A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

as we learn from Paulus (Dig. 50. tit. 16. s. 144) wrote a book, De Jure Papiriano, which was a collection of the laws of the ancient kings of Rome, made by Papirius [PAPIRIUS]. Granius Flaccus was a contemporary of Julius Caesar, and Censorinus (De Die Nat. 3) cites his work De Indigitamentis, which was dedicated to Caesar. The Indigitamenta treated of were probably invocations used in certain sacred rites. (Macr. 1.17), and, according to some etymologists, the word is derived from Indu, the old form for in, and citare, signifying

to invoke. (Duker, de Vet. Ict. Latin. p. 156.) It is not unlikely that Paulus and Censorinus refer to the same work of Granius, under different names, for the religious laws of the kings doubtless remained longest in use; and Papirius, who was himself a pontiff, is said by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (3.36) to have collected the sacred laws after the expulsion of the kings. Religious ceremonies, in the early period of Roman history, may well be supposed to have constituted a large portion of the technical law, and to have been connected with the principal transactions of life.

Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 12.836) cites a lex Papiria, and Macrobius (Macr. 3.11) cites a passage of the Jus Papirianum, which, from the Latinity, may reasonably be ascribed to Granius Flaccus. The passage points out the distinction between temple furniture and temple ornaments, and shows that to the former class belongs the consecrated table (" mensa, in qua epulae, libationesque, et stipes reponuntur ") which is used as an altar (" in templo arae usum obtinet"). P. P. Justi, with much probability (Specim. Observ. Crit. 100.11, Vindob. 1765), attributes to Flaccus (Granius, not the grammarian Verrius Flaccus,) a religious fragment which the ordinary text of Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 12.233) ascribes to an unknown Elaus. Other fragments of Granius are preserved by Festus (s. v. Ricae), Macrobius (Macr. 1.18), Arnobius (Adv. Gentes, iii. p. 69, 72, ed. Elmenhorst), and Priscian (Ars Gram. viii. p. 793, ed. Putsch).

Granius Flaccus is not to be confounded with Granius Licinianus, who is cited by Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 1.732), and Macrobius (Macr. 1.16). (Ludov. Carrio, Emendat. 1.4; Maiansius, ad XXX Ictorum Frag. Comment. vol. ii. p. 129-141 ; Dirksen, Bruchstücke, &c. p. 61.)

[J.T.G]