Scanned text contains errors.
1196
VICUS.
11; comp. Plin. H. N. xviii. 4 ; Liv. viii. 18). In later times however viatores are only mentioned
. . V
•with such magistrates as had only potestas and not imperium, such as the tribunes of the people, the censors, and the aediles. They were, in short, the attendants of all magistrates who had the jus pren-dendi. (Gell. xiii. 12 ; Liv. ii. 56, xxx. 39, xxxix. 34; Lydus, de Magist. i. 44.) How many viatores attended each of these magistrates is not known ; one of them is said to have had the right at the command of his magistrate to bind persons (ligare), whence he was called lictor. (Gell. xii. 3.) It is not improbable that the ancient writers sometimes confound viatores and lictores. (Sigonius, de Ant. jut. Civ. Romanorum^ ii. 15 ; Becker, Handb. der Rom. Altertli. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 379.) [L. S.] VICA’RII SERVI. [servos, p. 1037,b.] VICA’RIUS. [exercitus, p. 504, a.J VICE’SIMA, a tax of five per cent. Every Roman, when he manumitted a slave, had to pay to the state a tax of one-twentieth of his value, whence the tax was called vicesima manumissionis. This tax appears to have been levied from the earliest times, and was not abolished when all other imposts were done away with in Rome and Italy. (Liv. vii. 16, xxvii. 10 ; Cic. Ad Ait. ii. 16.) Caracalla raised this tax to a decima, that is, ten per cent., but Macrinus again reduced it to the old standard. (Dion. Cass. Ixxvii. 9, Ixxviii. 12.) The persons employed in collecting it were called Vice-simarii. (Petron. Fragm. Tragur. 65 ; Orelli, In-acript. n. 3333, &c.)
A tax called vicesima liereditatium el legatorum was introduced by Augustus (Lex Julia Vicesimaria): it consisted of five per cent, which every Roman citizen had to pay to the aerarium militare, upon any inheritance or legacy left to him, with the exception of such as were left to a citizen by his nearest relatives, and such as did not amount to above a certain sum. (Dion Cass. Iv. 25, Ivi. 28 ; Plin. Paneg. 37, &c. ; Capitol. M. Antonin. 11.) Peregrin! and Latini who had become Roman citizens had, in a legal sense, no relative, and were therefore obliged in all cases to pay the vicesima hereditatium. (Plin. Paneg. I.e.) As only citizens had to pay this tax, Caracalla, in order to make it more productive^ granted the franchise to all the subjects of the empire, and at the same time raised it to ten per cent. (dccima), but Macrinus again reduced it to five. (Dion. Cass. Ixxvii. 9, Ixxviii. 12), and at last it was abolished entirely. It was levied in Italy and the provinces by procuratores appointed for the purpose, and who are mentioned in many inscriptions as PROCURATORES XX HERED.1TATIUM, or
ad vectigal xx HEREDIT. But these officers generally sold it for a round sum to the publicani, which the latter had to pay in to the praefects of the aerarium militare. (Plin. Epist. vii. 14, Paneg. 37.) [L. S.]
VICOMAGISTRI. [Vicus.]
VrCTIMA. [sacrificium.]
VICTORIATUS. [denarius.]
VICUS is the name of the -subdivisions into which the four regions occupied by the four city tribes of Serving Tullius were divided, while the country regions, according to an institution ascribed to Numa, were subdivided into Pagi. (Dionys. ii. 76.) This division, together with that of the four regions of the four city tribes, remained down to the time of Augustus, who made the vici subdivisions of the fourteen regions into which he divided
VILLA.
the city. (Suet. Aug. 30.) In this division each vicus consisted of one main street, including several smaller by-streets ; their number was 424, arid each was superintended by four officers, called vico- magistri, who had a sort of local police, and who, according to the regulation of Augustus, were every year chosen by lot from among the people who lived in the vicus. (Suet. I. c. ; Dion Cass. Iv. 8.) On certain days, probably at the celebration of the compitalia, they wore the praetexta, and each of them was accompanied by two lictors* (Dion Cass. 1. c. ; Ascon. ad Cic. in Pison. p. 7. ed. Orelli.) These officers, however, were not a new institution of Augustus, for they had existed during the time of the republic, and had had the same functions as a police for the vici of the Servian division of the city. (Liv. xxxiv. 7 ; Festus, s. v. Magistrare; comp. Sextus Rufus, Breviarium de Regionibus Urbis Romae; and P. Victor, de Regio- nibus Urbis Romae.} [L. S.]
VICUS. [universitas, p. 1216, a.]
VIGILES. [exercitus, p. 510, a.]
VIGILIAE. [castra, p. 250, b.]
VIGINTISEXVIRI were twenty-six magis- tratus minores, among whom were included the triumviri capitales, the triumviri monetales, the quatuorviri viarum curandarum for the city, the two curatores viarum for the roads outside the city, the decemviri litibus (stlitibus) judicandis, and the four praefects who were sent into Campania for the purpose of administering justice there. Augustus reduced the number of officers of this college to twenty (vigintiviri), as the two curatores viarum for the roads outside the city and the four Campa- niari praefects were abolished. (Dion Cass. liv. 26.) Down to the time of Augustus the sons of senators had generally sought and obtained a place in the college of the vigintisexviri, it being the first step towards the higher offices of the republic ; but in A. d. 13 a senatusconsultum was passed ordaining that only equites should be eligible to the college of the vigintiviri. The consequence of this was that the vigintiviri had no seats in the senate, unless they had held some other magistracy which conferred this right upon them. (Dion Cass. I.e.} The age at which a person might become a vigin- tivir appears to have been twenty. (Compare Dion Cass. Ix. 5 ; Tacit. Annul, iii. 29, with Lipsius’ note ; Spart. Did. Julian. 1.) An account of the magistrates forming this college has been given in separate articles. [L. S.] • VIGINTIVIRI. [vigintisexviri.]
VILLA, a farm or country-house. The Roman writers mention two kinds of villa, the villa rustica or farm-house, and the villa urbana or pseudo- urbana, a residence in the country or in the suburbs of a town. When both of these were attached to an estate, they were generally united in the same range of buildings, but sometimes they were placed at different parts of the estate. The part of the villa rustica, in which the produce of the farm was kept, is distinguished by Columella by a separate name, villa fructuaria.
1. The villa rustica is described by Varro (R. R. i. 11, 13), Vitruvius (vi. 9), and Columella (i. 4.
§
*• o).
The villa, which must be of size corresponding to that of the farm, is best placed at the foot of a wooded mountain, in a spot supplied with running water, and not exposed to severe winds nor to the effluvia of marshes, nor (by being close, to a public
