ACTA Populi, among the Romans, were journals or registers of the daily occurrences; as assemblies, trials, executions, buildings, births, marriages, deaths, &c. of
of illustrious persons, and the like. These were otherwise called Acta Publica and Acta Diurna, or simply Acta. The Acta differed from Annals, in that only the greater and more important matters were in the latter, and those of less note were in the former. Their origin is attributed to Julius Cæsar, who first ordered the keeping and making public the acts of the people. Some trace them higher, to Servius Tullius; who, to discover the number of persons born, dead, and alive, ordered that the next of kin, upon a birth, should put a certain piece of money into the treasury of Juno Lucina; upon a death, into that of Venus Libitina: the like was also to be done upon assuming the toga virilis, &c. Under Marcus Antoninus, this was carried further: persons were obliged to notify the births of their children, with their names and surnames, the day, consul, and whether legitimate or spurious, to the prefects of the Erarium Saturni, to be entered in the public acts; though before this time the births of persons of quality appear thus to have been registered.