ACTA Populi, among the Romans, were journals or registers of the daily occurrences; as assemblies, trials, executions, buildings, births, marriages, deaths, &c. 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 Caesar, 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 Ærarium Saturni, to be entered
in the public acts; though before this time the births of persons of quality appear to have been thus registered.
Acta Senatus, among the Romans, were minutes of what passed and was debated in the senate-house. These were also called Commentarii, and by a Greek name ἱστορίαι. They had their origin in the consulship of Julius Cæsar, who ordered them to be kept and also published. The keeping of them was continued under Augustus, but the publication was abrogated. Afterwards all writings relating to the decrees or sentences of the judges, or what passed and was done before them, or by their authority, in any cause, were also called by the name Acta: in which sense we read of civil acts, criminal acts, intervenient acts; acta civilia, criminalia, intervenientia, &c.
Acts of the Apostles, one of the sacred books of the New Testament, containing the history of the infant church during the space of 29 or 30 years, from the ascension of our Lord to the year of Christ 63. It was written by St Luke, and addressed to Theophilus, the person to whom the evangelist had before dedicated his gospel. We here find the accomplishment of several of the promises made by our Saviour; his ascension, the descent of the Holy Ghost, the first preaching of the apostles, and the miracles whereby their doctrines were confirmed; an admirable picture of the manners of the primitive Christians; and, in short, every thing that passed in the church till the dispersion of the apostles, who separated themselves in order to propagate the gospel throughout the world. From the period of that separation, St Luke quits the history of the other apostles, who were then at too great a distance from him, and confines himself more particularly to that of St Paul, who had chosen him for the companion of his labours. He follows that apostle in all his missions, and even to Rome itself; for it appears that the Acts were published in the second year of St Paul's residence in that city, or the 63d year of the Christian era, and in the ninth or tenth year of Nero's reign. The style of this work, which was originally composed in Greek, is much purer than that of the other canonical writers; and it is observable that St Luke, who was much better acquainted with the Greek than with the Hebrew language, always, in his quotations from the Old Testament, makes use of the Septuagint version. The council of Laodicea places the Acts of the Apostles among the canonical books, and all the churches have acknowledged it as such without any controversy.
There were several spurious Acts of the Apostles; particularly, 1. Acts, supposed to be written by Abdius, the pretended bishop of Babylon, who gave out that he was ordained bishop by the apostles themselves when they were upon their journey into Persia. 2. The Acts of St Peter: this book came originally from the school of the Ebionites. 3. The Acts of St Paul: which is entirely lost. Eusebius, who had seen it, pronounces it of no authority. 4. The Acts of St John the Evangelist: a book made use of by the Encratites, Manichæans, and Priscillianists. 5. The Acts of St Andrew: received by the Manichæans, Encratites, and Apotactics. 6. The Acts of St Thomas the Apostle: received particularly by the Manichæans. 7. The Acts of St Philip. This book the Gnostics made use of. 8. The Acts of St Matthias. Some have imagined that the Jews for a long time had concealed the original Acts of the life and death of St Matthias, written in Hebrew; and that a monk of the abbey of St Matthias at Treves, having got them out of their hands, procured them to be translated into Latin, and published them; but the critics will not allow them to be genuine.
Acts of Pilate, a relation sent by Pilate to the Emperor Tiberius, concerning Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the crimes of which he was convicted before lib. ii. cap. iiii.1 It was a custom among the Romans, that the pro-
2, and ix. 5. consuls and governors of provinces should draw up acts, or
memoirs, of what happened in the course of their government, and send them to the emperor and senate. The genuine acts of Pilate were sent by him to Tiberius, who reported them to the senate; but they were rejected by that assembly, because not immediately addressed to them; as is testified by Tertullian in his Apol. cap. 5, and 20, 21. The heretics forged acts in imitation of them: in the reign of the Emperor Maximin, the Gentiles, to throw an odium on the Christian name, spread about spurious acts of Pilate; which the emperor, by a solemn edict, ordered to be sent into all the provinces of the empire, and enjoined the school-masters to teach and explain them to their scholars, and make them learn them by heart. These acts, both the genuine and the spurious, are lost. There is indeed extant, in the Pseudo-Hegesippus, a letter from Pilate to the Emperor Claudius, concerning Jesus Christ;2 but it discovers itself2 Cave Hist. Literar. at first sight to be spurious.
ACTÆ were meadows of remarkable verdure and luxuriance near the sea-shore, where the Romans used to indulge themselves to a great degree in softness and delicacy of living. The word is used in this sense by Cicero and Virgil; but Vossius thinks it can only be used in speaking of Sicily, as these two authors did.