CODEX
CODEX dim. CODICILLUS (the older form was caudex: Cato, ap.
Front.
Epist. ad M. Anton. 1.2). The word originally
signified the trunk or stem of a tree (
Verg. G.
2.30;
Ov. Met. 12.432;
Col. 12.19.5;
Plin.
Nat. 16.121), and was hence applied to designate anything
composed of pieces of wood.
1. A log of wood, attached as a punishment to the feet of slaves, which they
dragged with them, and on which they also sat sometimes. (Plaut.
Poen. 5.3, 39; Prop. iv. (v.) 7, 41;
Juv. 2.57.)
2. Boats on the Tiber, which may originally have been like the Indian canoes,
or were constructed
[p. 1.465]of several roughly hewn planks
nailed together in a rude and simple manner, were called
naves caudicariae, or
codicariae, or
caudiceae. (Fest. p. 46 M.; Varr., Sall.
ap. Non. p. 535, 13; Sen.
Brev. Vit. 13, 4.) The surname of
Caudex given to Appius Claudius must be traced to this signification. (Sen.
l.c.) In later times the name was given to ships
employed in transporting the corn from Ostia to Rome; and the sailors
engaged in this traffic, called
caudicarii or
codicarii, formed a corporation. (Cod.
Theod. 14, 4, 9; 14, 15, 1; Orelli,
Inscr. 1084, 3178, 4072,;
Marquardt,
Röm. Staatsverw. ii. p. 110.)
3. The name of
codex was given to wooden tablets
bound together and lined with a coat of wax, for the purpose of writing upon
them; and when, at a later age, parchment or paper or other materials were
substituted for wood, and put together in the shape of a book, the name of
codex was often used as synonymous with
liber
or book (Varr., Sen.
l.c.;
Cic. Ver. 1.46, § 119). It was the
name more particularly given to an account book or ledger,
codex accepti et expensi. (See following article.)
(
Dig. 32,
1,
52;
Suet. Aug. 101.)
In the time of Cicero we find it also applied to the tablet on which a bill
was written; and the tribune, Cornelius, when one of his colleagues forbade
his bill to be read by the herald or scribe, read it himself (
legit codicem suum;
Cic. in Vat. 2, § 5;
Aston. Ped.
in Argum. ad Cornel. p. 58, ed. Orelli). At a
still later period, during the time of the emperors, the word was used to
express any collection of laws or constitutions of the emperors, whether
made by private individuals or by public authority. See the following
articles.
The diminutive
codicillus, or rather
codicilli, was used much in the same way as codex.
It originally signified tablets of the kind described above, and was
subsequently employed to indicate any small book or document, made either of
parchment or paper. (
Cic. Phil. 8.10,
§ 28;
ad Fam. 6.18.) Respecting its meaning in
connexion with a person's testament, see
TESTAMENTUM Under the empire we find in inscriptions
persons designated as
a codicillis or
adjutor a codicillis, who were probably freedmen in
the imperial house, having the management of property bequeathed by will
(
codicilli) to the emperor. (Orelli,
Inscr. 2902, 2903.)
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