actarum

Actarum is a Latin word that serves as the genitive plural form of actum, the neuter noun meaning "deed," "action," or "record." In classical Latin, the term appears primarily in legal, religious, and historical texts to reference the body of acts or deeds associated with a person, group, or institution. The phrase often surfaces in the context of "acta," the plural of "actum," which denotes formal records such as deeds, proceedings, or the acts of councils and assemblies.

In ecclesiastical Latin, actarum appears in manuscripts that catalogue the actions of saints or the decisions of synods. These documents, sometimes titled Acta Sanctae or Acta Martyrum, list the trials, miracles, and martyrdoms of Christian figures, and are frequently cited in hagiographical studies. The genitive form signals that the following description or list belongs to or characterizes those acts.

Legal texts of the Roman Empire also use actarum to refer to the official records kept by magistrates, collegia, or the Senate. In these contexts, the corpus of actarum might include legal decrees, property transactions, or civic ordinances. Later medieval legal treatises continued this tradition, employing Latin terminology for consistency in documentation and scholarly discourse.

Because actarum is a grammatical construct rather than a proper noun, its occurrence is limited to Latin literature and archival contexts. Scholars studying Roman law, church history, or medieval Latin documents often encounter the term when examining primary sources that enumerate deeds, proceedings, or canonical decisions.