Curatorship (cura or curatio)

Curatorship is a technical term referring to the administrative duties of both public officials and private citizens under a great variety of circumstances and situations. In the public realm, for instance, this category included care of the

grain supply (cura annonae), which aediles provided, and care of public morals (cura morum), which censors provided.

The most important curatorships of individuals were over lunatics or insane people (cura furiosi), spendthrifts (cura prodigum), and individuals sui iuris under age twenty-five (cura minoris). Since women were ordinarily submitted to ongoing guardianship, the curatorship of minors applied basically to males between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five. The curatorship of lunatics and spendthrifts was established by the Twelve Tables (V.7). Usually the curator, like the tutor, was the closest agnate. If there was no suitable agnate, the magistrate could appoint a curator himself (Gaius, D. 27.10.13).

The development of the curatorship of minors seems to have begun with the lex Laetoria (erroneously called Plaetoria) around 191 bce. According to an edict of the praetor developing that statute, when someone had taken advantage of a minor’s lack of experience, the praetor would grant a remedy to revoke the transaction and restore the minor’s original condition (restitutio in integrum). Because of the ever-present risk of exploiting minors’ lack of experience, transactions with them were substantially reduced. Thus, to preserve these kinds of transactions, the Romans introduced the practice of calling in a curator to approve them. During the Principate, this practice led to the institution of a curator appointed by a magistrate at the minor’s request. Emperor Justinian largely assimilated tutelage to curatorship of minors.