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Rome: TITLES OF THE ROMANS (Early Empire)
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Posted by Webmaster on September 21 2004, 04:41 PM
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A/AB: A preposition designating the "secretaries" or assistants of the emperor. During the Principate from these offices developed departments of the chancery of the emperor and the titles of the corresponding heads of the departments. One can find the following officers of such kind: a bibliothecis, a censibus, a cognitionibus, a cubiculo, a libellis, a mandatis, a memoria, a pugione (pugio=dagger), a rationibus, a studiis, ab epistulis.
A BIBLIOTHECIS: Master of the imperial libraries
A CENSIBUS: There is no evidence about the functions of the a censibus. Probably he assisted the emperor in taking the census of candidates for the senatorial and equestrian orders.
A COGNITIONIBUS: A cognitionibus prepared materials for imperial justice.
A CUBICULO: The chamberlain of the emperor. Cubiculum=bedroom
A LIBELLIS: A libellis drafted the subscriptiones as written answers in response to petitions (libelli) on a wide variety of subjects from private persons to (rarely) cities.
A MANDATIS: A mandatis prepared and sent imperial mandata to the provincial governors.
A MEMORIA: A memoria kept imperial diary, wrote down the speeches and decisions of the emperor.
A PUGIONE: Chief of Security. Puggio= Dagger
A RATIONIBUS PROCURATOR: A rationibus prepared the decisions of the emperor on finances and taxation.
A STUDIIS: For rhetorical training of emperors
AB EPISTULIS: Ab epistulis drafted the epistulae (one of the two kinds of the imperial rescripta) as written answers of the emperor addressed to officials or public bodies.
AEDILES: They originated as two magistrates subordinating of the tribunes of the plebs whose sancrosancity they shared. In the early Republic their central function was to supervise the common temple (aedes) and cults of the plebs, but they also acted as the executives of the tribunes. In the later republic there were aediles curules of patrician and aediles plebeii of plebs. The main duties were: cura urbis (care for fabric of the city, the streets of Rome, public order in cult practices, the water supply and the market); cura annonae (the maintenance and distribution of the corn supply); cura ludorum sollemnium (the public games): the ludi Romani and the Megalensia fell to the curules and the ludi Ceriales and the ludi plebeii to the plebeians. Under the Principate cura annonae passed to the praefectus annonae and most of their quasi-police functions to the other officials (praefectus urbi, praefectus vigilum etc.), but retained their concern for the market and related issues, incl. formal jurisdiction over cases relating to sales. Aediles are also found as officials in all Roman municipalities, and in corporate bodies (such as collegia).
AERARIUM: Treasury
AERARIUM MILITARIS: Military treasury
AQUILIFER: Eagle-keeper
AUCTORITAS: Authority Augustus defined his distinguishing status as auctoritas to conceal the real military basis of his power.
AUXILIA: Auxiliary troops. Auxiliaries were recruited from foreign and conquered peoples. Navy and cavalry were also regarded as auxiliary. The number of the auxiliaries under the Principate was approximately equal to those of the legionaries and probably numbered about 180 000 men by the reign of Flavians and over 220 000 in the mid-2nd cent.
AUGUSTUS: Earlier usage of the title 'Augustus' was religious. In 27 BC Octavian received the title from the Senate. Denied to other male members of the dynasty, the title was taken by all succeeding emperors, except emp. Tiberius, who formally did not accept it, and emp. Vitellius, who delayed. The title 'Augusta' was conferred on the emperor's wife and exceptionally on other female relatives.
CENSOR: The title of one of a pair of senior Roman magistrates, elected by the centuriate assembly to hold office for eighteen months. They were normally elected every four, later five years. Their primary function was of making up and maintaining the official list of Roman citizens (census). They also exercised a supervision of the morals of the community (regimen morum) and revised the membership of the Senate. The censors also were responsible for the leasing of revenue-producing public property (land, mines etc.) and they made the contracts with the publicani for the collection of the revenue arising. The censors at Rome also could sell to publicani the contracts for the collection of the taxes of an entire province. Although they lacked imperium, the office came due to the range of their responsibilities to be regarded as the highest position in the cursus honorum and to be held as a rule only by ex-consuls. No censors were elected after 22 BC and the emperors themselves assumed responsibility for censorial functions or delegated them to lesser officials.
CENSURA: Censorship A right of the emperor to make up and maintain the official list of Roman citizens, and also lists of the senatorial and equestrian orders. See censor.
