Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

18 AEDILES. AEDILES.
of property. (Cic. pro Caecin. c. 8.) It was of buildings, both sacred and private: under this
also used to express a person who gave his advice power they provided for the support and repair of
and aid to another in the management of a cause, temples, cllrie, &c., and took care that private
as a juris-consultus did; but the word did not buildings which were in a ruinous state (aedes
signify the orator or patronus who made the speech vitiosae, ruinosae) were repaired by the owners, or
(Cic. de Orat. ii. 74) in the time of Cicero. Under pulled down. The superintendence over the supply
the emperors, it signified a person who in any way and distribution of water at Rome was, at an early
assisted in the conduct of a cause (Dig. 50. tit. 13. period, a matter of public administration. A cs. 1), and was sometimes equivalent to orator. cording to Frontinus, this was the duty of the
(Tacit. Ann. x. 6.) The advocate had then a fee, censors; but when there were no censors, it was
which was called honorarium. [ORATOR, PA- within the province of the aediles. The care of
TRONUS, LEx CINCIA.] each particular source or supply was farmed to unThe advocatus is defined by Ulpian (Dig. 50, dertakers (rede7zptores), and all that they did was
tit. 13) to be any person who aids another in the subject to the approbation of the censors or the
conduct of a suit or action; but under the empire aediles. (De Aquaeduct. Romt. lib. ii.) The care of
the jurisconsulti no longer acted as advocates, in the streets and pavements, with the cleansing and
the old sense of that term. They had attained a draining of the city, belonged to the aediles, and
higher position than that which they held under the care of the cloacae. They had the office of
the republic. distributing corn among the plebes, which was
The advocatus fisci was an important officer sometimes given gratuitously, sometimes sold at a
established by Hadrianus. (Spart. Hadsan. 60.) cheap rate; but this distribution of corn at Rome
It was his business to look after the interests of must not be confounded with the duty of purchasing
the fiscus or the imperial treasury, and, among or procuring it from foreign parts, which was perother things, to maintain its title to bona ccdscar. formed by the consuls, quaestors, and praetors, and
The various meanings of advocatus in the Middle sometimes by an extraordinary magistrate, as the
Ages are given by Du Cange, Gloss. (Dig. 28. praefectus annonae. The aediles had to see that
tit. 4. s. 3; Hollweg, flandbuch des Civilprozesses, the public lands were not improperly used, and
p. 196.) [G. L.] that the pasture-grounds of the state were not
A'DYTUM. [TEMPLUM.] trespassed on; and they had power to punish by
AEACEIA (adtKceca), a festival of the Aegi- fine any unlawful act in this respect. The fines
netans in honour of Aeacus, the details of which were employed in paving roads, and in other
are not known. The victor in the games which public purposes. They had a general superinwere solemnised on the occasion, consecrated his tendence over buying and selling, and, as a conchaplet in the magnificent temple of Aeacus. sequence, the supervision of the markets, of things
(Schol. ad Pind. 01. vii. 156, xiii. 155; Muller, exposed to sale, such as slaves, and of weights and
Aegineticn, p. 140.) [L. S.] measures: from this part of their duty is derived
AEDES. [DoMus; TEMIPLUM.] the name under which the aediles are mentioned
AEDES VITIO'SAE, RUINO'SAE. [DAM- by the Greek writers (&ayopaPv1oi). It was their
NUM INFECTUM.] business to see that no new deities or religious
AEDI'CULAE, signifies in the singular, aroom, rites were introduced into the city, to look after
but in the plural, a small house. It is, however, the observance of religious ceremonies, and the
more frequently used in the sense of a shrine, at- celebrations of the ancient feasts and festivals.
tached to the walls of temples or houses) in which The general superintendence of police comprethe statue of a deity was placed. The aediculae hended the duty of preserving order, decency, and
attached to houses, sometimes contained the pe- the inspection of the baths, and houses of enternates of the house, but more frequently the tainment, of brothels, and of prostitutes. The
guardian gods of the street in which they were aediles had various officers under them, as praeplaced. (Liv. xxxv. 41; Petron. 29.) cones, scribae, and viatores.
AEDI'LES (&yopavod'lol). The name of these The Aediles Curules, who were also two in
functionaries is said to be derived from their number, were originally chosen only from the pahaving the care of the temple (aedes) of Ceres. tricians, afterwards alternately from the patricians
The aediles were originally two in number, and and the plebes, and at last indifferently from
called aediles plebeii they were elected from the both. (Liv. vii. 1.) The office of culrule aediles
plebes, and the institution of the office dates from was instituted B. C. 36d, and, according to Livy
the same time as that of the tribuni plebis, B. C. on the occasion of the plebeian aediles refusing to
494. Their duties at first seem to have been consent to celebrate the ludi maximi fot the space
merely ministerial; they were the assistants of of four days instead of three; upon which a
the tribunes in such matters as the tribunes en- senatus consultum was passed, by which two
trusted to them, among which are enumerated the aediles were to be chosen from the patricians.
hearing of causes of smaller importance. At an From this time four aedites5 two plebeian and
early period after their institution (B. c. 446), we two curule, were annually elected. (Liv. vi. 42.)
~find them appointed the keepers of the senatus The distinctive honours of the aediles curules
consulta, which the consuls had hitherto arbitrarily were, the sella cutslis, from whence their title is
suppressed or altered. (Liv. iii. 55.) They were derived, the toga praetexta, precedence in speaking
also the keepers of the plebiscita. Other functions in the senate, and the jus imaginum. (Cic.
were gradually entrusted to them, and it is not JVerr. v. 14.) Only the aediles curules had the
always easy to distinguish their duties from some jus edicendi, or the power of promulgating edicta
of those which belong to the censors; nor to dis- (Gaius, i. 6); bult the rules comprised in their
tinguish all the duties of the plebeian and curule edicta served for the guidance of all the aediles.
aediles, after the establishment of the curule The edicta of the curule aediles were founded on
a:dileship. They had the general supnrint:ndence their authority as superintendents of the markets,