AEDIT´UI
AEDIT´UI (
νεωκόροι,
ζάκοροι,
ἱεροφύλακες), more anciently called AEDITUMI or AEDITIMI (Varr.
R.
R. 1.2.1;
L. L. 7.12, 8.61;
Gel. 12.10.4:
aedituentes,
Lucr. 6.1275;
Gel.
12.10.8), persons who took care of the temples, and attended to
the cleaning of them. Notwithstanding this menial service, they partook of
the priestly character, and are sometimes even called priests by the Greek
grammarians. (Suid., Hesych.,
Etym. M. s. v.
ζάκορος; Pollux, 1.14.) In many cases they were
women, as Timo in Herodotus (
6.134), who also
speaks of her as
ὑποζάκορος, from which it
is clear that in some places several of these priests must have been
attached to one and the same temple, and that they differed among themselves
in rank. Subsequently the menial services connected with the office of the
Neocori were left to slaves, and the latter became a
title given to priestly officers of high rank, of whom an account is given
in a separate article. [
NEOCORI] The aeditui lived in the temples, or near them, and acted as
ciceroni to those persons who wished to see them. (Plaut.
Curc. 1.3, 48;
Cic. Ver.
4.44, 96;
Liv.
30.17; Schol.
ad
Hor. Ep. 2.1,
230;
Suet. Dom. 1.) They seem also to
have had the administration of the property of the temple, and were
anciently held in great honour (Serv.
ad
Verg. A. 9.648). They were probably the same
as the
curatores templi, frequently mentioned
in inscriptions (Orelli,
Inscr. 220, 6: cf. Paul. Diac. s.v.
Varr.
L. L. 7.12;
Cic. de Har.
Resp. 14, 31).
[
W.S]
