CURA

The Latin term for the superintendence of a special department of business, such as the distribution of corn (annona), making of roads, regulation of watercourses, aqueducts and the like. The officers entrusted with these special duties were termed curatores. In the republican age they were extra ordinem. In the civil law cura denotes the guardianship of a madman (furiosus) or a spendthrift (prodigus). The curator who managed his property and represented him at law was originally the next agnatus, but afterwards he was always appointed by the authorities. Since 200 B.C. it was also customary to appoint curatores for young persons under twenty-five, under certain conditions, to protect them against being overreached in legal proceedings. From the time of Marcus Aurelius, who made the legality of certain transactions dependent on the co-operation of a curator, the cura minorum became a standing institution.