MANCĬPĬUM

MANCĬPĀTIO. These words are used to indicate the formal transfer of the ownership of a thing, and are derived from the fact that the person who received the thing took hold of it ( mancipatio dicitur qui a manu res capitur ). It was not a simple corporeal apprehension, but one which was accompanied with certain forms described by Gaius the jurist:—“Mancipatio is effected in the presence of not le than five witne es, who must be Roman citizens and of the age of puberty ( puberes ), and also in the presence of another person of the same status, who holds a pair of brazen scales, and hence is called Lib ripens . The purchaser ( qui mancipio accipit ), taking hold of the thing, says: I affirm that this slave ( homo ) is mine Ex Jure Quiritium, and he is purchased by me with this piece of money ( aes ) and brazen scales. He then strikes the scales with the piece of money, and gives it to the seller as a symbol of the price ( quasi pretii loco ).” This mode of transfer applied to all free persons or slaves, animals or lands, all of which persons and things were called Res Mancipi ; other things were called Nec Mancipi . Lands ( praedia ) might be thus transferred, though the parties to the mancipatio were not on the lands; but all other things, which were objects of mancipatio, were only transferable in the presence of the parties, because corporeal apprehension was a nece ary part of the ceremony. The party who transferred the ownership of a thing pursuant to these forms was said mancipio dare ; he who thus acquired the ownership was said mancipio accipere . The verb mancipare is sometimes used as equivalent to mancipio dare . Mancipium may be used as equivalent to complete ownership, and may thus be opposed to us us and to fructus . Sometimes the word mancipium signifies a slave, as being one of the res mancipi.