It is not our purpose to treat at length of the Judicia rublica. They were in the nature of criminal prosecutions, in which any person, not disqualified, might be the prosecutor, and in which the verdict was followed by a legal punishment. Judicea were employed here also, and were a kind of assessors to the magistrate, or the Judea Qumstionis, who presided. Both the accuser and the accused, as it seems, might challenge a certain number of the judices. Witnesses were examined before them : slaves by torture, freemen orally. The judices, at leant in the more important matters, voted by ballot : each judex put into the urn the tablet of Acquittal, of Condemnation, or the tablet N. L. (son liquet," it is not clear "), according to his pleasure. The magistrate pronounced the verdict according to the tablets which made a majority. A lively picture of the intrigues and bribery which were not unusual on such trials is given by Cicero in speaking of the affair of Clodius and the Bona Dea (` Ep. ad Attic.,' i. 13, 16). The various changes made as to the body from which the indices were chosen appear to refer only to the jndicia publics. [Dames.] There is a distinction between judicia publica, judicia popularia, judicia extraordinaria, and judicia populi.
The title "De Officio Judicia" in the `Institutes' (iv. 17) contains
merely general directions for the conduct of the judices.
It should be observed that this subject is not free from difficulty. What is above stated must be taken only as correct in the main features. Further inquiry is still wanted on several matters connected with the functions of the judices. Enough has been said to enable the reader to compare the Roman judices with the modern jury, and to show the difference of the institutions.
(Gaius, lib. iv.; Heineccius, Syntagma,d-c., by Muhlenbriich (1841); Unterholzner, Usher die Retie Cicero far den Schauspider Roscius, Zeitschrift, &c., i. 248; and his remarks on the difference between the condictio and the actin in personam, with reference to the judices; and Heffter, annment. in Gad librurn quartum, D. 5, 1. D. 48. Inst. 4, 15.) [14rreenter.] Dr. Pettingall's Enquiry into the Use and Practice of Juries among the Greeks and Romans,' London, 1769, may be consulted as to the functions of the Roman judices in the Judicia Publica. Tire author's conclusions seem in the main to be correct, though his essay is an ill arranged and unmethodical production. The Attische l'rocess,' by Meier and Schomann, and the essay of Pettingall, may be consulted with reference to the functions of the Attie Dicastie.