BŎNA, property. The phrase _in bonis_ is frequently used as opposed to _dominium_ or _Quiritarian ownership_ (_ex jure Quiritium_). The ownership of certain kinds of things among the Romans could only be transferred from one person to another with certain formalities, or acquired by usucapion (that is, the uninterrupted possession of a thing for a certain time). But if it was clearly the intention of the owner to transfer the ownership, and the necessary forms only were wanting, the purchaser had the thing _in bonis_, and he had the enjoyment of it, though the original owner was still _legally_ the owner, and was said to have the thing _ex jure Quiritium_, notwithstanding he had parted with the thing. The person who possessed a thing _in bonis_ was protected in the enjoyment of it by the praetor, and consequently after a time would obtain the Quiritarian ownership of it by usucapion. [USUCAPIO.] BŎNA CĂDŪCA. _Caducum_ literally signifies that which falls: thus _glans caduca_ is the mast which falls from a tree. The strict legal sense of _caducum_ and _bona caduca_ is as follows:--If a thing is left by testament to a person, so that he can take it by the jus civile, but from some cause has not taken it, that thing is called _caducum_, as if it had _fallen_ from him. Or if a _heres ex parte_, or a legatee, died before the opening of the will, the thing was _caducum_. That which was caducum came, in the first place, to those among the heredes who had children; and if the heredes had no children, it came among those of the legatees who had children. In case there was no prior claimant the caducum belonged to the aerarium; and subsequently to the fiscus. [AERARIUM.] BŎNA FĬDES implies, generally speaking, the absence of all fraud and unfair dealing or acting. In various actions arising out of mutual dealings, such as buying and selling, lending and hiring, partnership and others, bona fides is equivalent to aequum and justum; and such actions were sometimes called bonae fidei actiones. The formula of the praetor, which was the authority of the judex, empowered him in such cases to inquire and determine _ex bona fide_, that is, according to the real merits of the case: sometimes aequius melius was used instead of ex bona fide. BŎNŌRUM CESSĬO. There were two kinds of bonorum cessio, _in jure_ and _extra jus_. The _in jure cessio_ was a mode of transferring ownership by means of a fictitious suit. The _bonorum cessio extra jus_ was introduced by a Julian law, passed either in the time of Julius Caesar or Augustus, which allowed an insolvent debtor to give up his property to his creditors. The debtor thus avoided the infamia consequent on the bonorum emtio, which was involuntary, and he was free from all personal execution. He was also allowed to retain a small portion of his property for his support. The property thus given up was sold, and the proceeds distributed among the creditors.