CENSUS: A national register prepared at Rome, on the basis of which were determined voting rights and liability for military service and taxation. From 443 BC the census was held by the censors. On the basis of the information received from citizens (full name, age, name of his father or patronus, domicile, occupation and amount of his property) the censors registered them in tribes and centuries. The names of women and children were not included in the census. At least from the reign of emp. Augustus the provincial censuses were organised by the central government. Responsibility for the census lay normally with the governor, but many other men of senatorial and later equestrian rank were involved. The census-return (forma censualis) included full details of the property of the provincials, that is, the information necessary for levying the tributum soli (land-tax) or tributum capitis (a poll-tax), a direct tax paid alternatively by all inhabitants of the provinces to the Roman state.
CENTUMVIRI: Jury of 100 men
CENTURIA: A unit of 100 legionaries in the Roman legion.
CENTURIO: A lower officer in the legion commanding a centuria (century) They were the mainstay of the discipline and efficiency of the troops.
CENTURIO PRIMUS PILUS: Centurion of the first pike (javelin). The first (senior) centurion in a legion. It was the highest rank of centurionate. One of the special responsibilities of him was the legion's eagle. Retirement brought with it a large gratuity and an honorary title primipilaris (ex-primus pilus).
CLASSIS: Navy. Because of the expenses of the maintaining of the navy there have been only two permanent navies in the Ancient World: in Rhodos from 4th to the 1st cents. BC and in the Roman Empire. Emp. Augustus created a permanent fleet with bases at Forum Iulii, Ravenna and Misenum for the policing of the coast of Italy and the adjacent seas. A small fleet based at Alexandria and, probably, another at Seleuceia in Pieria. The station of Forum Iulii disappeared before the end of the 1st cent. Later emperors added units in the Black Sea, Africa, Britain, and on the Rhine (at Colonia Agrippinensis) and Danube (at Taurunum near Singidunum in Pannonia and at Noviodunum in Moesia). As occasion demanded, special fleets were organised to cooperate in military expeditions.
(Also see the sections of Italy, Gaul, Germany and the Danubian provinces of the map of the Roman Empire in the topic "Territories" of the site).
COGNITIO CAESARIANA: Caesarīs Trial
COGNITIO SACRA: Sacred trial
COGNITIO EXTRA ORDINEM: Extraordinary trial
COHORTES PRAETORII: Praetorian troops. In the Republic the cohors praetoria was a small escort which accompanied an army commander, taking its name from his tent - praetorium. Since emp. Augustus it was the bodyguard of the emperor numbered from 9000 to 16 000 men. A cavalry arm, the equites singulares Augusti, supported them. Praetorians were regarded as soldiers and ranked above all the other troops. The guard owed its influence to the fact that it was kept in Italy, at first partly and later entirely at Rome, while the other troops were stationed in the provinces. Commander of the troops (praefectus praetorio) was the highest official after the emperor.
COHORTES URBANAE: City troops. The police troops of the city Rome, established by Augustus. Originally there were three cohorts, numbered X-XII in continuation of the praetorian cohorts. Later there were four cohorts in Rome and single "urban" cohorts (so named because they were originally withdrawn from Rome) at Puteoli, Ostia, Carthage and at Lugdunum. Each cohort contained at first 500, later 1000 men, recruited from Italians. Until their own camp was constructed in 270, they based at the praetorian camp in Rome. Commander of the troops (praefectus urbi) was always a senator and ranked as the second official after the praefectus praetorio.
COHORTES VIGILUM: Regional (city) troops. Fire brigades and night watch of the city Rome (vicus=a local subdivision of the city, numbered 265 by Pliny the Elder). By the 3rd cent. there were about 7000 vigiles distributed by one cohort of 1000 men for two regions of the city. Commander of the troops (praefectus vigilum) was an equitus and an official of the highest rank.
CONSILIUM PRINCIPIS: Council of the Emperor. The advisers of the emperor. It was increasingly forced by adding judicial and administrative personnel (e.g. the praefectus praetorio was a regular member). Rules of selection and procedure were flexible, its functions remained largely judicial or diplomatic and it met 'ad hoc'. Under M. Aurelius a grade of salaried legal experts (consiliarii) appears.
