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[German version] In Greece and Rome disability in the sense of permanent functional damage of a physical or mental nature (acquired by congenital defect, disease, accident, old age or in war) was thought of as a deviation from the customary norm. The term disability is outlined vaguely in the sources (e.g. Greek ἀσθένεια/ asthéneia, Lat. debilitas, literally ‘weakness’). People with disabilities are sometimes called ἀδύνατοι/ adýnatoi (‘powerless’) or Lat. debiles (‘weak’; [8]; cf.. Cic. Leg. 1,55; Sen. Controv. exc. 3,1; Plin. HN 7,104 f.). The afflictions are s…

[German version] (Lat. principatus). Principatus denotes the senior rank of a community's most influential man by virtue of origin and accomplishments ( princeps ) and refers esp. to the form of state, monarchical in character and created by Augustus [1], which rested upon the traditional legal structures of the Roman Republic [1; 3]. In 27 BC, the de facto power of the military potentate came to be legally established through the Roman Senate ( Senatus ) by according the former powers of Republican office and personal authority. As a legal construct…

[German version] Official records and proclamations in Rome, which were recorded on tablets. The TP usually consisted of wood with whitewash ( album [2]) or a layer of wax ( tabula cerata). Later papyrus, parchment and bronze (for documents posted outdoors) were added as writing materials. The individual tablets could be bound together into a 'book' ( Codex ). Among the things recorded were Senate resolutions ( Senatus consultum ) and laws ( Lex ), magistrates' edicts, electoral and judicial protocols, commentarii , accounts, census lists and treaties. TP w…

A board of three Roman magistrates with a defined area of competence. Distinction is made between ordinary annual officials, who had ordering functions within the group of viginti(sex)viri , and the extraordinary tresviri, who are known, on occasion, to have amassed a great deal of power. [German version] [1] Tresviri capitales Created c.290 BC, their office belonged to the lowest grade on the Republican career path (Cursus honorum; Liv. Per. 11). At first they were appointed by the praetor , and after 242 BC elected in the comitia tributa (Fest. 468 L). They were responsible for t…

(Formed from the word tribus with the suffix - unus, which indicates a person of superordinate authority); the administrative and/or military leader of a tribus ; pl.: tribuni. [German version] [1] Tribunus aerarius Presumably originally aides to the Roman magistrates, charged by the state treasury ( aerarium ) with paying the wages of the soldiers of their tribus  (Soldiers' pay). Tribuni aerarii were perhaps also headmen of their tribus. They may have been active in financial matters into the 1st cent. BC, and were subject to distraint ( pignus ), which indic…