AEDI´LES
AEDI´LES,
I. AEDILES PLEBIS. In the year B.C. 494, after the
secession of the plebs to the Mons Sacer, this body was organised for the
first time under magistrates of its own, answering to those of the patrician
community. As the
tribuni plebis corresponded
to the consuls, so the
aediles plebis
corresponded to the quaestors; they were the subordinate officers of the
tribunes, at first perhaps appointed by them, but after the Lex Publilia
elected in the plebeian assembly under their presidency, placed under the
same
leges sacrae, and possessing a sacrosanct
character (
Dionys. A. R. 6.90). The
origin of their name is not certain, but the best interpretation is that
which explains it from their functions as guardians of the temple of Ceres,
in which copies of all the decrees of the senate were preserved (so Niebuhr,
Hist. 1.621; Lange,
R. A. i.
p. 715; Mommsen,
Staatsr. 2.447).
1 After the Lex Publilia they were no longer mere assistants of the
tribunes, but
collegae minores. By degrees, as
the political side of the functions of the tribunes became the more
important, the aediles came to play a more independent part within the
sphere that was left to them. In B.C. 454, the Lex Aternia Tarpeia conferred
upon them the
ius multae dictionis; this
carried with it the
ius contionis, and the
ius edicendi, the right of convening and
addressing a meeting of the citizens, and of declaring beforehand the
principles on which they meant to act; but the
ius
auspiciorum was still wanting; so that they could not be
reckoned as, strictly speaking,
magistratus populi
Romani. The recorded instances of their action at this period
are such as were due to the direction either of the tribunes or of the
senate. Thus, acting under the orders of the former, they arrested accused
men (
Dionys. A. R. 6.90), and carried
out sentences of death (when confirmed by the popular assembly) by hurling
from the Tarpeian rock (
Dionys. A. R.
7.35,
11.6;
Plut. Cor. 18 ;
Liv.
6.20). Their superintendence of the publication of the Twelve Tables
(
Liv. 3.57), of the exclusion of foreign
deities and forms of worship (
Liv. 4.30), of the
corn supplies (
Plin. Nat. 18.15), and of
the plebeian (Pseud. Ascon. p. 143, Or.) and Roman (
Liv.
6.42) games, seems to have been the result of special commissions
from the senate or the consuls. As the aediles thus ceased by degrees to be
the mere assistants of the tribunes, they gradually lost their sacrosanct
character, which attached to them only as agents of the inviolable tribunes,
and were ranked in
[p. 1.32]this respect with other lesser
magistrates (
Liv. 3.55). But they never ceased to
be plebeian magistrates, and none but plebeians were eligible; they had no
insignia of office; and were always chosen apart from the curule aediles at
the comitia tributa, under the presidency of a tribune.
II. AEDILES CURULES. Livy's story (6.42) is that
in commemoration of the passing of the Licinian Rogations, the senate
ordered that a fourth day should be added to the
ludi
Romani; the plebeian aediles were reluctant to bear the burden
thus imposed upon them; the young patricians volunteered to undertake it;
and a resolution of the senate empowered the dictator to propose to the
people the election of two patrician
aediles
curules. This story is altogether rejected by Niebuhr (
Hist. 3.33 f.), and it is far more probable that we
have here an instance of the desire to absorb into the constitution of the
united community an office which was originally characteristic of the
plebeian revolution (Mommsen,
Staatsr. 2.457). Hence we find
after this no traces of any especial connexion between the aediles and the
tribunes: but plebeian and curule aediles alike are regarded as the
subordinates of the consuls (
Liv. 39.14). Hence
too the curule aedileship the year after its institution to the plebeians
(
Liv. 7.1); but by a curious provision it was
arranged that the office should be held, not by a patrician and a plebeian
as colleagues, but by two patricians and two plebeians alternately, This
arrangement lasted till B.C. 91, when the plebeian M. Marcellus appears in
the place of a patrician (Mommsen,
Röm. Forsch.
1.97-102), and after that date it was entirely abandoned.
