CAPUT (Lat. head).
In Civil Law. Status; a person's civil condition, 2. According to the Roman law, three elements concurred to form the status or caput of the citizen, namely, liberty, libertas, citizenship, cicitas, and family, familia.
Libertas est naturalis facuttas ejus quad cacique facere libel, nisi si quid vi ant jure prohtbctur. This definition of liberty has been translated by Dr. Cooper, and ell the other English translators of the Institutes, as follows :—" Freedom, from which we are denominated free, is the natural power of act ing as we please, unless prevented by force or by the law." This although. it may be a literal, is cer tainly not a correct, translation of the text. It is absurd to say thnt liberty consists in the power of acting as we think proper, so far as not restrained by force; for it is evident that even the slave can do what he chooses, except so far as his volition is controlled by the power exercised over him by his master. The true meaning of the text is,, "Liberty (from which we are called free) is the power which we derive from nature of acting as we please, ex cept so far as restrained by physical and moral im possibilities." It is obvious that a person is per fectly free though he cannot reach the moon nor stem the current of the Mississippi; and it is equalljt clear that true freedom is not impaired by the rule of law not to appropriate the property of another to ourselves, or the precept of morality to behave with decency and decorum.
3. Civitas—the city—reminds us of the celebrated expression, " civic sum $emanus," which struok awe and terror into the most barbarous nations. The citizen alone enjoyed the j118 quiritium, which ex tended to the family ties, to property, to inherit ance, to wills, to alienations, and to engagements generally. In striking contrast with the civic stood the peregrinus, hostis, barbarus. Pamilia the family—conveyed very different ideas in the early period of Roman jurisprudence from what it does in modern times. Besides the singular organ
ization of the Romnn family, explained under the head of pater families, the members of the family were bound together by religious rites and sacri fices,—sacra 4. The loss of one of these elements produced a change of the status, or civil condition ; this change might be threefold ; the loss of liberty carried with it that of citizenship and family, and was called the maxima capitis deminattio ; the lose of citizen ship did not destroy liberty, but deprived the party of his family, and was denominated media capitis deminutio ; when there was a change of condition by adoption or adrogation, both liberty and citizen ship were preserved, and this produced the minima capita's. deminattin. But the lose or change of the status, whether the great, the less, or the least, was followed by serious consequences : all obligations merely civil were extinguished; those purely na tural continued to exist. Gains says, Eaa obliga Clones qua naturalern prreatatimtent kabere iutelli guntur, palant eat capitie clemiuutione non perire, gala civilie ratio naturalia jury corrumpere non potent. Usufruct was extinguished by the diminu tion of the head: amittitur arse fructue capitie deutinu tione. D. 3.6. 28. It also annulled the testament: "Teetamenta jure faeta infirmantur, cunt is qui fecerit teatamentum capite deminutua sit." Gains, 2, 143. Capitia deminutio means that the family. to which the person whose statue has been lost or changed belongs, has lost a bead, or one of its members.
At Common Law. A head.
Caput comilatis (the head of the county). The sheriff; the king. Spelman, Gloss.
A person; • a life. The upper part of a town. Cowel. A castle. Spelman, Gloss.
Caput anni. The beginning of the year. Cowel.