DECEM PRIMI
DECEM PRIMI
1. The Ten First of the Roman Senate were originally the heads of the
decuries into which the senate of one hundred was divided. They took the
office of interrex by turns, and are mentioned in that capacity at the first
interregnum, on the death of Romulus (
Liv. 1.17;
cf.
Dionys. A. R. 2.57). When
subsequently the representatives of the Tities and Luceres were admitted
into the senate, the Ramnes with their decem primi retained for some time
their precedence over the other two tribes, and gave their votes first
(
Plut. Num. 3;
Dionys. A. R. 2.58,
3.1). The first in rank among them was the
princeps senatus, who was appointed by the
king, and was at the same time
custos urbis
(
Dionys. A. R. 2.12; J. Lydus,
de Mens. 1.19). In the early republican
period the decem primi seem to have been the consulars of the greater houses
in order of seniority, then those of the lesser houses. The Ten First, who
as ambassadors from the patricians concluded the treaty with the plebs on
Mons Sacer, were all consulars (Niebuhr,
Rom.
Hist. 1.305, 340, 2.115 f., E. T.). Soon after the commencement of
the republic they lost the exclusive privilege of the interregnum [
INTERREX].
When the censors acquired the power of nominating the senators from among
qualified persons, the decem primi were simply the first ten named by them:
this choice was usually exercised according to merit, and a man who was
generally acknowledged as the first Roman of his time was tolerably certain
to become
princeps senatus, and to retain the
dignity for life. Valerius Corvus, the two Fabii Maximi, Rullianus and
Cunctator, L. Aemilius Paullus, and the two Africani, all seem to have
enjoyed this honour. The censors were often partial and passionate in the
exercise of their almost irresponsible authority; but even the memorable
quarrel between Livius Salinator and Claudius Nero did not prevent their
giving the first place in the senate to Fabius Cunctator (
Liv. 29.37.1).
2. In municipal senates we constantly find a committee, generally of ten,
sometimes of a greater or less number, chosen (apparently by the decurions
themselves) out of the larger body. In Italy this institution can be traced
very far back: we find it in Latium as early as the great Latin war of 340
B.C. (
Liv. 8.3.8); in the disaffected Latin
colonies at the time of the second Punic war (id. 29.15.5); at Ameria in
Cicero's time (
pro Rosc. Am. 9.25); Antonius, quartered in
Campania, “evocavit litteris e municipiis decemprimos et IIII.
viros” (
ad Att. 10.13
init.). Beyond Italy we find decem primi at Centuripae (
in
Verr. 2.67.162), quinque primi at Agyrium (ib. iii, 28.68),
quindecim primi at Massilia (Caes.
B.C. 1.35).
3. Wherever there was an
ordo, Roman
organisation seems to have involved the appointment of ten, or sometimes
six, primi. Below the senatorian rank we find them among
apparitores, lictores, and
praecones (Mommsen,
Staatsr. i.2 328, 340, 348); in priestly colleges (
C. I. L.
6.2010; cf. the
seviri under
AUGUSTALES p. 258
b); and among the domestici or body-guards of the
later empire (Cod. Theod. 6.24). The notion of so late a writer as J. Lydus
(
de Magistr. 1.46), that legionary officers were
anciently so called, can hardly be accepted in default of better evidence.
(Marquardt,
Staatsverw. i.2 213 f.;
Humbert, in D. and S.)
[
W.W]
