QUINQUEVIRI
QUINQUEVIRI or five commissioners, were frequently appointed
under the Republic as extraordinary magistrates to carry any measure into
effect. Thus
Quinqueviri Mensarii, or public
bankers, were occasionally appointed in a financial crisis, to manage loans
and other banking business [
ARGENTARII Vol I. p. 181]; the same number of commissioners was
sometimes appointed to superintend the formation of a colony, though three
(
triumviri) was a more common number. [
COLONIA Vol. I. p. 479
b.] We find, too, that Quinqueviri were created to
superintend the repairs of the walls and of the towers of the city (
Liv. 25.7), as well as for various other purposes.
Besides the extraordinary commissioners of this name, there were also
permanent officers, called
Quinqueviri cis
Tiberim (
Liv. 39.14), who were
responsible for the safety of the city after sunset, especially to guard
against fires, as it was inconvenient for the regular magistrates to attend
to this duty at that time: they were first appointed soon after the war with
Pyrrhus. (
Dig. 1,
2,
2,
31.) Mommsen
(
Staatsrecht, 2.611) suggests that these were originally
four, one for each of the old regions, and that the fifth was added for the
Transtiberine region. The title
cis Tiberim was
still retained, and they were also called collectively Cistiberes (Dig.
l.c.).
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]
