It was from this _commentum_, the equivalent of 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 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 sphrigôntes eti] (Lydus iii. 20).]