marble, and beautified with walks and galleries, as also with a tribunal, or seat of justice. Within this precinct or inclosure, the people were called to give their suffrages for the election of magistrates. The ascent into the ovilia was not by stairs, but by pontes, or narrow boards, laid there for the occasion; on which account de ponte dejecti, signified "to be deprived of the privilege of voting;" and persons thus dealt with were called debonarii.

a term applied to such animals as bring forth their young from eggs; as birds, insects, &c.