ACTOR
ACTOR generally means a plaintiff in a civil action, but is
sometimes used for a prosecutor in a public or criminal trial. The plaintiff
in a civil action is also called
petitor, and
one who prosecutes another for a crime
accusator (
Cic. Att. 1.1. 6;
Dig. 48, tit. 2). The defendant was called
reus, both in private and public causes;
reus, however, in a general sense, meant a
party to an action or other legal proceeding, and so is used by Cicero for
the plaintiff as well as the defendant (
De
Orat. 2.43). In a private action the defendant was often called
adversarius but either party might be
called
adversarius in opposition to the other.
As free persons who were under
potestas had no
independent property, they could not, as a rule, be plaintiffs in an action,
but certain actions could be maintained by
filii, as well as
patres familias
(
Dig. 9,
44,
7). In respect to
peculium
castrense and
quasi-castrense
a filius familias was in the position of an
independent person. Actions on behalf of wards (
pupilli) who were below the age of seven were brought by their
guardian (
tutor); actions on behalf of wards
above the age of seven were either brought by their guardian, or, as was
more commonly the case, the action was brought in the name of the ward with
the sanction (
auctoritas) of the guardian.
Peregrini or aliens could not maintain an
action under the early form of procedure called
legis
actio; in later procedure, partly by means of feigned
assumptions of citizenship (Gaius, 4.37), they became capable of suing and
being sued. Persons who appeared in actions as representatives of the
parties directly concerned were called
cognitores or procurators [
ACTIO]. A universitas or corporate body was represented for the
purposes of procedure by an agent, who was called
actor or
syndicus (
Dig. 3, tit. 4).
Actor has also the sense of an agent or manager
of another's business generally; so a slave who was given the management of
an estate, and put over other slaves, is termed
actor. (
Plin. Ep. 3.19.2; Paul.
Sent. 3.6, 47, 48.)
The
actor publicus was the officer who had the
superintendence or care of slaves belonging to the state ; he was himself a
slave or freedman. In the case mentioned by Pliny (
Plin. Ep. 7.18.2) the
actor publicus was the representative of the community (
respublica) of Comum (
Tac.
Ann. 2.30;
3.67).
The
actor rerum privatarum nostrarum was the
manager of the emperor's private estate (Cod.
Just.
3.26,
9).
[
G.L] [
E.A.W]
