A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

1. P. SCAPTIUS. It is related that the inhabitants of Aricia and Ardea having a dispute about certain land, made the Roman people the arbiters; and that the latter, upon the testimony and advice of P. Scaptius, adjudged that the land belonged to neither of these people, but to themselves, B. C. 466 (Liv. 3.71, 72; Dionys. A. R. 11.52). But as the district in question lay in the region of the Scaptian tribe, Niebuhr observes that it is very doubtful whether such a person as Scaptius ever existed. He also makes some other remarks upon the tale which are worth reading, (Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. p. 449, note 985.)