_Third Stage_ (_nominis delatio_).--It frequently happened that the _postulatio_, the request to prosecute, was not followed by the _divinatio_, the preliminary hearing on the merits of different applicants, because there was only one would-be accuser; and his qualifications were beyond dispute. In such a case, when a request to bring a criminal charge against a certain person had been presented by a citizen to the prætor, there followed, after a certain interval of time, a private hearing before the president of the court for the purpose of gaining fuller and more definite information concerning the charge. This private proceeding was styled the _nominis_ or _criminis delatio_, and took place before the president alone. Its main object was to secure a specification of the personality of the accused as well as of the charges brought against him. At this stage of the trial the presence of the accused person was necessary, unless he was absent under valid excuse. The _lex Memmia_, passed in the year 114 B.C., permitted a delinquent to plead that he was absent from Rome on public business, as an excuse for not appearing at the _nominis delatio_. In the year 58 B.C., the tribune L. Antistius impeached Julius Cæsar. But the colleagues of Antistius excused Cæsar from personal attendance because he was absent in the service of the state in Gaul. But, if the accused appeared at the _nominis delatio_, the prosecutor interrogated him at length concerning the facts of the crime. The purpose of this interrogation (_interrogatio_) was to satisfy the president that there was a prima facie case to carry before the regular tribunal in open trial. The proceedings of the _nominis delatio_ were thus in the nature of a modern Grand Jury investigation, instituted to determine if a serious prosecution should be had. _Fourth Stage_ (_inscriptio_).--If the interrogation convinced the president that the prosecutor had a prima facie case to take before the permanent tribunal, he framed a form of indictment called the _inscriptio_. This indictment was signed by the chief prosecutor and also by a number of witnesses against the accused called _subscriptores_. The charge was now definitely fixed; and, from this moment, it was the only offense that could be prosecuted at the trial. The drawing up of this charge by the president was similar to the framing of an indictment by a modern Grand Jury.