TABULA´RIUM
TABULA´RIUM the place, at Rome and elsewhere, where
the
tabulae publicae, or state archives, were
kept, corresponding to the
μητρῷον at
Athens [
ARCHEION]. The
tabulae publicae comprised rogations,
senatusconsulta, and plebiscita; records of finance, of public contracts, of
debtors to the state, the censors' registers (
tabulae
censoriae), registers of births and deaths (Capitol.
M.
Anton. Phil. 9); records of judicial matters, not only of
trials, but also of jury lists (
Cic. Phil.
5.5,
15), and records of elections
(
Cic. Pis. 15,
36). But these were not all, at all periods of history, kept
together in one place or under one control. The records of the censors and
finance were probably from a very early date onwards kept in the treasury in
the Temple of Saturn, and under control of the quaestors. [AERARIUM; QUAESTOR.] On the other hand, from the
date 447 B.C. the plebeian aediles had charge not only of plebeian archives,
but also of senatusconsulta, subject to a general control or right of
inspection by the tribunes (
Liv. 3.55;
Zonar. 7.15); and when these records also were
transferred to the Aerarium (see below), the quaestors shared with the
aediles and tribunes the charge of the state archives in general (see
Mommsen,
Staatsr. 2.490). This arrangement, giving the
custody to aediles and tribunes conjointly with the regular officials of the
treasury, lasted till 12 B.C., when Augustus took
it away from them on account, as Dio says, of their negligence (
D. C. 54.36; cf.
Cic.
de Leg. Agr. 3.2. 0, 46). In consequence again
of loss and decay of documents, Tiberius A.D. 16
[p. 2.755]appointed special
curatores tabulariorum publ. to
assist the regular officers of the treasury (
D. C.
57.16). The changes made by various emperors between
quaestors, praetors, and
praefects of the treasury are described under
AERARIUM Vol. I. p. 36
a (cf. Mommsen,
Saatsr. 2.557-560).
The
permanent depository, or tabularium, for
plebiscita and senatusconsulta was in the Temple of Ceres until the year 187
B.C., when they were transferred to the
Aerarium (
Liv. 39.4), which, so far as our
evidence shows, became then the sole permanent tabularium at Rome (cf. Serv.
ad Georg. 2.502). It may be inferred from this that the
burning of the tabularium during civil tumults early in the 1st century B.C., alluded to by Cicero (
pro Rab.
perd. 3, 8;
de Nat. Deor. 3.30, 74), must imply that
the part of the Temple of Saturn which formed the tabularium was destroyed
at that time and afterwards rebuilt. The history of the remains of a
so-called tabularium above the Forum, and the precise meaning of the
statement that Lutatius Catulus built a tabularium in B.C. 78 (
C. I.
L. 6.1313, 1314), still need elucidation, but need not be
discussed here. [See
Dict. of Geography, s. v.
Rome; Middleton,
Rome, p. 232; O. Richter in
Baumeister's
Denkm. p. 1482; Mommsen,
Ann.
Inst. 1858, p. 211, who thinks that the
substructio spoken of belonged to the Temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus.] There were also
temporary tabularia at
Rome for the
tabulae
censoriae, which seem to have given rise to the
belief in a number of permanent tabularia (Burn,
Rome and the
Campagna, p. 97). The fact is that the censors held the census
of the people in the Campus Martius, and deposited the records
during their term of office in the Temple of the
Nymphs (
Cic. pro. Mil. 27, 73),
which is believed to have been in the Campus. The equestrian census was held
in the Forum, and accordingly its records were deposited by the censors
during their term of office in the Atrium Libertatis
(
Liv. 43.16), which from
Cic. Att. 4.1. 6 seems to have been in or
near the Forum. At the expiration of their office they deposited all their
records in the Aerarium (
Liv. 29.37), except
possibly in very early times, when they seem to have retained them in their
private
tablina (
Dionys. A. R. 1.74). The existence of these temporary tabularia
besides the permanent tabularium of the treasury may be implied in the
plural word of
Verg. G. 2.502; but it is
more probable that the poet speaks of
the
tabularium and merely uses the plural for the singular.
It is an error also to regard the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus as a
tabularium (if we mean thereby a receptacle for
tabulae
publicae). The treaties and agreements with foreign states and
the senatusconsulta ratifying such agreements were deposited in this temple,
but they were always engraved on bronze plates (
tabulae
aeneae,
χαλκώματα), and were not included in the
tabulae publicae, nor was their repository
called a tabularium. (
Plb. 3.26;
Cic. Phil. 3.12,
30;
ad Fam. 13.36; Suet.
Vesp. 8;
Liv. 26.24; Mommsen,
Staatsrecht, 1.255.)
As regards the method of entering decrees, &c., on the
tabulae publicae, see
SENATUSCONSULTUM p.
637; SCRIBA; Mommsen,
Staatsr.
3.1011-1021. In the chief town of every province there was a tabularium in
which records of surveys and the registers of the census (by Greek writers
called
ἀναγραφαί) were preserved
(Marquardt,
Staatsverw. 2.313, where numerous inscriptions
are cited): it appears, however, that abstracts or copies were also sent to
Rome, as is stated by both Tertullian (
adv. Marcion, 4, 7)
and Chrysostom (vol. ii. p. 356 c, Montf.) in treating of the
ἀπογραφὴ mentioned in the Gospels (Marquardt,
ib. p. 216). So also there were tabularia in Italian towns for municipal
records (
Cic. pro Arch. 4, 8;
cf.
pro Cluent. 14, 41). [For the
tabularium castrense, see
EXERCITUS Vol. I. p. 803
a.]
[
G.E.M]
