Aedīles
At Rome, two sets of magistrates, the Plebeian (
aediles plebis or
plebeii) and the Curule (
aediles curules).
1.
The two Plebeian Aediles were appointed B.C. 494 at the same time
with the creation of the tribuneship of the plebs, as servants of the tribunes, and at first
probably nominated by them till 471, when, like them and under their
presidency, they began to be elected by the whole body of the plebs. They took their name
from the temple (
aedes) of the plebeian goddess Ceres, in which their
official archives were kept. Besides the custody of the
plebiscita,
and afterwards of the
senatus consulta, it was their duty to make
arrests at the bidding of the tribunes; to carry out the death-sentences which they passed,
by hurling the criminal down from the Tarpeian Rock; to look after the importation of corn;
to watch the traffic in the markets; and to organize and superintend the Plebeian and Roman
Games. Like the tribunes, they could only be chosen from the body of the plebs, and wore no
badge of office, not so much as the
toga praetexta, even after they
became an authority independent of the tribunes.
2.
The Curule Aediles, from B.C. 366, were taken at first from the
patrician body alone, soon after from patricians and plebeians by turns, and lastly from
either. Elected yearly in the Comitia Tributa under the presidency of a consul, they were,
from the first, officers of the whole people, though low in rank; they sat in the
sella curulis, from which they took their name, and wore as insignia the
toga praetexta. As in rank, so in the extent of their powers, they
stood above the plebeian aediles, being entitled to exercise civil jurisdiction in market
business, where the latter could only impose a fine. The functions of the two were very much
alike, comprising: (
a) the superintendence of trade in the market, where
they had to test weights and measures and the quality of goods; to keep down the price of
provisions, both by prohibitive measures especially against regraters of corn, and by the
purchase and liberal distribution of food (
cura annonae); and, as
regards the money market, to prosecute those who transgressed the laws of usury; (
b) the care of the streets and buildings within the city and the circuit of
a mile outside, by cleansing, paving, and improving the streets, or stirring up those who
were bound to do it; by seeing that the street traffic was unimpeded; by keeping in repair
the temples, public buildings, and works, such as sewers and aqueducts, and seeing that these
latter and the fire apparatus were in working order; (
c) a
superintendence of health and morals, including the inspection of baths, taverns, and
brothels, and the putting-down of all that endangered public order and decency, e. g. games
of hazard, breaches of sumptuary laws, introduction of foreign religions, etc.; (
d) the exhibition of games (of which the Roman and Megalensian devolved
on the curule, the Plebeian on the plebeian aediles), the supervision of festivities at the
feriae Latinae, and at games given by private men. The cost of the games
given by themselves they defrayed partly out of a sum set apart by the State, but utterly
inadequate to the large demands of later times; partly out of the proceeds of fines which
were also spent on public buildings, and partly out of their own resources. Thus the
aedileship became an expensive luxury, and its enjoyment less and less accessible to men of
moderate means. Ambitious men often spent incredible sums in getting up games to win the
people's favour, with a view to higher honours, though the aedileship was not necessary as a
stepping-stone to these. In Cicero's time the legal age for the curule aedileship was
thirty-seven. From B.C. 366 their number was unchanged, till Caesar, in B.C. 44, added two
more, the plebeian
aediles cereales, to whom alone the
cura annonae and the management of the Ludi Cereales were intrusted. Under
the Empire the office of aedile lost much in importance by some of its functions being handed
over to separate officers, especially by the transference of its jurisdiction and its control
of games to the praetors; and it fell into such contempt that even Augustus had to make a
tenure of it, or the tribuneship, a condition of eligibility to the praetorship; and
succeeding emperors often had to fill it by compulsion. In the third century A.D. it seems to
have died out altogether.
