Acta

acta (ăk`tə), official texts of ancient Rome, written or carved on stone or metal. Usually acta were texts made public, although publication was sometimes restricted. Acta were first posted or carved for general reading c.131 B.C. They were accounts of general interest and were later called Acta diurna, and they have been compared to modern newspapers. There were special acta of municipal, legal, or military content. The Acta senatus, according to a Roman administrative tradition, were for many years kept secret so that the public should have no knowledge of senatorial debate. In 59 B.C., Julius Caesar, as consul, ordered their publication along with the Acta diurna, but later the publication was censored. Acta was also the term used for the laws themselves, primarily those promulgated by the emperors.

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Acta

(Latin; “Acts”)

In ancient Rome, the daily minutes of public business and a record of political and social events. Julius Caesar in 59 BC ordered that the Senate's daily doings (acta diurna, commentaria Senatus) be made public; Caesar Augustus later prohibited publication, though the Senate's acts continued to be recorded and could be read with special permission. There were also public registers (acta diurna urbis, “daily minutes of the city”) of the acts of the popular assemblies and the courts as well as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. These constituted a daily gazette, a prototype of the modern newspaper.