2 The reason for it seems to lie in the fact that the curule aediles
were jointly responsible for the cost of the games, and this might more
probably have led to discord if the colleagues had belonged to different
orders (Mommsen,
Staatsr. 2.488). The curule aediles were
distinguished by the bordered robe (
toga
praetexta) and the use of the
sella
curulis, which we find figured on their coins, while the plebeian
aediles wore only the ordinary toga, and their official seat was the
subsellium or
bisellium. The former were elected in the comitia tributa, under
the presidency of a magistrate
cum imperio,
usually the consul, and had from the first the
auspicia
minora, which were only conferred on the latter at a later
date (before B.C. 340, when we find
aediles plebis vitio
creati,
Liv. 30.39).
Cicero (
de Leg. 3.3, 7) defines the aediles as
curatores urbis, annonae, ludorumque sollemnium. We
may arrange their functions under these three heads :--
- 1. Cura urbis (including the district
within a mile of the town: cf. Lex Jul. Mun. 1. 69) : i. e. the
superintendence of the repair and cleansing of the roads and
streets, of the public baths, fountains and aqueducts, of
eating-houses and brothels; the aediles also took care that the
streets were not encumbered by goods offered for sale, or by the
deposit of rubbish, by funerals or carriage traffic (which was
strictly limited and regulated : Lex Jul. Mun. 1. 58 f.), nor
encroached upon by private buildings. Further, they had a general
control in matters of police. We find them either inflicting fines
themselves or acting as prosecutors before the comitia tributa in
cases of witchcraft (Plin. Nat.
18.42), stuprum (V. Max. 6.1, 7 ; Liv. 8.22; Plut. Marc. 2), fraud on the part of
the pecuarii (Liv.
10.23, 47, &c.),
insolent language (Gel. 10.6),
stone-throwing from a window (Gel. 4.14),
usury (Liv. 7.28; 10.23; 35.41, &c.),
and the like. The fines so inflicted were spent upon public
buildings and works of general utility; but more important works,
for which the treasury paid, were in charge of the censors. In many
respects the police functions of the aediles appear to supplement
those of the censors, especially during the period when the censors
were not in office, but their action was doubtless more strictly
limited to the punishment of offences against positive law (Lange,
p. 729). Their control of public buildings does not appear to have
extended beyond a general supervision of their condition and proper
use; the charge of building and repairs lay rather with the censors
or their special commisioners (Vviri muris turribusque
reficiendis, IIIviri reficiendis aedibus:
Liv. 25.7; 42.6).
- 2. Cura annonae. This is properly
only one aspect of the general charge of the market, which was
opened in was so important a part of the duty of the aediles that it
gave them the name by which they are called in Greek writers,
ἀγορανόμοι (Dionys. A. R. 6.90). As it was
their duty to superintend trade of all kinds, especially in cattle
and slaves, to look after the quality of the goods exposed for sale
(Plaut. Rud. 374), to destroy unjust weights and
measures(Juv. 10.100; Pers. 1.129),
and to put down usury (Plin. Nat.
33.19; Liv. 10.23, &c.),
so it was especially incumbent upon them to provide for a proper
supply of corn, partly by punishing dardanarii (forestallers, and regraters), and partly by
purchasing themselves and supplying it at a low rate (Liv. 10.11: cf. 30.26; 31.4, 50; 33.42).
- 3. Cura ludorum. This must be
distinguished from the general police control of the popular
amusements, exercised for instance when the aediles prohibited the
people from pelting an unpopular man, who was giving a show of
gladiators, with anything but fruit (Macrob. 2.6, 1). It must be
distinguished also from the presidency of
the games, which was held by a consul or praetor. The aediles had
only to organise the games. This was done nominally at the expense
of the state. Up to the time of the First Punic War, 500,000 asses
were annually allowed for this (Dionys.
A. R. 7.71), besides an extra allowance for any official
festivals (Liv. xxii 10; 31.9, &c.). But these sums by no
means sufficed to defray the expenses, especially under the later
republic, when the aediles were expected to spend largely from their
own resources, so that the office became exceedingly burdensome.
Milo and Scaurus especially are noted as having spent large fortunes
on their aedileships (Ascon. Scaur. p. 18;
Mil. p. 32, Orell.). Cicero kept within moderate
limits (de Off. 2.17, 59), but as a rule an aedile
who did so lost all chance of election to higher office (pro
Mur. 19, 40), and Sulla failed as a candidate for the
praetorship because he had not been aedile, and given the splendid
shows which the people expected of him (Plut. Sull. 5). It was a common custom, though forbidden
by law (Liv. 40.44), for the aediles to
receive much [p. 1.33]assistance, nominally by way of
loan, from the provinces in decorating the forum, theatre, and
circus with statues and other works of art (ad Att.
