n.
(Latin; " Acts ")
In ancient Rome, the daily minutes of public business and a record of political and social events.
Julius Caesar in 59 BC ordered that the Senate 's daily doings ( acta diurna , commentaria Senatus ) be made public; Caesar Augustus later prohibited publication, though the Senate's acts continued to be recorded and could be read with special permission. There were also public registers ( acta diurna urbis , "daily minutes of the city") of the acts of the popular assemblies and the courts as well as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. These constituted a daily gazette, a prototype of the modern newspaper.