SECTIO
SECTIO
“Those are called Sectores who buy property
publice” (Gaius, 4.146; Gellius,
3.154; Festus, s. v.
sectores), and
property was said
venire publice when a man's
whole belongings were sold by the state; which occurred when he was
condemned for certain crimes for which forfeiture was part of the penalty,
in cases of
proscriptio (
Cic. pro Rosc. Am. 43, 125;
Liv. 38.60;
Cic.
in Verr. 1.20, 52), and lastly, when the state
had an unsatisfied claim against a wrongdoer (
Liv.
38.58,
60; Cic.
pro Rabirio Post. 4, 8), especially for payment of a fine
inflicted by way of penalty. For instance, Livy tells us in the passage
referred to, that L. Scipio was condemned to pay a fine for misappropriating
public moneys, and that the praetor gave notice that unless the fine was
paid he should order Scipio to be imprisoned; upon this a tribune put his
veto, and the praetor was driven to put the quaestors in possession of his
property for purposes of sale. Upon being put in possession (for which the
expression
bona publice possidere is used, Lex
Acilia repet., line 9; Lex Servilia, 100.17), the usual course was for the
quaestors to give notice of the sale (
sectio),
which took place
sub hasta (
Cic. Phil. 2.2. 6,
64) and transferred Quiritarian ownership, the property being
sold in the lump, and the purchaser taking it with all its liabilities
(Ascon.
in Verr. 2.1, 23, 61, p. 177 Orelli;
Dig. 48,
23,
2,
3). That the purchaser here
became Quiritarian owner, whereas under a private bankruptcy (
bonorum venditio) he merely became bonorum
possessor, is probably the substance of what Gaius says in a mutilated
passage (3.80: cf. Varro,
R. R. 2.10, 4;
Tac. Hist. 1.20). The names
sector and
sectio are
explained by the subsequent breaking up of the property into lots, by the
sale of which the sector made his profit (Pseudo-Ascon.
in
Verr. 1.20, 52; ib. 23, 61); sometimes, indeed (e. g.
Tac. Hist. 1.90), the things sold by the
quaestor are called
sectio themselves. The
sector had a special interdict (Interdictum Sectorium, Gaius, 4.146) for
obtaining possession of the property. Inheritances which fell to the fiscus
were sold in the same way, and the sector was here
[p. 2.616]entitled to bring
hereditatis petitio (Cod.
4, 39, 1).
[
G.L] [
J.B.M]