5.21, 6.1 ; Verr. 4.59, 133; ad Qu.
fr. 1.1,9, &c. ; Plin.
Nat. 35.173). The aediles had to provide the general
decorations and costumes, to organise the processions and the games,
to arrange the seats and preserve order; when plays were given, they
selected the piece, and paid and had also the power of chastising
the actors (Liv. 34.44; Plaut.
Truc. 990; Tac. Ann.
1.70, &c.).
Lange (p. 725) has well shown that the
cura
ludorum, like most of the functions of the aediles, arose from
their general character as acting under commissions from the superior
magistrates. The
ludi Romani and
Megalenses were always in charge of the curule, the
ludi plebeii in that of the plebeian
aediles; other games, such as the
Cerealia and
Floralia, were superintended by either
without distinction, sometimes acting singly, but more commonly as a
college.
III. AEDILES CEREALES. In B.C. 44 Julius Caesar
added two aediles, with special charge of the
annona and the
ludi Cereales (
Dig. 1,
2,
2.32 ; cf.
Suet. Jul. 41). These
continued under the empire, and are mentioned in inscriptions and on coins.
IV. But the functions of the aediles were greatly restricted by Augustus and
his successors; their powers were gradually diminished, and their functions
exercised by new officers created by the emperors. After the battle of
Actium, Augustus appointed a praefectus urbi, who exercised the general
police, which had formerly been one of the duties of the aediles. Their
right of jurisdiction was further transferred to the praetor (
D. C. 53.2), who also assumed henceforth the
superintendence of the games (
D. C. 54.2 ;
Tac. Ann. 1.15 ;
Plin. Ep. 7.11,
4). Augustus also
took from the aediles, or exercised himself, the office of superintending
the religious rites, the banishing from the city of all foreign ceremonials,
and the superintendence of the temples. Hence no one was willing to hold so
contemptible an office, and Augustus was therefore reduced to the necessity
of compelling persons to take it: persons were accordingly chosen by lot,
out of those who had served the office of quaestor and tribune; and this was
done more than once (
D. C. 55.24). The last
recorded instance of the splendours of the aedileship is the administration
of Agrippa, who volunteered to take the office, and repaired all the public
buildings and all the roads at his own expense, without drawing anything
from the treasury. (
D. C. 49.43;
Plin. Nat. 36.122.) The aedileship had,
however, lost its true character before this time. Agrippa had already been
consul before he accepted the office of aedile. Augustus appointed the
curule aediles specially to the office of putting out fires, and placed a
body of 600 slaves at their command; but the praefecti vigilum afterwards
performed this duty (
D. C. 4.21). In like manner
the
curatores viarum were appointed by him to
superintend the roads near the city, and the quatuorviri to superintend
those within Rome. The
curatores operum
publicorum and the
curatores alvei
Tiberis, also appointed by Augustus, stripped the aediles of the
remaining few duties that might be called honourable. They lost also the
superintendence of wells or springs, and of the aqueducts. [
AQUAEDUCTUS] They retained,
under the early emperors, the superintendence of the markets, the duty of
repressing open licentiousness and disorder: thus the baths, eating-houses,
and brothels were still subject to their inspection, and the registration of
prostitutes was still within their duties (
Tac.
Ann. 2.85). We read of the aediles under Augustus making search
after libellous books, in order that they might be burnt; and also under
Tiberius (
Tac. Ann. 4.35).
The last mention of aediles is under Gordian III. (A.D. 238-244): cf. Orell.
Inscript. 977.
The history, powers, and duties of the aediles are stated with great
minuteness by Schubert,
De Romanorum Aedilibus,
lib. iv. Regimontii, 1828. See Hofmann,
De Aedilibus
Romanorum, Berlin, 1842; cf. Rein in Pauly's
Realenkykl. vol. i. p. 208 if.; Lange,
Röm. Alt.2 1.2 715-735;
Mommsen,
Staatsr. 2.443-491. Full details as to their
municipal duties are given in the Lex Julia Municipalis on the
Tabula Heracleensis (
C. I. L. i. p.
122), with the commentary of Dirksen,
Civil. Abh. Berlin,
1820.
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