CĂPUT, the head. The term “head” is often used by the Roman writers as equivalent to “person,” or “human being.” By an easy transition it was used to signify “life:” thus, _capite damnari_, _plecti_, &c., are equivalent to capital punishment. _Caput_ is also used to express a man’s _status_, or civil condition; and the persons who were registered in the tables of the censor are spoken of as _capita_, sometimes with the addition of the word _civium_, and sometimes not. Thus to be registered in the census was the same thing as _caput habere_: and a slave and a filius familias, in this sense of the word, were said to have no _caput_. The sixth class of Servius Tullius comprised the _proletarii_ and the _capite censi_, of whom the latter, having little or no property, were barely rated as so many _head_ of citizens.--He who lost or changed his status was said to be _capite minutus_, _deminutus_, or _capitis minor_. _Capitis minutio_ or _deminutio_ was a change of a person’s status or civil condition, and consisted of three kinds.--A Roman citizen possessed freedom (_libertas_), citizenship (_civitas_), and family (_familias_): the loss of all three constituted the _maxima capitis deminutio_. This capitis deminutio was sustained by those who refused to be registered at the census, or neglected the registration, and were thence called _incensi_. The _incensus_ was liable to be sold, and so to lose his liberty. Those who refused to perform military service might also be sold.--The loss of citizenship and family only, as when a man was interdicted from fire and water, was the _media capitis deminutio_. [EXSILIUM.]--The change of family by adoption, and by the in manum conventio, was the _minima capitis deminutio_.--A _judicium capitale_, or _poena capitalis_, was one which affected a citizen’s caput. CĂPUT. [FENUS.] CĂPUT EXTŌRUM. The Roman soothsayers (_haruspices_) pretended to a knowledge of coming events from the inspection of the entrails of victims slain for that purpose. The part to which they especially directed their attention was the liver, the convex upper portion of which seems to have been called the _caput extorum_. Any disease or deficiency in this organ was considered an unfavourable omen; whereas, if healthy and perfect, it was believed to indicate good fortune. If no caput was found, it was a bad sign (_nihil tristius accidere potuit_); if well defined or double, it was a lucky omen. CĂRĂCALLA, an outer garment used in Gaul, and not unlike the Roman _lacerna_. It was first introduced at Rome by the emperor Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus, who compelled all the people that came to court to wear it, whence he obtained the surname of Caracalla. This garment, as worn in Gaul, does not appear to have reached lower than the knee, but Caracalla lengthened it so as to reach the ankle.