CONSTITUTIONES PRINCIPIS: Legal acts of the princeps. The generic name for legislative enactments of the emperor. The main forms were edicta, decreta, rescripta and mandata. A Roman lawyer Gaius (in the 2nd half of the II cent.): "an imperial constitutio is whatever the emperor lays down (constituit) by decretum or edictum or epistula." Another lawyer Ulpian (?-228 AD): "Therefore whatever the emperor has laid down by epistula and subscriptio, or has determined in giving justice (cognoscens decrevit), or has given extrajudicially as a provisional judgement or has ordered by edictum, is agreed to be a law."
CONSUL: Consul. The title of the chief annual civil and military magistrates of Rome during the republic. The centuriate assembly elected two consuls as equal colleagues for a year. The consular power was called imperium, it was regarded as maius to the imperium of the other magistrates and included imperium militiae. When both consuls were on campaign together, the normal practice was for each to assume overall command for a day at a time. Under the Principate the consular imperium became an important part of the administrative and military powers of the emperor, although usually he didn't keep the office permanently and he had some colleagues, too.
CURATORES: Curators. Single officials and boards of such officials (usually experienced consular or praetorian) for routines but also occasional functions and duties: for distributing corn, for city water supply, for maintenance of roads, for public buildings, for restoration of Campania suffered from eruption of Vesuvius etc.
CURATOR AEDIUM SACRARUM: Curator of imperial house (palace)
CURATOR ALVEI ET RIPARUM TIBERIS: Official for monitoring and regulating the river Tiber.
CURATOR LUDORUM: The official for managing of public games.
CURATOR OPERUM PUBLICORUM: Curator of public building. Official for administering and supervision of public buildings. Later replaced with procurator.
CURATOR REGIONUM [C. URBIS ROMAE]: Curator of the territory (of the city of Rome)
CURATOR REI PUBLICAE: An official of the central government in the provincial city. Under the Principate usually they were by geographic origin foreigners to the city, but under the Dominate were elected by local councils from local politicians.
CURATORES AQUARUM: Officials for maintenance of water supply.
CURATORES VIARUM: Officials for maintenance of roads, e.g. curator viae Appiae.
CURSUS PUBLICUS: The public postal system for governmental purposes. It became linked with the wholesale movement of state goods. For latter purposes emp. Septimius Severus created the cursus claburalis as opposed to the cursus velox. This was one of the largest-scale administrative initiatives of antiquity.
DECEMVIRI: Commission of 10 men. In the late republic they judged suits to decide whether a man was free or slave. Augustus probably transferred this function to recuperatores and made the decemviri presidents of the centumviri
DECRETUM PRINCIPUM: Decree of the princeps. Decisions of the emperor, particularly in the applying of judicial powers.
DECURIO: An officer of the decuriae in cavalry and auxiliary troops.
EDICTUM PRINCIPUM: Edict of the princeps. Decision of the emperor as a highest magistrate of a general character (e.g. constitutio Antoniana extending the Roman citizenship to the almost of all free population of the empire).
EDICTUM PERPETUUM: Perpetual edict. Edict was a formula that proclaimed the steps a magistrate was intended to take in the discharge of his office; he would rely on the advice of jurists. Edictum perpetuum is a revised version of the praetorian edicts composed by the jurist Salvius Iulianus by the commission of emp. Hadrian and confirmed by a senatusconsultum in c.130AD.
EPISTULA: Letter. Epistulae were one of the kinds of the imperial rescripts (rescripta) as written answers issued by the imperial chancery. These were drafted by the department ab epistulis and addressed to officials or public bodies.
FISCUS: Central imperial treasury, including the funds and property of the emperor.
IMPERATOR: Emperor A generic title for Roman commanders that became a special title of honour. The increasing influence of the army in the late republic made imperator the symbol of military authority. Octavian began use imperator as praenomen. Thus the title came to denote the supreme power and was commonly used in this sense. But only with emp. Vespasian Imperator became a title which designated the ruler.
IMPERIUM: The supreme power, involving command in war and the interpretation and execution of law, incl. the infliction of the death penalty. Under the republic it belonged to consuls, military tribunes with consular power, praetors, dictators and magister equitum (master of the horse), later also to proconsuls and propraetors and to the members of certain commissions. Generally, it represented the supreme authority of the community in its dealings with the individual, and the magistrate in whom imperium was vested represented the community in all its dealings. Restrictions: 1) tenure of the office was limited (usually one year for ordinary magistrates and six months for dictator); 2) most of the magistrates had equal colleagues; 3) magistrates were not allowed to execute Roman citizens without trial owing the citizen's right of provocatio to the people; 4) the imperium of promagistrates was restricted to the bounds of their provinciae; 5) imperium of the junior magistrate was restricted by the imperium of the senior magistrate; 6) intercessio=right of the one magistrate to put veto on the activity of another magistrate, usually of equal or lesser authority. See also prorogatio imperii, pro consule, pro praetore.
