Praefectus Urbi
The praefect or warden of the city of Rome. He was originally called
Custos Urbis (Lydus,
De Magistr. i.
34, 38). The name
praefectus urbi does not seem to have been used till
after the time of the decemvirs. The dignity of
custos urbis, being
combined with that of
princeps senatus, was conferred in early times by
the king, as he had to appoint one of the
decem primi as
princeps senatus. The functions of the
custos urbis, however,
were not exercised except in the absence of the king from Rome; and then he acted as the
representative of the king. He convoked the Senate, held the Comitia, if necessary, and on any
emergency might take such measures as he thought proper; in short, he had the
imperium in the city (
Tac. Ann. vi.
11). During the kingly period, the office of
custos urbis was
probably for life. Under the Republic, the office and the title
custos
urbis remained unaltered; but in B.C. 487 it was elevated into a magistracy, to be
bestowed by election. The
custos urbis was, in all probability, elected
by the
curiae. Persons of consular rank alone were eligible. In the early
years of the Republic the
custos urbis exercised within the city all the
powers of the consuls if they were absent; he convoked the Senate, held the Comitia, and, in
times of war, even levied civic legions, which were commanded by him. When the office of
praetor urbanus was instituted, the wardenship of the city was merged in it
(Lydus,
De Mens. 19); but as the Romans, by reason of their extreme
conservatism, were at all times averse to dropping altogether any of their old institutions, a
praefectus urbi, though a mere shadow of the former office, was
henceforth appointed every year, only for the time that the consuls were absent from Rome for
the purpose of celebrating the Feriae Latinae. This praefectus had neither the power of
convoking the Senate nor the right of speaking in it; in most cases he was a person below the
senatorial age, and was not appointed by the people, but by the consuls.
An office very different from this, though bearing the same name, was instituted by Augustus
on the suggestion of Maecenas. This new Praefectus Urbi was a regular and permanent
magistrate, whom Augustus invested with all the powers necessary to maintain peace and order
in the city. He had the superintendence of butchers, bankers, guardians, theatres, etc.; and
to enable him to exercise his power he had distributed throughout the city a number of
milites stationarii, whom we may compare to modern police. (See
Vigiles.) His jurisdiction, however, became gradually
extended; and as the powers of the ancient republican Praefectus Urbi had been swallowed up by
the office of the Praetor Urbanus, so now the power of the Praetor Urbanus was gradually
absorbed by that of the Praefectus Urbi; and at last there was no appeal from his sentence,
except to the person of the
princeps himself, while any one might appeal
from the sentence of any other city magistrate, and, at a later period, even from that of a
governor of a province, to the tribunal of the Praefectus Urbi. Under the Eastern Empire,
there was a Praefectus Urbi for the city of Constantinople as well as for Rome (Symmach.
Epist. x. 37).
