Caput
A word which from the sense of “head,” literal or metaphorical
(including under the latter the meaning of “source,”
“beginning”), comes to signify:
1.
A single person or thing as distinct from an aggregate (
Inst. iii. 16, 6;
Dig. 6, 1, 1, 3). Hence perhaps its
use to express a “chapter” of a law (
Dig. 9, 2, 2, pr.)
and a territorial unit for the purpose of land taxation under the later Empire
(
Cod. 10, 2).
2.
A human being (
B. G. iv. 15), e. g. as a subject of the poll-tax
(
Dig. 50, 4, 18, 8); and in this sense even slaves may be included, as in the
phrase
noxalis actio caput sequitur (
Inst. iv. 8, 5). But there is a
tendency to restrict the term to citizens of some substance; thus the lowest century of
Servius Tullius comprised the
proletarii and
capite
censi; of whom the latter, having little or no property, were barely rated as so many
head of citizens (
Gell. xvi. 10;
de
Rep. ii. 22).
3.
A human being regarded as capable of legal rights (=
persona).
4.
That capacity or those legal rights themselves.