IMPERIUM MAIUS: When emp. Augustus in 23 BC resigned the consulship, his proconsular imperium was made maius et infinitum (it was regarded as senior with respect to the other provincial governors and it could be exercised from within the city and Italy). Imperium was granted to him four times for ten-year periods and twice for five-year periods. Imperium was voted to succeeding emperors at their accession by the senate.
IMPERIUM PROCONSULARIS: See PROCONSUL.
IUDEX: Judge. The Roman civil process was divided into two stages: 1) in iure before the magistrate and 2) apud iudicem before the judge. The iudex was a private person taken from the higher social classes, who was appointed to conduct the hearing in the second stage. The choice of the judge lay with the parties and was normally made from a panel of qualified persons, although no special legal knowledge was required. The choice of the parties was approved by the magistrate in the first stage of the process.
IUDEX APELLATIONIS: Higher judge appointed for hearing the appeal.
IUDEX EXTRA ORDINEM: In the cognitio extraordinaria the judge was appointed, independently of the parties, by the official before whom the case first came. His competence=final decision or partial investigation - depended on his commission. In the late empire (IV-V cent.) any official with jurisdictional power was called iudex.
IUDICIUM ORDINARIA: Ordinary justice
IUDICIUM RECUPERATORIUM: Justice of recuperatores
IURISDICTIO: Jurisdiction of the consules and praetores; in some occasions of aediles and censores; of praefecti iuri dicundo and duoviri and quattuor viri in municipium; but not of judges of any kind
IUS AGENDI @#$% SENATU: A right to convoke the Senate.
IUS AGENDI @#$% POPULI: A right to summon the assembly of plebs.
IUS RESPONENDI: Augustus and his successors gave to prominent jurists the right of publicly giving opinions when consulted upon the legal merits of cases under trial. Such opinions, if commonly accepted by the jurists (communis opinio iurisconsultorum), became to be an important source of law.
LEGATUS AUGUSTI PROPRAETORE: A governor of the province, appointed by the emperor to the imperial province. He also commanded the legions stationed in the province.
LEGATUS LEGIONIS: Legate of the legion. Chief commander of a legion. He was a senator always appointed by the emperor. In some provinces he might combine the command of a legion with the post of provincial governor, though in this case he would normally have already commanded a legion elsewhere.
LEGIO: Legion was the main unit of the Roman army, nominally 6000 men strong under the early empire. Legionaries were recruited from Roman citizens and increasingly from the provinces. Since Marius' military reform the legion's main tactical units were cohort and century (centurio). After the lost of the three legions in the Germany in 9 AD there remained 25 legions in the army, giving a total of about 150 000 men (the number of the auxiliaries, organised into the auxiliary troops, was approximately equal to those of the legionaries). By the reign of emp. Traian (98-117 AD) there were probably 30 legion and by the end of the 3rd cent. emp. Diocletian increased the number of legions at least to 67, though probably not retaining their traditional complement.
MAGISTRATUS: City or state official in Rome. The regularly elected (ordinarii) magistrates were: consul, praetors, censors, curule aediles, quaestors, the vigintisexvirate (vigintivirate under the empire) and (formally magistrates of only the plebs) the tribunus plebi and aediles of the plebs. The occasionally appointed or elected magistrates (extra ordinem creati - extraordinarii) were interrex, praefectus urbi (altered under the empire, see praefectus urbi), dictator, magister equitum and a number of unique commissions (incl. the most famous, tresviri rei publicae constituendae (the triumvirate of Antony, Lepidus and Octavian). More important is the distinction between magistrates who possessed imperium (consuls, praetors, dictators, magistri equitum, the decemviri legibus scribundis, military tribunes with consular power and the tresviri r.p.c.) and those who did not (the rest). Some main shared features of the magistracies: magistrates were elected, except the interrex, dictator, master of horse and city prefect; they were temporary (all the regular magistracies were annual), except the censorship; they were organised in colleges and thereby were subjects to the intercessio (veto) of their colleagues; they were unpaid: magistracy was regarded as an honour.
