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

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epistles (viii. 47), draws an illustration from this and already detailed under CASTRA, and to the
source "tamquam levis armaturae miles Rorarios general superintendence which they must have
aemularis." exercised, we perceive that they nominated the
The Velites, called also Procubitores, because centurions, and assigned to each the company
they were employed on outpost duty when the which he was to command. They presided also at
Romans were encamped before an enemy (Festus, courts-martial, and had the power of awarding the
s. v.), were first formed into a corps at the siege of highest punishments.
Capua, B. c. 211, as we are informed by Livy Up to the year B. c. 361, the tribunes were
(xxvi. 4, comp. xxxviii. 21, and Val. Max. ii. 3; chosen by the commanders-in-chief, that is, by the
Frontin. iv. 7), who gives a minute description of kings in the first instance, and afterwards by tha
the circumstances which led to their institution, consuls, or a dictator, as the case might be. In
and of the manner in which they were armed. the year above named the people assumed to them.,
It is true that the historian uses the term Velites selves the right of electing either the whole or a
before the epoch in question (e. g. xxi. 56, xxiv. certain number, it is impossible to say which (Liv.
34); and Polybius, in like manner, speaks of vii. 5), but they seem to have allowed matters to'yporp(opdcioL from the time of the first Punic war; return to a great extent to their former state until
but these expressions must be understood to in- B. C. 311, when it was ordained that they should
dicate the light-armed troops as they then existed, choose sixteen for the four legions (Liv. ix. 30);
and which, after the name Rorarii fell into disuse, but whether this embraced a whole or a part only,
were styled jaculdtores or 7re~a'tovTiOrTai. We is a point upon which we are again left in doubt.
must not conclude from the narrative of Livy, that From this time forward, in virtue of the rogation
it was customary for the Velites to mount behind then passed, the people continued to elect the
the cavalry; on the contrary, the above passage is, whole, or, at all events, the greater number until
perhaps, the only one in which they are represented B. C. 207, when the consuls, Claudius Nero and
as employed in this manner, although, in later Livius Salinator, appointed the tribunes to nineteen
times, it was by no means uncommon for light- out of the twenty-three legions of that year, the
armed troops to mingle with the horsemen, to keep people taking to themselves the nomination to the
pace with them, and to support them in their first four only (Liv. xxvii. 36). When war was
operations (Caesar, B. G. i. 48, viii. 19, B.C. iii. declared against Perseus B. c. 171, a special act
84; Sall. Jug. 91). was passed that the military tribunes for that year
The foreign light-armed troops will be noticed should not be elected by the votes of the people,
under the next epoch. but should be nominated by the consuls and
praetors (Liv. xlii. 31.); the same arrangement'The Oicers oft/se Legion. probably was adopted the following year, for it is
Tribuni.- The chief officers of the legion were particularly mentioned that in the third year of
the Tribuni Militum, rendered by the Greeks the war (B. c. 169), the people named the tribunes
x'AlapXmo. Tribunus is, unquestionably, derived of four legions, which were kept in reserve (Liv.
from tribus; and, according to Varro (L. L. v, xliii. 12); and, finally, in the fourth and last year
~ 81), in ancient times three were sent to the of the war (B.c. 168), the senate resolved that
army, - one from the Ramnes; one from the the tribunes for the eight legions should be named
Luceres; one from the Tities, - who would then one half by the people and one half by the consuls,
be the commanders of the original legion of 3000. Aemilius Paulus being allowed to select out of the
In the time of Polybius, the number in each legion whole body those whom he considered best fitted
was six; but when and under what circumstances for serving in the two legions which he was about
this increase took place, is unknown. Two pas- to transport into Macedonia. Polybius (vi. 19)
sages from Livy (vii. 5, ix. 30), to be more par- refers incidentally to the fact that sqme of the
ticularly adverted to hereafter, by which Sigonius tribunes were chosen by the people, and some by
endeavoured to throw light upon the question, the consuls, but without specifying the proportions.
admit of an interpretation totally different from and this division of patronage probably subsisted
that which he has assigned to them, and they so long as the forms of the constitution were mainleave the matter altogether in doubt. After the tained, for even under Augustus the people renumber six was once established, it does not tained some power, nominally at least, in the
appear to have varied for manly centuries, nor do military elections; but from the reign of Tiberius
we know what changes were introduced, in this these offices were held to be in the gift of the
respect, during the decline of the empire. The prince exclusively. It is clear that in the later
case in Livy (xlii. 35), where four military tri- ages of the republic the nomination of tribunes,
bunes are represented to have been chosen from not elected by the people, was vested not in tha
the senate to command four legions, supposing the consuls alone but in proconsuls also, and generally
text to be faultless, is manifestly quite special. in those who held the chief command in an army.
It must be understood that the authority of Thus Cicero, when in Cilicia, offered, at the reeach tribune was not confined to a particular portion quest of Brutus, a tribuneship to Scaptius (Cic. ad
of the legion, but extended equally over the whole. Att. vi. 3); and the orator, at another time, gives
In order, however, to prevent confusion and colli- a hint to Caesar, when in Gaul, that he might
sion, it was the practice (Polyb. vi.) for the bestow a tribuneship, or some such office, on Tretribunes to divide themselves into three sections of batius (Cic. ad Fasn. vii. 5); while Caesar himself
two, and each pair undertook the routine functions found, to his cost, that he had attended too much
for two months out of the six, during which active to the claims of friendship in granting these apoperations in the field usually lasted. (Comp. pointments. (Caes. B. G. i. 39.) Those tribunes
Liv. xl. 41, "Secundae legionis Fulvius tribunus elected by the votes of the people were termed
militum erat, is mensibus suis dimisit legionem.") Comitiati, those chosen by the general Rufuli; beIn addition to the duties specified by Polybius, cause, says Festus, their privileges were fixed by
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