AEDĪLES (ἀγορανόμοι). The name of these functionaries is said to be
derived from their having the care of the temple (_aedes_) of Ceres.
The aediles were originally two in number: they were elected from the
plebs, and the institution of the office dates from the same time as
that of the tribunes of the plebs, B.C. 494. Their duties at first
seem to have been merely ministerial; they were the assistants of the
tribunes in such matters as the tribunes entrusted to them, among
which are enumerated the hearing of causes of smaller importance.
At an early period after their institution (B.C. 446), we find them
appointed the keepers of the senatus-consulta, which the consuls
had hitherto arbitrarily suppressed or altered. They were also the
keepers of the plebiscita. Other functions were gradually entrusted
to them, and it is not always easy to distinguish their duties from
some of those which belong to the censors. They had the general
superintendence of buildings, both sacred and private; under this
power they provided for the support and repair of temples, curiae,
&c., and took care that private buildings which were in a ruinous
state were repaired by the owners or pulled down. The care of the
supply and distribution of water, of the streets and pavements, with
the cleansing and draining of the city, belonged to the aediles;
and, of course, the care of the cloacae. They had the office of
distributing corn among the plebs, but this distribution of corn at
Rome must not be confounded with the duty of purchasing or procuring
it from foreign parts, which was performed by the consuls, quaestors,
and praetors, and sometimes by an extraordinary magistrate, as the
praefectus annonae. The aediles had to see that the public lands
were not improperly used, and that the pasture grounds of the state
were not trespassed on; and they had power to punish by fine any
unlawful act in this respect. They had a general superintendence over
buying and selling, and, as a consequence, the supervision of the
markets, of things exposed to sale, such as slaves, and of weights
and measures; from this part of their duty is derived the name under
which the aediles are mentioned by the Greek writers (ἀγορανόμοι).
It was their business to see that no new deities or religious rites
were introduced into the city, to look after the observance of
religious ceremonies, and the celebrations of the ancient feasts
and festivals. The general superintendence of police comprehended
the duty of preserving order, regard to decency, and the inspection
of the baths and houses of entertainment. The aediles had various
officers under them, as praecones, scribae, and viatores. The AEDILES
CURULES, who were also two in number, were originally chosen only
from the patricians, afterwards alternately from the patricians and
the plebs, and at last indifferently from both. The office of curule
aediles was instituted B.C. 365, and, according to Livy, on the
occasion of the plebeian aediles refusing to consent to celebrate the
Ludi Maximi for the space of four days instead of three; upon which a
senatus-consultum was passed, by which two aediles were to be chosen
from the patricians. From this time four aediles, two plebeian and
two curule, were annually elected. The distinctive honours of the
curule aediles were, the sella curulis, from whence their title is
derived, the toga praetexta, precedence in speaking in the senate,
and the jus imaginum. Only the curule aediles had the jus edicendi,
or the right of promulgating edicta; but the rules comprised in their
edicta served for the guidance of all the aediles. The edicta of the
curule aediles were founded on their authority as superintendents
of the markets, and of buying and selling in general. Accordingly,
their edicts had mainly, or perhaps solely, reference to the rules
as to buying and selling, and contracts for bargain and sale. The
persons both of the plebeian and curule aediles were sacrosancti. It
seems that after the appointment of the curule aediles, the functions
formerly exercised by the plebeian aediles were exercised, with some
few exceptions, by all the aediles indifferently. Within five days
after being elected, or entering on office, they were required to
determine by lot, or by agreement among themselves, what parts of
the city each should take under his superintendence; and each aedile
alone had the care of looking after the paving and cleansing of the
streets, and other matters, it may be presumed, of the same local
character within his district. The other duties of the office seem
to have been exercised by them jointly. In the superintendence of
the public festivals or solemnities, there was a further distinction
between the two sets of aediles. Many of these festivals, such as
those of Flora and Ceres, were superintended by either set of aediles
indifferently; but the plebeian games were under the superintendence
of the plebeian aediles, who had an allowance of money for that
purpose; and the fines levied on the pecuarii, and others, seem to
have been appropriated to these among other public purposes. The
celebration of the Ludi Magni or Romani, of the Ludi Scenici, or
dramatic representations, and the Ludi Megalesii, belonged specially
to the curule aediles, and it was on such occasions that they often
incurred a prodigious expense, with a view of pleasing the people,
and securing their votes in future elections. This extravagant
expenditure of the aediles arose after the close of the second Punic
war, and increased with the opportunities which individuals had of
enriching themselves after the Roman arms were carried into Greece,
Africa, and Spain. Even the prodigality of the emperors hardly
surpassed that of individual curule aediles under the republic; such
as C. Julius Caesar, the dictator, P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther,
and, above all, M. Aemilius Scaurus, whose expenditure was not
limited to bare show, but comprehended objects of public utility, as
the reparation of walls, dock-yards, ports, and aquaeducts. In B.C.
45, Julius Caesar caused two curule aediles and four plebeian aediles
to be elected; and thenceforward, at least so long as the office of
aedile was of any importance, six aediles were annually elected. The
two new plebeian aediles were called Cereales, and their duty was
to look after the supply of corn. Though their office may not have
been of any great importance after the institution of a praefectus
annonae by Augustus, there is no doubt that it existed for several
centuries, and at least as late as the time of the emperor Gordian.
The aediles belonged to the class of the minores magistratus. The
plebeian aediles were originally chosen at the comitia centuriata,
but afterwards at the comitia tributa, in which comitia the curule
aediles also were chosen. It appears that until the lex annalis
was passed (B.C. 180) a Roman citizen might be a candidate for any
office after completing his twenty-seventh year. This law fixed the
age at which each office might be enjoyed, and it seems that the
age fixed for the aedileship was thirty-six. The aediles existed
under the emperors; but 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. Augustus also took from the aediles, or
exercised himself, the office of superintending the religious rites,
and the banishing from the city of all foreign ceremonials; he also
assumed the superintendence of the temples, and thus may be said
to have destroyed the aedileship by depriving it of its old and
original function. 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.
The aedileship had, however, lost its true character before this
time. Agrippa had already been consul before he accepted the office
of aedile, and his munificent expenditure in this nominal office was
the close of the splendour of the aedileship. 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. They retained, under the
early emperors, a kind of police, for the purpose of repressing open
licentiousness and disorder. The coloniae, and the municipia of the
later period, had also their aediles, whose numbers and functions
varied in different places. They seem, however, as to their powers
and duties, to have resembled the aediles of Rome. They were chosen
annually.
AEDĬTŬI, AEDĬTŬMI, AEDĬTĬMI (called by the Greeks νεωκόροι, ζάκοροι,
and ὑποζάκοροι), were persons who took care of the temples, attended
to the cleaning of them, &c. They appear to have lived in the
temples, or near them, and to have acted as ciceroni to those persons
who wished to see them. Subsequently among the Greeks, the menial
services connected with this office were left to slaves, and the
persons called _neocori_ became priestly officers of high rank, who
had the chief superintendence of temples, their treasures, and the
sacred rites observed in them.
[Illustration: Aegis worn by Athena.