MANDATA PRINCIPUM: Instructions of the princeps. Mandata were given by the emperor to officials, particularly provincial governors. Although they were in form merely administrative, they created a number of important rules that could be relied on private individuals.
PATER PATRIAE: 'Father of His Country' At first Caesar received the title. The title was conferred upon emp. Augustus by the senate in 2 AD and consequently was used by the other emperors. The title expressed the subsequent move from the concept of pater familias - head of a family, who had have absolute power over the members of his household - to that of an authoritarian emperor.
PONTIFEX MAXIMUS: Pontifices formed one and structurally the most complicated of the four major colleges of the Roman priesthood. The leading member of the college=the pontifex maximus was from the mid-3rd cent. onwards elected by a special procedure, which in 104 BC was extended to the rest of the college and the other priest colleges. Emp. Augustus assumed the honour of the pontifex maximus and united the position with other priesthood. From him until emperor Gratian (the end of the IV cent.), who refused to accept the title, the position was always held by the reigning emperor.
PRAEFECTI AERARII MILITARIS: Prefects of the military treasury. There were 3 prefects of the military funds under the Principate.
PRAEFECTUS: Prefect. An official of the highest civil and military rank
PRAEFECTUS AEGYPTI: Prefect of Egypt. Governor of the Roman province of Egypt. The office was the highest among provincial governors and the third at all after emperor and praetorian prefect.
PRAEFECTUS AERARII SATURNI: Prefect of the Saturn's treasury. Aerarii Saturni was the senatorial (former republican) treasury
PRAEFECTUS ALIMENTORUM: Prefect of the alimentary fund
PRAEFECTUS ANNONAE: Prefect of grain. Official responsible for supplying the city Rome of grain.
PRAEFECTUS CASTRORUM: Prefect of the camp. Chief of the legionary camp and the senior officer, ranking third behind legate and tribunus laticlavius in the legion. He was concerned with the legion's equipment and transport.
PRAEFECTUS CLASSIS: Prefect of navy. Commander of a fleet (classis) .
PRAEFECTUS FABRUM: Chief of the army craftsmen.
PRAEFECTUS FRUMENTI DANDI: Prefect of the distribution of food
PRAEFECTUS LEGIONIS: Prefect of a legion. Commander of a legion, especially in the province of Egypt
PRAEFECTUS NAVIS: Prefect of a ship. Commander of a warship.
PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO: Praetorian prefect. Prefect of the praetorian guard, cohortes praetorii.
PRAEFECTUS URBI: City prefect. Prefect of the city Rome, commander of the cohortes urbi. He was instituted by Augustus to be the emperor's deputy at Rome. Nominally he was an independent magistrate with the duty of keeping order in the city. For this purpose he had imperium, the police forces under his command and his own court of justice, in which he presided. By the 3rd cent. the court of the city prefect practically superseded those of the regular magistrates. Praefectus urbi was always a senator (usually a senior ex-consul) and ranked as the second official after the praefectus praetorio.
PRAEFECTUS VEHICULORUM: Prefect of the imperial postal service (cursus publicus).
PRAEFECTUS VIGILUM: Prefect of vigiles Prefect of the watch, commander of the cohorts of the fire- and policemen of the city of Rome (cohortes vigilum). He was of equestrian order and became also a judge in petty criminal cases. The post was one of the more senior offices.
PRAETOR: Praetor. 'Praetor' was originally the title of the two highest republican magistrates. In 367 BC was added patrician praetor as third colleague to these chief magistrates, who were now called consuls. The new praetor held imperium, which was defined as being of the same nature as the consuls' but minus (lesser) in relation to theirs. The praetor could perform almost all the activities of the consul, unless a consul stopped him. A praetor could not interfere with the consuls. In the absence of the consuls from the city the praetor was the chief magistrate in Rome and in charge of the legal system. Later the administration of law was within the praetor's special competence. He also had the right to lead an army. Around 244 BC there was an increase from one to two praetors (urbanus and inter peregrinos), ca. 228 the number of praetors was doubled to four and in 198 added another two. Praetorship became a prerequisite for the consulship. In 146 the Senate decided to keep the number of praetors at six, which made it impossible to govern provinces by regular magistrates in their year of office. So was introduced the prorogatio imperii and praetorian provinces became governed by pro praetores. Caesar increased the number of praetors to 16, Augustus reduced finally to 12. Under the Principate the praetors retained some of their traditional republican functions at Rome: performing civil jurisdiction, presiding over criminal courts, overseeing the games and occasionally presiding over the senate. The office was still an important step in the cursus honorum: this enabled a holder to go on to be governor of a public province or to be a legate of a legion in an imperial province. [NB provintside def-d ja lingid; cursus honorum]
PRINCEPS SENATUS CIVIUM ROMANORUM: 'First man of the senate of the commonwealth of Romans'
PROCONSUL: A magistrate in place of a consul operating outside (usually after) the regular annual magistracy and outside Rome. He exercised his power within provincia, during the republic normally defined by the senate. Later provincia became the conquered territory, subject to the Roman senate and people. From 23 BC the emperor's proconsular imperium was defined as greater (maius) with respect to that of proconsuls in the public provinces.
