LOCUPLE´TES
LOCUPLE´TES (or
adsidui) were Roman
freeholders of land who were included in the five classes of Servius as
liable for summons to service or
tributum.
Under this head came all who held land valued over 11,000 asses (cf. also
Liv. 45.15, “eos qui praedium
praediave rustica pluris H. S. triginta millium haberent censendi jus
factum est:” for the arrangement of the classes, see
COMITIA). The state was
therefore divided into
adsidui (or
locupletes), i.e. those who had property, and
proletarii,
“begetters of children,” who were counted by heads, not by
property [see
PROLETARII].
This is shown in
Cic. de Rep.
2.22, 40: “Servius Tullius quum locupletes adsiduos appellasset
ab aere dando, eos qui aut non plus mille quingentos aeris aut omnino
nihil in suum censum praeter caput detulissent, proletarios nominavit,
ut ex iis quasi proles, id est quasi progenies civitatis expectari
videretur.” As to the origin of the two words, for
adsiduus we may safely reject the etymology given by
Cicero, “ab aere dando,” and that suggested in Gellius,
10.16, “a muneris faciendi
adsiduitate.” It means no doubt “settled on the soil,”
or permanently domiciled (from
adsidere; cf.
residuus) = the German
ansässig (Mommsen,
Hist. of Rome, 1.196):
locuples is derived by Ovid (
Ov. Fast. 5.280) from
landholding, where
locus is made
equivalent to
ager; and so
Plin. Nat. 18.11, “Locupletes
dicebant
loci id est
agri plenos.” But it is clear that this is not the
natural sense of
locus,
[p. 2.71]and it is better with Mommsen
(
Staatsrecht, 3.237) to take it as referring to wealth of
money and connect it with
loculi, the
money-chests. From the passage in
Cic.
Top. 2.10, “Cum lex adsiduo vindicem
adsiduum esse jubeat, locupletem jubet locupleti; locuples enim est
adsiduus, ut ait Aelius,” it is clear that
adsiduus was the older term, written in the Twelve Tables
(cf. Gellius,
l.c.).
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]
