officer under the eastern empire, whose business it was to write and translate briefs.—At Rome those are styled breviators, or abbreviators, who dictate and draw up the pope's briefs.

Brevibus, a rotulis liberandis, a writ or command to a sheriff to deliver to his successor the county, with the appurtenances, and the rolls, writs, and other things to his office belonging.

Brevier, among printers, a small kind of type or letter between bourgeois and minion.

Brevity, in a general sense, that which denominates a thing brief or short.

Brevity is more particularly used in speaking of the style or composition of discourse. Brevity of discourse is by some called brachylogia and breviloguentia; sometimes laconismus. Tacitus and Persius are remarkable for the brevity of their style. There are two kinds of brevity, one arising from dryness, poverty, and narrowness of genius; the other from judgment and reflection; which latter alone is laudable. Brevity is so essential to a tale, a song, and an epigram, that without it they necessarily languish and become dull. Rhetoricians make brevity one of the principal marks