PROPRAETORE: A magistrate in place of a praetor operating outside (usually after) the regular annual magistracy and outside Rome. Also quaestors and legati could be given imperium pro praetore if necessary. Under the empire the imperial provinces were governed by the legati Augusti pro praetore. These would be either ex-praetors or ex-consuls, depending on the importance of their command (see also pro consule).
PROCURATOR:
1) Governor (praeses provinciae) of minor province without legions;
2) supervisor of taxation in the imperial province, governed by legatus Augusti;
3) supervisor of imperial properties and probably taxation in the senatorial province, governed by proconsul;
4) supervisor of imperial estate;
5) supervisor of specific indirect taxes in the set of provinces;
6) head of a public administration, e.g. of food supply, the water aqueducts or the mint. Procurators were direct appointees of the emperor. Procuratorial posts were graded by level of salary: sexagenarii (those receiving 60'000 sesterces per annum), centenarii (100'000), ducenarii (200'000), and trecenarii (300'000).
PROCURATOR REI PRIVATAE CAESARIS: Since emp. Septimius Severus. Supervisor of imperial estate. See procurator.
PROCURATORES AUGUSTI [CAESARIS]: Imperial representatives for the different matters of organisation. See procurator.
PROROGATIO IMPERII See pro consule, pro praetore.
PROVINCIA: Originally the sphere in which a magistrate was to function (e.g. provincia urbana of the first single praetor). Later by the conquest of the overseas territories the word provincia was mainly used for these annexed territories under permanent Roman administration, although it never lost its original meaning (see list of the provinces and the map of the Roman early empire in the topic "Territories" of the site). In 27 BC the provinces actually were divided between the emperor and the Senate. The latter ("public" provinces), usually without any stationed legion, were governed by senatorial proconsuls. The imperial provinces were governed by the legati Augusti pro praetore and the legions were stationed there. However, practically all the governors were appointees of the emperor or approved by him.
PROVOCATIO: An appeal made to the Roman people against the action of a magistrate. The grant of tribunicia potestas to emp. Augustus led to the substitution for provocatio of appeal to the emperor.
QUAESTORES: In the early Republic quaestors were the magistrates of finances, appointed by the consuls, one by each. In 421 BC two were added to administer under the Senate's direction the aerarium in Rome. Four more were added in 267 BC and unknown number was added later, until Sulla found twenty needed for all the duties in Rome and provinces. Caesar doubled this figure, but Augustus returned to it. The quaestorship was the lowest of the regular magistracies. In addition to managing the fiscus, they had judicial and military duties. Augustus removed quaestors from the aerarium, Claudius restored and Nero removed again. Under the empire the princeps had two quaestores Caesaris, as well as each consul had two quaestors. The actual duties of the quaestors in Italy were gradually taken over by imperial officials, but in the public provinces quaestors retained some financial functions through the Principate.
RECUPERATORES: Jurymen, usually three or five, who acted in the second stage of Roman civil proceedings in place of the single iudex.
RESCRIPTA PRINCIPUM: Written answers issued by the imperial chancery. They were of two main kinds: epistulae and subscriptiones (see in the current table)
SENATUS, SENATORES: The Senate; senators In the Republic: a body of around 300 wealthy men of aristocratic birth. Senators were chosen first by consuls, after 330s BC by the censors according to fixed criteria. Membership became effectively lifelong. A property qualification was probably of 400 thousands sesterces. Sulla increased the Senate up to 600 members. By Caesar, in 45 BC there was 900 members in the Senate and under the triumvirate over a thousand. The senate was summoned by the presiding magistrates. Sittings were held in private, but with open doors. After the debate a vote was taken; the decree resulting from a positive vote was known as a senatus consultum.
