I.to discharge from service (after sixteen years of service, before the end of the usual term of twenty years, i. e. before the regular missio; see missio. This discharge was either an honorable one or a punishment. The honorably discharged soldiers remained four years in the army as a separate corps under a vexillum, with peculiar privileges; cf. mitto, dimitto).
I. Prop.
A. Of an honorable discharge (not ante-Aug.): “omnes milites exauctorati domum dimitterentur,” Liv. 32, 1; 25, 20; 29, 1; 36, 40 fin.; 41, 5 fin.; Suet. Tib. 30; Tac. A. 1, 36 fin.: “milites licentia sola se, ubi velint, exauctorent,” Liv. 8, 34, 9.—
B. In a bad sense, to dismiss, cashier on account of a crime = dimittere ignominiae causa, Dig. 3, 2, 2, § 2; Suet. Aug. 24; id. Vitell. 10; id. Vesp. 8; Tac. H. 1, 20; Plin. Ep. 6, 31, 5; cf. Dict. of Antiq. p. 638 a.—*
II. Trop.: “verba exauctorata a sequenti aetate repudiataque,” discarded, obsolete, Macr. S. 1, 5.
