Decoctor
A bankrupt; a term used in popular language to signify any spendthrift. The Romans were a
frugal people, and spendthrifts were not only condemned by public opinion (
Catull. xli. 4;
Cat. ii. 3, 5) but punished by the censors with the
nota
censoria, which carried with it certain legal disabilities. By the Lex Roscia (B.C. 67)
a certain place in the theatre was assigned to spendthrifts (
Cic.
Phil. ii. 18). According to Spartianus, Hadrian ordered that
spendthrifts should be flogged ignominiously (
catomidiari) in the
amphitheatre and turned out (Spart.
Hadr. 18). The Roman law against persons
who would not pay borrowed money was very severe and is explained under
Nexum. Its severity, however, was mitigated by the
bonorum
cessio (q. v.). By a constitution of the emperors Valentinian,
Theodosius, and Arcadius, any decurio who had dissipated the funds of the city (
decoctor pecuniae publicae) was to be scourged.