In the Empire: emp. Augustus reduced the size of the Senate to around 600 and in 18 BC this figure was fixed. 600 remained Senate's normal size through the first two and a half centuries of the Principate. A property qualification was increased to one million sesterces that more clearly differentiated the senatorial from the equestrian order. Sons of senators gained the right to stand for membership of the Senate. But emperors promoted new men into the Senate. By these means imperial patronage continuously transformed the social origins of senators.
Senatorial membership was a precondition for exercising key individual political and administrative roles, especially such as the governors of the public provinces, commanders of the legions and members of the consilium principis. In the I-II cents. emperors, when they had no male heir, adopted a senator as their successor. Macrinus hailed emperor by his troops in 217 AD was the first emperor being not a senator.
SENATUS CONSULTUM: The advice of the senate to the magistrates expressed in the form of a resolution or decree. In the Republic: it had no legal force, but in practice it acquired the force of law when implemented. In the Empire: at first senatus consulta were implemented by a clause in the praetor's edict; after emp. Hadrian certain senatus consulta had immediate legal force.
SUBSCRIPTIO: Subscriptiones were one of the kinds of the imperial rescripts (rescripta) as written answers issued by the imperial chancery. Emperor validated them by writing at the end 'scripsi' or 'subscripsi'. They were drafted by the department a libellis in response to petitions (libelli) on a wide variety of subjects from private persons to cities.
TRIBUNI ANGUSTICLAVII: 'Tribunes of narrow [purple] band'. Five officers of the senior rank in a legion. Although tribunus laticlavius was senior with respect to them, all tribuni were under the supreme command of the legatus legionis. They had administrative responsibilities, being concerned with the legion's welfare and daily routine as duty officers. Usually tribuni angusticlavii have had passed the different civil and military careers and continued their service in army as commanders of auxiliary or cavalry troops.
TRIBUNI COHORTIS: See tribunus militum.
TRIBUNI PLEBIS [PLEBI]: Tribuni plebis were the officers of the plebs first created in the 1st half of V cent. By 449 the number of the tribunes had risen to ten. The tribunes became indistinguishable from magistrates of the state, although without imperium or insignia. They were charged with the defence of the persons and property of the plebeians (ius auxilii). The tribunes' power derived from the oath sworn by the plebeians to guarantee their sacrosanctitas (inviolability). The tribunes could summon the plebs to assembly (ius agendi) and evoke resolutions (plebiscita). The full acknowledgement of their power came with the recognition of plebiscita as laws binding upon the whole populus and not just the plebs. Moreover, the tribunes possessed a right of veto (intercessio) against any act performed by a magistrate or by another tribune, against elections, laws, and senatusconsulta. Only the dictator and perhaps interrex were exempts from this veto. Caesar assumed at least the tribunician sacrosanctitas. Augustus gained step by step a permanent tribunicia potestas. The tribunate, without its former power and independence, remained as a step in the senatorial career for plebeians alternatively with the aedileship until the 3rd cent.
TRIBUNICIA POTESTAS: Tribunician power. The power of the tribuni plebis. 1) ius auxilii (right of giving aid to the plebeians); 2) ius agendi @#$% plebe (right to summon the plebs to assembly and evoke resolutions (plebiscita)); 3) ius agendi @#$% senatu (right to convoke the senate); 3) ius intercedendi (right of veto (intercessio) against the acts of magistrates, elections, laws); 4) sacrosanctitas (inviolability), guaranteed by the oath sworn of the plebeians; 5) coercitio (right of enforcing the decrees of the plebs and the tribunes' own rights). In 23 BC Augustus received from the Senate and people tribunicia potestas for life, regarded as being held for successive annual periods.
TRIBUNUS LATICLAVIUS: 'Tribune of broad [purple] band' A legion's officer of the senior rank. He was accepted as a candidate for the Senate and would have no previous military experience and would leave the army after one tour of duty. After the ten years of the career in the Senate he might return to the army to command a legion.
TRIBUNUS MILITUM: Military tribune. During the Republic: a commander of a legion. Since Caesar extensively replaced by legati legionis. Under the empire six tribuni militum were the senior (staff) officers in a legion, one of them normally a senator (tribunus laticlavius), and five tribuni angusticlavii from the equestrian order. Under the Principate military tribunes also commanded individual cohorts in the praetorian and urban troops. |
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