ADLECTI
ADLECTI or
ALLECTI
1. Those who were chosen to fill up a vacancy in any office or collegium, and
especially those who were chosen to fill up the proper number of the senate.
As these would be generally equites, Festus (s. v.) defines the
adlecti to be equites added to the senate,
distinguishing between the
patres qui. sunt patricii
generis, and the
conscripti, qui in senatu
sunt scriptis annotati; cf. also Festus, s. v.
Conscripti. Livy (
2.1) says
conscriptos in novum senatum appellabant
lectos. [
W.S]
2. Under the empire, by
adlectio, which answers
to the
lectio under the republic (Mommsen,
Staatsr. 2.877, note), those added to the senate by the
emperor were admitted to a place among the senators who had held the rank of
consul, praetor, tribune or quaestor, according to the emperor's pleasure.
Such were styled
adlecti inter consulares, praetorios,
tribunicios, or
quaestorios, all
which titles are found as inscriptions. The full form, however, in use even
in the time of Claudius, was
adlectus in senatum et inter
tribunicios relatus (
Corp. Inscr. v. No. 3117 ;
cf. Momnmsen,
Röm. Staatsr. 2.878, note 2.); the
abbreviated expression does not occur before Vespasian (
Corp.
Inscr. 3.335 ; 6.1359, &c.) the expression
adlectus inter consulares apparently not before the
3rd century (Orelli,
Inscr. 1178). Mommsen distinguishes this
adlectio from the conferring of
ornamenta consularia, &c. It is more
probable that the two represent the same institution at different periods
(cf. Willems,
Le Sénat Romain, i. pp. 626-633).
3.
Adlecti was also the name applied to those
admitted by a decree of the council of a
municipium or
colonia to a seat in
this body, an admission which generally involved heavy charges (cf.
Plin. Ep. 10.112,
113; Orell.
Inscr. 3721; Malquardt,
Staatsv. 1.499, 507-8).
[
A.S.W]
