fast. iv. 863, &c, ; compare Aurel. Vict. de Orig. Gent. Rom. 15). [L. S.]
VINDEMIALIS FERIA. [feriab, p. 530, a.]
VINDEX. [AcTio, p. 11, a; manus in-
JECTIO.]
VINDICATIO. Actiones In Rem were called Vindicationes : Actiones in Personam, u quibus dari fieri oportere intendimus," were called Con-dictiones. (Gains, iv. 5.) Vindicationes therefore were actions about the title to res Corporales, and to Jura in re. (Gains, iv. 3.) The distinction between Vindicationes and Condictiones was an essential distinction which was not affected by the change in the form of procedure from the Legis Actiones to that of the Formulae. The Legis Aetiones fell into disuse (Gains, iv. 31) except in the case of Damnum Infectum and a Judicum Centumvirale, and from this time both Vindicationes and Condictiones were prosecuted by the Formulae. [actio.] The peculiar process of the Vindicatio belonged to the period when the Legis Actiones were in force.
The five modes of proceeding Lege (Gains, iv.
VINDICATIO.
12), Were Sacramento ; Per judicis postulationem j Per condictionem 5 Per manus injectionem ; Per pignoris • capionem. [PfiR judicis postulationem ; per condictionem ; manus injec-tio ; per pignoris capionem.]
A man might proceed Sacramento either in the case of an Actio in personam or an Actio in rem. The part of the process which contained the sacra-mento contenders, or the challenge to the deposit of a sum of money originally, and afterwards to the engagement to pay a penalty, was applicable both to an action in personam and an action in rem* The condition of the penalty was in fact the existence or non-existence of the right claimed by the plaintiff, whatever the right might be ; and the process thus assumed the form of a suit for the penalty. It was the Sacrarnentum which gave to thisform of action its peculiar character. When the parties were in judicio, they briefly stated their cases severally, which was called causae conjectio. If it was an Actio in rem, that is a Vindicatio, moveable things and moving things (mobilia et moventia) which could be brought before the Praetor (in jus), were claimed before the Praetor (in jure vindica-bantui*) thus : he who claimed a thing as his property (qui vindlcabat), held a rod in his hand, and laying hold of the thing, it might be a slave or other thing, he said ; " Hunc ego hominem ex jure Quiritium Meum esse aio secundum causjun sicut dixi. Ecce tibi Vindictam imposui ;" and saying this he placed the rod on the thing. The other claimant (adversaries) did and said the same. This claiming of a thing as property b}r laying tho-hand upon it, was "in jure manum conserere," a phrase as old as the XII Tables. (Gell. xx. 10.) The Praetor then said : "Mittite ambo hominem," and the claimants obeyed. Then he who had made the first vindicatio thus addressed his opponent: "Postulo anne dicas qua ex causa vindicaveris/’ The opponent replied : " Jus peregi sicut Vindictam imposui." Then he who had made the first vindicatio proceeded to that part of the process called the Sacramentum, which was in the form of a wager as to the Right; he said : "Quando tu injuria vin-dicavisti D Aeris sacramento te provoco." The opponent replied by giving the Similiter j "’ Simi-liter ego te."
The process of the SacramentuTa, as already observed, was applicable to an actio in personam ; but as that was founded on an obligatio, there was of course no specific object to claim. In the case of a Vindicatio the Praetor declared the Vindiciae in favour of one of the parties, that is, in the meantime he established one of the parties as Possessor, and compelled him to give security to his opponent for the thing in dispute and the mesne profits, or as it was technically expressed, " jubebat praedes adversario dare litis et vindiciarum."
The Praetor took security from both for the amount of the Sacramentum; for the party who failed paid the amount of the Sacramentum as a penalty (poenae nontine) which: penalty belonged to the state (in publicum cedebat). The suin’s of money were originally deposited in sacro: the1 successful party took his money back, and the deposit of the unsuccessful party was paid into the aerarium. (Varro, de L. L. 180, Miiller ; Festus, s. v. Sacramentum.)
The Poena of the Sacramentum was quingenaria, that is, quingenti asses, in cases when the property in dispute was pf the value of a thousand asses and
