Commentarius, Commentarii
（
ὑπομνήματα). Properly notes or note-books. Hence the word
acquires a variety of meanings, of which the most important are the following:
1.
Commentarii domestici, or family memorials, the records of events
interesting to the members of particular families.
2.
The “memoirs” drawn up by public men as to events in which they had
taken part. See above.
3.
Memoranda kept by different departments of the public service, the officials in charge of
them being known as
a commentariis.
4.
In towns a register kept of the official acts of the municipal authorities. We have
interesting extracts from the
commentarii of Caeré in an
inscription in the Museum at Naples (Wilmanns, 2083).
5.
The unofficial record of recent events at Rome, sent by Caelius to Cicero in Cilicia, is
called by him
commentarii rerum urbanarum (
Ad Fam. viii.
2, 2).
6.
The record of the daily occurrences at court kept in
commentarii
diurni (
Suet. Aug. 64), a kind of private
diary, which must be distinguished from the formal
acta and also
from
7.
Commentarii principis, the register of the emperor's official decisions
(
Plin. Ep. x. 106) and of accusations
brought before him (
Calig. 15).
8.
Tacitus once (
Ann. xv. 74) speaks of
commentarii senatus, by
which he can hardly mean anything but the
acta senatus. See
Acta.
