Definition
In Roman civil law, abigeatores (singular: abigeator) were cattle thieves — specifically, persons who drove away livestock or other animals with the intent to steal them. The term is a variant plural form of abigei (or abigeus in the singular), derived from the Latin abigere, meaning to drive away. The offense they committed was known as abigeatus, a distinct category of theft in Roman law that treated the large-scale or systematic rustling of animals as a graver crime than ordinary petty theft.
Common Confusion
ABIGEATORES, ABIGEI, ABIGEUS: These three terms refer to the same class of offender and the same underlying offense, differing only in grammatical form and rarity of use. Abigeus is the standard singular; abigei is the standard plural; abigeatores is a rarer plural variant. Bouvier's directs researchers from abigeatores straight to abigeus, which is the form most fully treated in historical legal sources. Researchers encountering any of the three should treat them as interchangeable and search under abigeus for the substantive discussion.
Why It Matters in Research
Abigeatores is an infrequent form that appears primarily as a cross-reference point rather than a term of independent doctrinal weight. Researchers working in Roman law materials, civil law commentaries, or early common law treatises that drew on civilian sources may encounter the term but will find the substantive law discussed under abigeus or abigeatus. The practical research path is: if you encounter abigeatores in a source, follow it to abigeus for the full doctrine.
The term has no independent life in Anglo-American common law. It surfaces occasionally in historical English legal dictionaries and treatises in the civilian tradition, but English and American courts did not adopt Roman cattle-theft categories as operative law. Its appearance in Black's and Burrill's reflects the nineteenth-century tradition of comprehensive historical coverage in legal dictionaries, not active legal currency.
Researchers working in comparative law, Roman law scholarship, or the history of property crimes will find the term useful as an index point. Those working in American or English case law will almost certainly not encounter it in judicial opinions.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's and Burrill's are in close agreement, both defining abigeatores as cattle stealers who drove away animals with intent to steal, and both identifying the term as a rarer variant of the standard form. Burrill's adds the etymological note — from abigere, to drive away — and cites Calvinus's Lexicon and Brissonius as primary authority, which are standard civilian reference works of the early modern period. Bouvier's offers no independent definition, directing the reader immediately to abigeus, reflecting Bouvier's general practice of consolidating related terms under the most authoritative headword.
None of the three sources treats abigeatores as a term of living legal significance in American or English law. All three frame it as a historical and comparative entry. No divergence exists among the sources on substance; the only variation is in depth of treatment.