Definition
A Latin term from Roman civil law meaning food or victuals — that is, provisions intended for human consumption. The term appears in contexts where the law addressed legacies, allowances, or entitlements to sustenance, particularly under provisions governing what was owed to slaves, freedpersons, dependents, or household members as part of a bequest or obligation. The singular form is *cibarium*; the related adjective *cibatus* or *cibata* means "victualled" or "provided with food."
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of *cibarium*; no independent English meaning in ordinary use.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not entered as an English word.
This term has no meaningful life in ordinary English and is encountered exclusively in legal and classical Latin contexts. No gap between common and legal meaning exists because no common meaning exists. The COMMON LANGUAGE section is omitted accordingly.
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Why It Matters in Research
CIBARIA is a narrow civil law term encountered almost entirely in one context: the title *De alimentis vel cibariis legatis* (Digest 34.1), which addresses legacies of maintenance and food. Researchers working in Roman law, Scots law, or early civil law treatises may encounter the term when tracing the origins of alimentary obligations — the legal duty to provide support or sustenance.
The primary research trap is conflating CIBARIA with the broader concept of *alimenta*. While both involve sustenance, *alimenta* was the more comprehensive term covering support generally (food, clothing, shelter), whereas *cibaria* referred specifically to food or provisions. Some historical dictionary sources use the terms interchangeably in their brief glosses, which can obscure this distinction in civil law sources.
Researchers using Law Mind sources should note that CIBARIA rarely appears outside Digest 34.1 citations. If you encounter the term in a historical English legal text, it is almost certainly being used to gloss or translate a Roman law concept, not to invoke an independent common law doctrine. The term carries no independent technical meaning in English common law.
For researchers tracing alimentary obligations into modern civil law jurisdictions — particularly Louisiana, Quebec, or Scots law — CIBARIA functions as a historical anchor term: its presence in a source signals that the author is drawing directly on the Digest tradition rather than on common law precedent.
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Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries — Black's (1st ed.), Black's (2nd ed.), and Burrill's — are in close agreement. Each defines CIBARIA as food or victuals under the civil law and cites Digest 34.1. The entries are brief, as the term warrants: it is a specific vocabulary item with a narrow legal context rather than a doctrine requiring elaboration.
Burrill's adds the most detail among the three, noting that CIBARIA is the plural of *cibarium* (derived from *cibus*, food) and separately entering the related term CIBATUS, meaning "victualled." This morphological note is useful for researchers encountering variant forms in Latin legal texts.
What the historical dictionaries do not do is situate CIBARIA within the broader structure of Digest 34.1, which addresses legacies of maintenance (*alimenta*) and distinguishes between different categories of support. For that context, primary engagement with the Digest title itself — or with a Roman law treatise such as Justinian's *Institutes* or Gaius — is necessary. The dictionary entries function as identification aids, not as substantive guides to the doctrine.
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Jurisdictional Note
CIBARIA is a civil law term with no direct application in common law jurisdictions. It retains historical relevance in Louisiana and other mixed civil law jurisdictions where courts or scholars have traced alimentary obligation doctrine back to Digest 34.1 sources.
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