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

26 AES EQUESTRE. AES UXORIUM.
bronze was of a light and somew'nat sickly tint. of Livy (l. c.), out ofthe public treasury(expublico);
(See Qaatrembre de Quincy, Juciters OOlypziez; but as Gaius says (/. c.), that the equites had a
Plut. De Pytlh. Orac. 2.) Plutarch says, that in right to distrain for this money likewise, it seems
his time its composition was unknown. For fur- impossible that this account can be correct; for we
ther information on the composition of bronze, see can hardly conceive that a private person had a
L. Savot (Num. Ant. p. ii. c. 17), Falbroni (in the right of distress against a magistrate, that is,
Atti dell' Acad. Ital. vol. i. pp. 203-245, and G't- against the state, or that he could distrain any of
ting. Gel. Anzeig. 1811, No. 87), and Wincklel- the public property of the state. It is more promann (Werke, vol. v.). bable that this money was also paid by the single
No ancient works in brass, properly so called, women and orphans, and that it was against these
have yet been discovered, though it has been af- that the equites had the same right to distrain,
firmed that zinc was found in an analysis made of as they had in the case of the aes hoxrdecariu7.
an antique sword (see Mongez, /ldin. de l'Institut.); The aes snilitare, the amount of which is not
but it appeared in so extremely small a quantity, expressly mentioned, had to be paid by the tsibunzi
that it hardly deserved notice; if it was indeed aer-asii, and if not paid, the foot soldiers had a
present, it may rather be attributed to some acci- right of distress against them. (Cato, cap. Gell.
dent of nature than to design. On the subject of vii. 10; Varr. L. L. v. 181, ed. Miiller; Festus,s. sv.
metals and metallurgy in general, see METALLUs, aerarii tribuni; Gaius, 1. c.) It is generally asand for the use of bronze in works of art see sumed from a passage of the Pseudo-Asconius (in.
STATUARIA. [P. S.] Verr. p. 167, ed. Orelli), that these tribuni aerarii
AES (money, nzumni casnei or aerii). Since were magistrates connected with the treasury, and
the most ancient coins in Rome and the old that they were the assistants of the quaestors;
Italian states, were made of aes, this name was but Madvig (De s'ribuszis Aerariis Disputatio, in
given to money in general, so that Ulpian (Dig. Opusczula, vol. ii. pp. 258-261), has brought for50. tit. 16. s. 159) says, Etiam aurzeos nunzgnos aes ward good reasons for believing that the tribuni
dicimnus. (Compare Hor. Ass PoEt. 345, Ep. i. 7. aerarii were private persons, who were liable to the
23.) For the same reason we have aes clienum, payment of the aes mnilitace, and upon whose pro -
meaning debt, and aera in the plural, pay to the perty a distress might be levied, if the money were
soldiers. (Liv. v. 4; Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 1.) The not paid. He'supposes that they were persons
Romans had no other coinage except bronze or whose property was rated at a certain sum in the
copper (aes), till B. c. 269, five years before the census, and that they obtained the name of tribuni
first Punic war, when silver was first coined; aerai-li, either because they received money from the
gold was not coined till sixty-two years after silver, treasury for the purpose of paying the soldiers, or
(Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 13.) For this reason Argen- because, which is the more probable, they levied
tinus, in the Italian mythology, was made the son the tributum, which was imposed for the purpose
of Aesculanus. (Quiad prius aersea peczenia in usu of paying the army, and then paid it to the soldiers.
esse coepit post argentea. August. De Civ. Dei, The state thus avoided the trouble of collecting the
iv. 21.) Respecting the Roman copper money, see tributum and of keeping minute accounts, for which
As, and respecting the Greek copper money see reason the vectigalia were afterwards farmed, and
CHALCOUS. [P. S.] the foot-soldiers were thus paid in a way similar
AES CIRCUMFORA'NEUM, money bor- to the horse-soldiers. These tribuni aerarii were no
rowed from the Roman bankers (arcentarii), who longer needed when the state took into its own
had shops in porticoes round the forum. (Cic. Ad hands the payment of the troops [ExERCITUS],
Attic. ii. 1.) but they were revived in B. C. 70, as a distinct
AES EQUESTRE, AES HORDEA'RIUM, class in the commonwealth by the Lex Aurelia,
and AES MILITA/RE, were the ancient terms which gave the judicia to the senators, equites and
for the pay of the Roman soldiers, before the regu- tribuni aerarii. [TRIaUNI AERARII.] The opinion
lar stipendium was introduced. The aes equestre of Niebuhr (Hist. of Rone, vol. i. p. 474.), that the
was the sum of money given for the purchase of aes mnilitare was paid by the aerarians [AEaARII]
the horse of an eques; the aes liordearium, the is, it must be recollected, merely a conjecture,
sum of money paid yearly for the keep of the which, however ingenious, is supported by no anhorse of an eques, in other words the pay of an cient authority.
eques; and the aes militare, the pay of a foot It has been well remarked by Niebuhr (Hist.
soldier. (Gaius, iv. 27.) None of this money seems ofRome, vol. ii. p. 442), that the 2000 asses, which
to have been taken from the public treasury, but was the yearly pay of a horseman, give 200 asses
to have been paid by certain private persons, to a month, if divided by 10, and that the monthly
whom this duty was assigned by the state. pay of a foot soldier was 100 asses a month. It
The aes lhordeaszim, which amounted to 2000 must be recollected that a year of ten, and not of
asses, had to be paid by single women (viduae, i. e. twelve months, was used in all calculations of payboth maidens and widows) and orphans (orbi), pro- ments at Rome in very remote times.
vided they possessed a certain amount of property, AES MANUA'RIUM was the money won in
on the principle, as Niebuhr remarks, that in a mili- playing with dice, manibus collectum. 41/canus was
tary state, the women and children ought to con- the throw in the game. All who threw certain
tribute for those who fight in behalf of them and numbers, were obliged to put down a piece of
the commonwealth; it being borne in mind, that money; and whoever threw the Venus (the highest
they were not included in the census. (Liv. i. 43; throw) ion the whole sum, which was called the
Cic. de Rep. ii. 20.) The equites had a right to aes'zcmsnuar-isnt. (Gell. xvii. 13; Suet. Aug. 71.)
distrain (piqnoris cacpio) if the aes liorclear-iuzm was AES ITXO'RIUM, a tax paid by men who
not paid. (Gaius, 1. c.) reached old age without having married. It was
The aes equest'e, which amounted to 10,000 first imposed by the censors, M. Furius Camillus
assess, was to be given, according to the statement andl M. Postumius, in B.. 403, but we do nsot