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caudex , ĭcis, m. (more recent orthography cōdex ) [etym. dub.; cf. cauda].
I. The trunk of a tree, the stock, stem (rare).
(β). Codex, Ov. M. 12, 432; Col. 4, 8, 2; 5, 6, 21.— Hence,
B. The block of wood to which one was bound for punishment: “codex,Plaut. Poen. 5, 3, 39; Prop. 4 (5), 7, 44; Juv. 2, 57. —
C. A term of reproach, block, dolt, blockhead: “caudex,Ter. Heaut. 5, 1, 4; Petr. 74.—
II. Inpartic.
A. A block of wood split or sawn into planks, leaves or tablets and fastened together: “quia plurium tabularum contextus caudex apud antiquos vocatur,Sen. Brev. Vit. 13, 4: quod antiqui pluris tabulas conjunctas codices dicebant, Varr. ap. Non. p. 535, 20.—Hence,
B. (Since the ancients orig. wrote upon tablets of wood smeared with wax.) A book, a writing (its leaves were not, like the volumina, rolled within one another, but, like those of our books, lay over one another; cf. Dict. of Antiq.).
(α). Caudex, Cato ap. Front. Ep. ad M. Ant. 1, 2.—
C. Esp. of an accountbook and particularly of a ledger (while adversaria signifies the waste-book; hence only the former was of any validity in law): non habere se hoc nomen (this item) in codice accepti et expensi relatum confitetur: “sed in adversariis patere contendit, etc.,Cic. Rosc. Com. 2, 5; v. the passage in connection; cf. id. ib. 3, 9: in codicis extremā cerā (i. e. upon the last tablet), Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 36. § “92: referre in codicem,id. Sull. 15, 44.—
D. A code of laws: Codex Theodosianus, Justinianus, etc.; cf. Dict. of Antiq. s. v.
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