a French _acte
d'accusation_, that the Commentariensis derived his title.

[Sidenote: Ab Actis (Scriniarius Actorum?).]

(5) The _Ab Actis_. The officer who bore this title (which is perhaps
the same as the Scriniarius Actorum of Cassiodorus[151]) seems to have
been exclusively concerned with civil cases, and perhaps held the same
place in reference to them that the Commentarienses held in criminal
matters[152]. Practically, his office appears to have been very much
what we understand by that of _Chief Registrar_ of the Court. He (or
they, for in Lydus' time there were two _Ab Actis_ as well as two
Commentarienses[153]) was chosen from the select body of shorthand
writers who were known as Augustales, and was assisted by six men of
the same class, 'men of high character and intelligence and still in
the vigour of their years[154].' His chief business--and in this he
was served by the _Nomenclatores_, who shouted out in a loud voice the
names of the litigants--was to introduce the plaintiff and defendant
into the Court, or to make a brief statement of the nature of the case
to the presiding magistrate. He then had to watch the course of the
pleadings and listen to the Judge's decision, so as to be able to
prepare a full statement of the case for the Registers or
Journals[155] of the Court. These Registers--at least in the
flourishing days of Roman jurisprudence--were most fully and
accurately kept. Even the _Dies Nefasti_ were marked upon them, and
the reason for their being observed as legal holidays duly noted.
Elaborate indices, prepared by the Chartularii, made search an easy
matter to those who wished to ascertain what was the decision of the
law upon every point; and the marginal notes, or _personalia_,
prepared in Latin[156] by the Ab Actis or his assistants, were so
excellent and so full that sometimes when the original entry in the
Registers had been lost the whole case could be sufficiently
reconstructed from them alone.

[Footnote 151: Var. xi. 22.]

[Footnote 152: This seems to be Bethmann Hollweg's view (p. 181).]

[Footnote 153: This we learn from iii. 20. They are not mentioned in
iii. 4, where we should have expected to find them.]

[Footnote 154: [Greek: hex andres erastoi kai nounechestatoi kai
sphrigontes eti] (Lydus iii. 20).]

[Footnote 155: [Greek: rhegeston e kottidianon (anti tou ephemeron)].]

[Footnote 156: [Greek: Italisti]. Of course the emphasis laid on this
point proceeds from the