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 quia 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 less than five witnesses, 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 _Libripens_. 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 necessary 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 _usus_ and to
_fructus_. Sometimes the word mancipium signifies a slave, as being
one of the res mancipi.
MANDĀTUM, often signifies a command from a superior to an inferior.
Under the empire the mandata principum were the commands and
instructions given to governors of provinces and others.