CĂPUT

the head. The term “head” is often used by the Roman writers as equivalent to “person,” or “human being.” By an easy transition it was used to signify “life:” thus, capite damnari , plecti , ., are equivalent to capital punishment. Caput is also used to expre a man’s status , or civil condition; and the persons who were registered in the tables of the censor are spoken of as capita , sometimes with the addition of the word civium , and sometimes not. Thus to be registered in the census was the same thing as caput habere : and a slave and a filius familias, in this sense of the word, were said to have no caput . The sixth cla of Servius Tullius comprised the proletarii and the capite cens i , of whom the latter, having little or no property, were barely rated as so many head of citizens.—He who lost or changed his status was said to be capite minutus , deminutus , or capitis minor . Capitis minutio or deminutio was a change of a person’s status or civil condition, and consisted of three kinds.—A Roman citizen po e ed freedom ( libertas ), citizenship ( civitas ), and family ( familias ): the lo of all three constituted the maxima capitis deminutio . This capitis deminutio was sustained by those who refused to be registered at the census, or neglected the registration, and were thence called incensi . The in census was liable to be sold, and so to lose his liberty. Those who refused to perform military service might also be sold.—The lo of citizenship and family only, as when a man was interdicted from fire and water, was the media capitis deminutio . [ Exsilium . ]—The change of family by adoption, and by the in manum conventio, was the minima capitis deminutio .—A judicium capitale , or poena capital is , was one which affected a citizen’s caput.