AC'TA Di•usA, Port•u, l'atuNa, or Pt•n LICA (acts daily, polu municipal, or public). A sort of daily chronicle of events published in ancient Rome giving summaries of the prineipal legal and political orations, the decisions of the courts, news from the army, and the latest gossip of the town. They seem also to have contained accounts of the transactions of the assemblies of the people, also of births, deaths, marriages, and divorces, accidents, prodigies, and the like, all of which were preserved as sources of future his tory. 11 hen Antony offered Caesar a crown on the feast of the Luperealia, Cesar ordered it to be noted in the Aeta Dim na. The Acta are fre quently said to have been introduced by Julius Caesar, but others believe them to have existed long before Ciesar's time, and to have supplanted the .1anabs, which fell into disuse about the year 131 n.c. The Latin scholar 'Wilmer has ad vanced strong arguments in support of the for mer view, although it was the practice before Casa r's time for scribes to compile a manu script chronicle of pnblie events in the city of Rome, which was often forwarded with private letters to absent friends. The .lanuics took note
only of the most important events, whereas mat ters of far less importance were included in the Acta Diurna. The material for the Acta was gathered by reporters called actuarii, and the Acta were exposed in public places to be read or copied by any who chose to do so. After a rea sonable period of time they were taken down and preserved with other public. documents. Persons in Rome Avere accustomed to keep their friends who were sojourning out of town informed of the progress of events and of the news generally, as gathered from the Aeta Diurna. A passage in Petronius (cap. 53) gives an imitation of the Acta. From this it would appear that the style was very simple and that only the bare facts were stated. Consult: Le Cle•e, Des journans the les Rawlins I Paris, 1838), a treatise to be read with caution: and Witmer, Ile S•itatns Pop vligne Romani Jells (Leipzig, 180(1).