Definition
In Roman law, *pecora* (Latin, plural of *pecus*) denotes cattle or beasts — specifically, all quadrupeds that fed in flocks or herds. The term is a classification from Roman civil law used in the context of legacies, inheritance, and property disputes to identify what animals fell within a bequest or obligation. Its significance lies primarily in its scope: *pecora* was not limited to cattle in the modern narrow sense but encompassed the broader category of herd-grazing quadrupeds, including sheep, goats, and similar animals.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No standard entry for *pecora* as an English word; used in biological taxonomy as the name of a clade of even-toed ungulates including ruminants such as deer, cattle, and antelopes.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "An extensive division of ruminants, including the antelopes, deer, and cattle."
The gap between the taxonomic or common biological usage and the Roman legal usage is minor in scope but meaningful in application. In biology, *Pecora* describes a broad natural classification. In Roman law, the term functions as a legal category for property purposes — what animals a testator's legacy of *pecora* would transfer, and whether a given animal fell inside or outside that category. The legal question was not zoological but practical: does this animal pass under this bequest?
Why It Matters in Research
*Pecora* is encountered almost exclusively in the context of Roman law sources and in treatises or commentaries that engage directly with the Digest. Researchers will find the term in discussions of legacies (*legata*) and the interpretation of testamentary instruments under Roman civil law — specifically, disputes over whether a bequest of *pecora* included animals kept for profit, draft animals, or other livestock. The Digest citation (Dig. 32, 65, 4) that all three historical dictionaries reference is the anchor text; researchers working with that passage will need to understand *pecora* as a term of art with a defined scope, not a loose colloquialism.
For Law Mind corpus researchers: this term does not evolve in the common law tradition and has no meaningful presence in English or American case law under this Latin name. Its relevance is confined to Roman law foundations, civil law jurisdictions, and comparative legal history. If you encounter *pecora* in a treatise on property or succession written before the nineteenth century, it is almost certainly a direct importation from the Roman sources. Be cautious of later commentators who use *pecora* loosely to mean simply "livestock" — the Roman term had a specific definitional scope that excluded animals kept singly (like draft horses) or animals kept for a purpose other than flock grazing.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three sources — Black's (both editions) and Burrill — are in complete agreement: *pecora* means cattle or beasts, limited to quadrupeds that fed in flocks, with the Digest as the authority. Burrill adds the grammatical note that *pecora* is the plural of *pecus*, which is useful for researchers who may encounter the singular form in source texts. The Digest citation across the three dictionaries shows minor variation (*Dig. 32, 65, 4* in Black's first edition; *Dig. 32, 665, 4* in the second edition — the latter likely a typographical error in transcription, as the standard citation is Dig. 32, 65, 4). Researchers relying on the second edition of Black's should check the citation against primary Digest sources rather than trusting the numeral as printed. None of the historical dictionaries explore the practical application of the term in legacy disputes or explain its contrast with related Roman terms such as *pecudes* or *jumenta*; for that analysis, researchers must consult primary Roman law scholarship directly.