Definition
Veredi (singular: veredus) is a Latin term from the civil law and old European law denoting public post horses — that is, horses maintained at public expense for use in the imperial or royal postal relay system. The term refers to the animals themselves as a unit of the state courier and dispatch infrastructure, not to any right, proceeding, or legal relationship in the modern sense.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering veredi in historical legal texts are almost certainly working in one of two contexts: (1) late Roman imperial legislation, particularly the Codex Justinianus, which contains several constitutions regulating the cursus publicus — the state postal system — and the supply, requisition, and misuse of public post horses; or (2) medieval European legal sources that preserved or adapted Roman administrative terminology for analogous royal or feudal courier arrangements.
The term appears in Burrill with a direct citation to Cod. 12.51, the title De Cursu Publico, Evectionibus et Paraveredis in the Codex Justinianus. Researchers using the Law Mind corpus should be aware that this title contains substantive law on the obligation of provincial landowners to supply horses, penalties for unauthorized use of the post, and the distinction between veredi and paraveredus — the latter being a supplementary or secondary post horse, often furnished by private obligation rather than from the imperial stock. These two terms appear together repeatedly in late antique sources and must be distinguished to understand the legal burden being imposed on a given party.
Because veredi is a term of Roman administrative law rather than common law, it will not appear in Anglo-American case reporters or statutes. Its appearance in English-language legal dictionaries like Burrill's reflects the influence of civil law learning on nineteenth-century American legal scholarship, and its presence in a document or treatise is a strong signal that the source is engaging with Roman law directly — whether for historical exposition, comparative purposes, or as part of a civil law jurisdiction's doctrinal tradition.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary defines veredi as "public post horses" and cites Cod. 12.51.4, 7, 12, 13, 15 along with Calvinus's Lexicon Juridicum (Calv. Lex.) as supporting authorities. The Burrill entry is brief and descriptive, functioning primarily as a Latin gloss for readers encountering the term in Roman sources rather than as a legal definition with operative legal significance in American practice.
Burrill's entry also cross-references Paraveredus, which is the correct analytical move — the two terms are best understood in relation to each other. Veredi were the primary public post horses drawn from imperial or royal stock; paraveredus denoted horses supplied as a supplementary obligation, often by private landowners or communities along post roads. The distinction matters in source reading because legal obligations, exemptions, and penalties attaching to each category differ in the underlying Roman texts.
The Calvinus Lexicon, a standard reference in the civil law tradition, provides fuller treatment of the term's usage across Roman legal texts and is a useful secondary source for researchers working through the Corpus Juris Civilis on this subject. No English common law dictionary of comparable era — not Bouvier, not Black's first edition — carries this term, confirming its status as purely civilian vocabulary with no reception into Anglo-American jurisprudence.
Jurisdictional Note
Veredi has no operative legal meaning in any current common law jurisdiction. It remains relevant only in historical and comparative legal research touching Roman law, late antique administrative history, or the medieval legal systems that borrowed Roman postal and courier terminology.