MANCEPS

has the same relation to Mancipium that Auspex has to Auspicium. It is properly qui manu cap it . But the word has several special significations. Mancipes were they who bid at the public lettings of the censors for the purpose of farming any part of the public property. Sometimes the chief of the public an i generally are meant by this term, as they were no doubt the bidders and gave the security, and then they shared the undertaking with others or underlet it. The mancipes would accordingly have distinctive names according to the kind of revenue which they took on lease, as Decuman i , Port i to res , Pecuarii .