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AEDILES.
of property. (Cic. pro Caecin. c. 8.) It was also used to express a person who gave his advice and aid to another in the management of a cause, as a juris-consultus did ; "but the word did not signify the orator or patronus who made the speech (Cic. de Orat. ii. 74) in the time of Cicero. Under the emperors, it signified a person who in any way assisted in the conduct of a cause (Dig. 50. tit. 13. s. 1), and was sometimes equivalent to orator. (Tacit. Ann. x. 6.) The advocate had then a fee, which was called honorarium. [orator, patronus, lex cincia.]
The advocatus is defined by Ulpian (Dig. 50, tit. 13) to be any person who aids another in the conduct of a suit or action ; but under the empire the jurisconsult! no longer acted as advocates, in the old sense of that term. They had attained a higher position than that which they held under the republic.
The advocatus fisci was an important officer established by Hadrianus. (Spart Hadrian. 60.) It was his business to look after the interests of the fiscus or the imperial treasury, and, among other things, to maintain its title to bona caduca. The various meanings of advocatus in the Middle Ages are given by Du Cange, Gloss. (Dig. 28. tit. 4. s. 3; Hollweg, Handbutli des Civilprozesses., p. 196.) [G.L.]
ADYTUM. jtemplum.]
AEACEIA (at’aKeia), a festival of the Aegi- netans in honour of Aeacus, the details of which are not known. The victor in the games which were solemnised on the occasion, consecrated his chaplet in the magnificent temple of Aeacus. (Schol. ad Find. Ol. vii. 156, xiii. 155 ; Miiller, Aeginetica, p. 140.) [L. S.]
AEDES VITIOSAE, RUINO’SAE. [&am-num infectum.]
AEDFCUL AE, signifies in the singular, a room, but in the plural, a small house. It is> however, more frequently used in the sense of a shrine, attached to the walls of temples or houses^, in which the statue of a deity was placed. The aediculae attached to houses, sometimes contained the pe-nates of the house, but more frequently the guardian gods of the street in which they were placed. (Liv. xxxv. 41 ; Petron. 29.)
AEDFLES (o/yopcwtfytoi). 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, and called aediles plebeii ; they were elected from the plebes, and the institution of the office dates from the same time as that of the tribiini plebis, 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 theii* institution (b. c. 446), we .find them appointed the keepers of the senatus consulta, which the consuls had hitherto arbitrarily suppressed or altered. (Liv. iii. 55.) 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 ; nor to distinguish all the duties of the plebeian and curule aediles, after the establishment of the curule &?dilesliip. They had the general superintendence
AEDILES.
of buildings, both sacred and private : under this power they provided for the support and repair of temples, curise, &c., and took care that private buildings which were in a ruinous state (aedes vitiosae^ ruinosae) were repaired by the owners, or pulled down. The superintendence over the supply and distribution of water at Rome was, at an early period, a matter of public administration. According to Frontinus, this was the duty of the censors ; but when there were no censors, it was within the province of the aediles. . The care of each particular source or supply was farmed to undertakers (redemptores), and all that they did was subject to the approbation of the censors or the aediles. (De Aquaeduct. Rom. lib. ii.) The care of the streets and pavements, with the cleansing and draining of the city, belonged to the aediles, and the care of the cloacae. They had the office of distributing corn among the plebes, which was sometimes given gratuitously, sometimes sold at a cheap rate ; 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. The fines were employed in paving roads, and in other public purposes. 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 (ayopav6/jioi). 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, decency, and the inspection of the baths, and houses of entertainment, of brothels, and of prostitutes. The aediles had various officers under them, as prae-cones, 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 plebesj, and at last indifferently from both. (Liv. vii. 1.) The office of curule aediles was instituted B. c. 36o, and, according to Livy on the occasion of the plebeian aediles refusing to consent to celebrate the ludi maximi fof 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 aedilesi, tWo plebeian and two curule, were annually elected. (Liv. vi. 42.) The distinctive honours of the aediles curules were, the sella cunilis, from whence their title is derived, the toga praetexta, precedence in speaking in the senate, and the jus imaginum. (Cic. Verr. v. 14.) Only the aediles curules had the jus edicendi, or the power of promulgating edicta (Gaius, i. 6) ; but the rules comprised in tlleir 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^.
