MENSO´RES
MENSO´RES measurers or surveyors. This name was
applied to various classes of persons whose occupation was the measurement
of things.
1. To land--surveyors who measured and defined the extent of fields,
apparently the same as the
agrimensores (Colum
5.1, 2;
Ov. Met. 1.136;
AGRIMENSORES).
2. To military officers, who had a twofold duty, as measurers of the ground
for a camp, and measurers of corn for the troops, unless indeed they were
two distinct classes of officers. (i.) As measurers of the ground for the
camp (Veget.
R. Mil. 2.7) they were usually called
metatores (
Cic. Phil.
11.5,
12;
14.4,
10). [
CASTRA Vol. I. p. 372
b.] They were a kind of quartermaster-general, and
thus provided quarters for the soldiers in the towns through which they
passed, and where they made a temporary stay (Cod. Theod. 6, 34, 1; 7, 8,
4.) (ii.) In military inscriptions we find
mensor
frumenti (Orelli,
Inscr. No. 3523), and
sometimes simply
mensor (Orelli, 3473; Henzen,
6820; Marquardt,
Röm. Staatsverw. ii. p. 536;
Walter,
Gesch. d. Röm. Rechts, § 343).
3.
Mensores frumentarii was the name of officers
who had to measure the corn which was conveyed up the Tiber for the public
granaries (
Dig. 27,
1,
26;
mensores Portuenses, Cod.
Theod. 14, 4, 9; 14, 15, 1). They were stationed in the port of Ostia, and
were employed under the
praefectus annonae.
Their title is mentioned in several ancient inscriptions (
Corpus
mensorum frumentariorum Ostiensium, Henzen, 7194;
mensores frumentarii Cereris Augustae, Orelli,
4190).
4.
Mensores aedificiorum, sometimes applied to
architects, or more especially to such architects as conducted the erection
of public buildings, the plans of which had been drawn up by other
architects (Plin.
Ep. x, 19 (28), 5; 10.20 (29), 3).
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