ALBUM
ALBUM
1. a notice board or tablet on which the annual edict of the praetor was
inscribed. It contained the formulae and other legal remedies which the
Praetor was prepared to grant [
EDICTUM]. The album was put up in a public place in Rome, so that
all persons might have notice of its contents. Its actual appearance is a
subject of doubt. Some think that it was a piece of white painted wood, and
that the letters on it were black, except the headings (
rubricae), which were red. According to others, the letters
were white, inscribed on a dark ground. Any one who took away, defaced, or
destroyed the album was liable to an
actio albi
corrupti and to a heavy penalty (Paulus, 1, 13, 3; id. 7, 9;
Dig. 2, tit. 1, s. 7, 9).
Probably the word album was used for any tablet containing a public
announcement. Thus Cicero informs us that the
annales
maximi were written on the album by the
pontifex maximus (
de Orat. 2.12,
52).
2. But, however this may be, it was in course of time used to signify a list
of any public body; thus we find the expression
album
senatorium used by Tacitus (
Tac. Ann.
4.42) to express the list of senators, and corresponding to the
word
leucoma, used by Dio Cassius (4.3). The phrase
album decurionum signifies the list of
decuriones whose names were entered on the
album of a
municipium, in the order prescribed
by the
lex municipalis (
Dig.
50, tit. 3).
Album judicum is the
list or panel of
judices drawn up by the
magistrates, from which he was bound to make his selection (
Suet. Cl. 16). [
JUDEX]
[
G.L] [
E.A.W]
