although the term had been satisfied—that is, the purpose for which the term has been created had been fulfilled. By the Assignment of Satisfied Terms Act 1845 the assignment of satisfied terms was rendered unnecessary. The Conveyancing Acts 1881 and 1882 give power to enlarge the unexpired residue of a long term in certain cases into the fee simple.
Terms, in the sense of a limited and certain period of time during which the law courts are open, used to affect only what were called in England the superior courts—that is, the king's bench, common pleas and exchequer. They were originally the leisure seasons of the year which were not occupied by great feasts or fasts of the Church or by agriculture. Their origin is no doubt to be traced back to the legislation of the early Christian emperors, the principle being adopted in England through the influence of ecclesiastical judges. Terms were regulated by many acts of parliament, the effect of which was to confine to a comparatively short period the time during which the courts could sit in banco—that is, for the decision of questions of law as distinguished from the decision of questions of fact. There were four terms, Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas, the average duration of each being about three weeks. All legislation on the subject previous to 1873, is now merely of historical interest, for by the Judicature Act of that year terms were abolished so far as related to the administration of justice and sittings substituted. The previous subdivisions of the legal year were, however, retained, the dates of commencement a11d termination being somewhat changed. The Michaelmas sittings of the high court and court of appeal are now held from the 24th of October to the 21st of December, the Hilary sittings from the 11th of January to the Wednesday before Easter, the Easter sittings from the Tuesday after Easter week to the Friday before Whitsunday, and the Trinity sittings from the Tuesday after Whitsun week to the 12th of August, all dates inclusive. The old terms, with their duration as fixed by statute, are now kept alive only for the purpose of reference in all cases in which they are used as a measure of time. In the United States the terms or sittings of the courts are not limited to any fixed period of time, but vary according to the judges available and the amount of judicial business which is likely to come before the courts. The dining-terms at the Inns of Court also correspond in point of time with the old terms and not with the sittings.
In universities and schools the word term is used for the period during which instruction is given to the students or pupils. University and school terms differ from law terms and from each other both in period and duration. At the university of Cambridge the academic year is divided into three terms, Michaelmas, Lent and Easter; while at the university of Oxford there are four terms in the year, Michaelmas, Hilary, Easter and Trinity. School years now generally consist of three terms, divided by Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays, the old half-years having gradually been abolished. In higher educational institutions in the United States the university or college year is generally divided into three terms called either the Fall, Winter and Spring terms, or much less frequently the first, second and third terms. In some institutions, however, the so-called semester system has been adopted, the year being divided into two terms, so far as instruction is concerned, though even in these cases vacations at Christmas time and in the early spring divide the year into three parts, which are sometimes, though not in the usual or proper sense, called terms.
In Scotland terms are the days at which rent or interest is payable. They are either legal or conventional: the legal are Whitsunday and, Martinmas; the conventional are fixed by agreement between the parties. Terms as times of court sittings were defined by 6 Anne c. 53, which fixed four terms—Martinmas, Candlemas, Whitsuntide and Lammas—for the now obsolete court of exchequer, to which the winter and summer sittings of the court of session now correspond.
TERMINAL FIGURES, also called “termini” or “terms,”
in architecture, figures of which the upper parts only, or perhaps
the head and shoulders alone, are carved, the rest running into
a parallelepiped, and sometimes into a diminishing pedestal,
with feet indicated below, or even without them (see Hermae).
TERMINATOR (from the Latin terminate, to limit), in
astronomy, the bounding line beween light and darkness on
the apparent disk of the moon or of a planet.
TERMINI IMERESE (anc. Thermae Himeraeae), a seaport
town of Sicily, in the province 'of Palermo, 23 m. E.S.E. of it
by rail. Pop. (1901) 20,633. It is finely situated on a promontory
above its harbour, and it is possible that it was occupied
by an early Phoenician settlement; as a town, however, it
was not founded until 407 B.C. by the Carthaginians, after their
destruction of Himera, in the vicinity of hot springs mentioned
by Pindar (Od. xii. 19) which are still resorted to and are well
fitted up (temp. 110° F.). It remained a Carthaginian colony,
though thoroughly Greek[1] in character, until it was taken by
Rome in the First Punic war. In the time of Cicero it was
flourishing, though not of great importance. Augustus sent a
Roman colony to it, and a Roman road ran from it to Catana.
Its medieval castle was destroyed in 1860. The modern town
presents no features of interest; there is a collection of antiquities
and pictures, with a considerable number of Roman
inscriptions. Scanty remains of buildings of Roman times (an
amphitheatre and a so-called basilica) exist in the upper part
of the town; and outside it on the S. are considerable remains
of two aqueducts of the same period crossing a deep ravine.
The surrounding district is fertile.
Four m. E. of Termini, about 1 m. W. of the railway station of Cerda, on an E. spur of the Monte S. Calogera, called Monte Castellaccio, is a Cyclopean wall, about 66 ft. long, 10 ft. thick, and 30 ft. high in the middle, blocking the only access to the summit of the spur, on the N.E. Fortifications in this style are very rare in Sicily.
See B. Romano, Antichitd Termitane (Palermo, 1838); Mauceri, Acropoli Pelasgica nei dintorni di Termini Imerese (Palermol, 1896). (T. As.)
TERMINUS, in Roman mythology, the god of boundaries, the protector of the limits both of private property and of the public territory of Rome. He was represented by a stone or post, set up in the ground with the following religious ceremonies. A trench was dug, in which a fire was lighted; a victim was sacrificed, and its blood poured into the trench; the body, upon which incense and fruits, honey and wine were thrown, was then cast into the fire. When it was entirely consumed, the boundary stone, which had been previously anointed and crowned with garlands, was placed upon the hot ashes and fixed in the ground. Any one who removed a boundary stone was accursed (sacer) and might be slain with impunity; a fine was afterwards substituted for the death penalty. On the 23rd of February (the end of the old Roman year) the festival called Terminalia, according to Wissowa a festival not of the god but of the boundary stones (termini), was held. The owners of adjacent lands assembled at the common boundary stone, and crowned their own side of the stone with garlands; an altar was set up and offerings of cakes, corn, honey and wine were made (later, a lamb or a sucking pig was sacrificed). The proceedings closed with songs to the god and a general merrymaking, in which all the members of the family and the servants took part. A similar festival was also held at the old boundary of the Roman territory between the fifth and sixth milestones on the road to Laurentum. The custom of fixing the boundaries of property and the institution of the yearly festival were both ascribed to Numa. Another Sabine prince, Titus Tatius, had dedicated a stone to Terminus on the Capitoline hill. When Tarquinius Superbus desired to build a temple to Jupiter, the auguries forbade its removal, and it was enclosed within the walls of the new sanctuary, an indication of the immovability of such stones and of the permanence of the Roman territory. Terminus was probably in its origin only an epithet of Jupiter. The fact of the inclusion of his statue in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus; the hole cut in the temple roof so that he might be worshipped in the open air as being, like Jupiter, a god of
- ↑ Agathocles was a native of Thermae.
