Legal Definitions - conductor operarum

Conductor operarum is a Latin term originating from Roman law. It refers to a person or entity who engages the labor of another individual, often for manual work, in exchange for a specified payment or price. In essence, it describes the role of an employer within the framework of ancient Roman legal principles.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of a conductor operarum:

• Imagine a wealthy Roman citizen who decides to build a new public bathhouse for his town. He enters into an agreement with a master builder to oversee the project and supply the necessary workforce, including masons, carpenters, and laborers, all for an agreed-upon sum. In this scenario, the Roman citizen is the conductor operarum because he is hiring the labor (the master builder and his team) for a specific construction project at a stated price.

• Consider a large estate owner in ancient Rome who needs to cultivate vast fields of olives. During the harvest season, he hires numerous temporary workers from a nearby village to pick the olives, agreeing to pay them a set amount for each day's work. The estate owner acts as the conductor operarum by engaging the manual labor of these farmhands and compensating them with a predetermined wage for their efforts.

• Suppose a Roman merchant requires a fleet of new trading vessels. He contracts with a shipwright, agreeing to pay a fixed fee for the shipwright's expertise and the labor of his crew to construct the ships according to specific designs. Here, the merchant is the conductor operarum because he is commissioning and paying for the specialized labor of the shipwright and his team to produce the vessels.