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rem mandatam : a matter entrusted to a person's charge ; a commission. A mandatum was a contract by which one person undertook to transact an affair for another without remuneration : of the two parties, the former was termed by the jurists mandatarius, by Cicero is cui mandatur or qui mandatum recipit ; the latter mandans or mandator, by Cicero qui mandat. The Romans classed mandatum among the so-called consensual contracts, i.e. those which were entered on merely consensu, by mutual agreement. The mandatarius was bound to execute the affair with the diligentia diligentis patris familias ; if he overlooked it, the mandans could bring an actio mandati, if he had been injured either intentionally (dolo malo, in Cicero malitiose), or through neglect (culpa, or neglegentia, the opposite of diligentia). non modo malitiosius verum etiam negiegentius. Note the position of the adversative particles, next to the specially contrasted words. So placed in English, they would combine malitiosius and neglegentius into one idea, and make no sense. To give the required sense we put them at the head of the two clauses : not only if a man had culpably mismanaged, but even if he had merely neglected . . . our ancestors thought, etc. Cf. pro Deiot. 15, tanto scelere non modo perfecto, sed etiam cogitato. Madvig, ยง 461 b, Obs. 2. malitiosius : in the comparative, only to answer to neglegentius ; for malitiose gerere was punishable in all cases, irrespective of degree. iudicium non minus turpe quam furti. A turpe iudicium was one which brought infamia upon the offender if found guilty : cf. pro Cluent. 119, turpi iudicio damnati omni honore ac dignitate privantur ; and a iudicium mandati, or trial for neglect of a commission, was of this class, as much as a trial for theft. Under the republic a man convicted of theft, besides restoring twice or four times the value of the stolen goods according as the theft was nec mansfestum or manifestum, suffered infamia. operae nostrae . . . the good faith of friends is substituted in place of our own exertions. gubernetur, may be promoted.
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