IMPŪBES. An infans was incapable of doing any legal act. An impubes,
who had passed the limits of infantia, could do any legal act with
the auctoritas of his tutor. With the attainment of pubertas, a
person obtained the full power over his property, and the tutela
ceased: he could also dispose of his property by will; and he could
contract marriage. Pubertas, in the case of a male, was attained
with the completion of the fourteenth, and, in a female, with the
completion of the twelfth year. Upon attaining the age of puberty a
Roman youth assumed the toga virilis, but until that time he wore the
toga praetexta, the broad purple hem of which (_praetexta_) at once
distinguished him from other persons. The toga virilis was assumed
at the Liberalia in the month of March, and though no age appears to
have been positively fixed for the ceremony, it probably took place
as a general rule on the feast which next followed the completion of
the fourteenth year; though it is certain that the completion of the
fourteenth year was not always the time observed. Still, so long as a
male wore the praetexta, he was impubes, and when he assumed the toga
virilis, he was pubes.
INAUGŬRĀTĬO, was in general the ceremony by which the augurs
obtained, or endeavoured to obtain, the sanction of the gods to
something which had been decreed by man; in particular, however,
it was the ceremony by which things or persons were consecrated
to the gods, whence the terms _dedicatio_ and _consecratio_ were
sometimes used as synonymous with inauguratio. Not only were priests
inaugurated, but also the higher magistrates, who for this purpose
were summoned by the augurs to appear on the capitol, on the third
day after their election. This inauguratio conferred no priestly
dignity upon the magistrates, but was merely a method of obtaining
the sanction of the gods to their election, and gave them the right
to take auspicia; and on important emergencies it was their duty to
make use of this privilege.
INAURIS, an ear-ring; called in Greek ἐνώτιον, because it was worn in
the ear (οὗς), and ἐλλόβιον, because it was inserted into the lobe
of the ear (λοβός), which was bored for the purpose. Ear-rings were
worn by both sexes in oriental countries. Among the Greeks and Romans
they were worn only by females. This ornament consisted of the ring
(κρίκος), and of the drops (_stalagmia_). The ring was generally
of gold, although the common people also wore ear-rings of bronze.
Instead of a ring a hook was often used. The drops were sometimes of
gold, very finely wrought, and sometimes of pearls.
INCENDĬUM, the crime of setting any object on fire, by which
the property of a man is endangered. A law of the Twelve Tables
inflicted a severe punishment on the person who set fire to property
maliciously (_sciens_, _prudens_); but if it was done by accident
(_casu_, _id est_, _negligentia_), the law obliged the offender to
repair the injury he had committed. Sulla, in his _Lex Cornelia
de Sicariis_, punished malicious (_dolo malo_) incendium, but only
in the city, or within a thousand paces of it, with aquae et ignis
interdictio. Cn. Pompeius, in B.C. 52, made incendium a crime of
_Vis_ by his _Lex Pompeia de Vi_, in consequence of the burning of
the Curia and the Porcia Basilica on the burial of Clodius; and
Julius Caesar also included it in his _Lex Julia de Vi_. Besides the
two criminal prosecutions given by the Lex Cornelia and Lex Julia,
a person could also bring actions to recover compensation for the
injury done to his property.
INCESTUM or INCESTUS. Incestum is non castum, and signifies generally
all immoral and irreligious acts. In a narrower sense it denotes the
unchastity of a Vestal, and sexual intercourse of persons within
certain degrees of consanguinity. Incest with a Vestal was punished
with the death of both parties. [VESTALES.]
INCŪNĀBŬLA or CŪNABŬLA (σπάργανον), swaddling-clothes, in which a
new-born child was wrapped. It was one of the peculiarities of the
Lacedaemonian education to dispense with the use of incunabula, and
to allow children to enjoy the free use of their limbs.
[Illustration: Incunabula, swaddling-clothes. (From a Bas-relief at
Rome.)]