AEDILES. Officials ranking above quaestors and below praetors (q.v.), concerned with the care of the city of Rome, its corn-supply, and its Games.
ASSEMBLY. An Assembly of the Roman people, i.e. citizens summoned in groups (centuries or tribes, q.v.) by a senior official. The Assembly enacted laws, elected officials, and declared war and peace.
AUGURS. The official Roman diviners, one of the four Orders of Priesthood. They took the auspices (q.v.) at the request of a magistrate (q.v.).
AUSPICES. Certain types of divination – particularly from birds -officially practised at elections, inaugurations of office and entrance into a province, as well as in the conduct of wars.
CENSORS. Officials appointed every five (earlier every four) years to draw up and maintain the list of citizens (census) and revise the list of Senators.
CENTURIES. The units of one hundred men by which voting was organized in the Assembly (q.v.) for some of its most important business, notably the election of the principal magistrates (q.v.).
CHIEF PRIEST. Head of the Pontifices, one of the four Orders of Priesthood; and head of the whole state clergy.
CONSULARS. The ex-consuls, traditionally an inner ring of the Senate.
CONSULS. The supreme civil and military officials (magistrates) of Republican Rome, two in number, holding office for one year, and giving their names to that year.
DICTATOR. Originally a temporary, extraordinary, supreme office for an emergency, restricted to six months. Sulla retained the power for two years, and Caesar, after three renewals, assumed it permanently at the end of his life.
FORUM. The chief public square, surrounded by important temples and halls.
GOVERNORS of provinces, usually ex-consuls or ex-praetors (q.v.), were normally sent to them for one year, but their tenures could be renewed.
IMPERATOR. A genetic title for Roman commanders, became a special tide of honour by which they were saluted by their soldiers after a victory.
JUDGES. The permanent criminal courts for trying specific offences (mostly directed against the state) were composed of thirty or more judges (or jury-men) under the presidency of a praetor (q.v.). C. Gracchus (123–122 B.C.) had admitted knights (q.v.) to their membership, Sulla restored the Senate’s monopoly of this, and L. Cotta (70 B.C.) divided it among both Orders and a third less wealthy than either.
KINGS. Traditionally the earliest rulers of Rome. The last, the autocratic Tarquinius Superbus, was believed to have been expelled in 510 B.C.
KNIGHTS. A powerful Order with financial interests (minimum property qualification 400,000 sesterces) outside the Senate and at this period often conflicting with it.
LEGATE. A Senator, often of high rank, on the staff of a governor or general. Caesar employed them to command legions.
MAGISTRATES. The leading civil and military officials of the state.
MASTER OF THE HORSE. An official nominated by a dictator (q.v.) to represent him either on the field of battle or at Rome.
PATRON. A ‘client’ was a free man who had entrusted himself to the care of a’ patron’ and received protection in return – a traditional institution supported by the law. By an extension of this custom, important Romans became patrons of whole communities in Italy and the provinces.
PRAETORS. The state officials next in importance to the consuls, largely concerned with the administration of justice. Prom one in the fourth century B.C. (the city praetor) their number was gradually raised to the Sullan figure of eight.
QUAESTORS. The lowest office of state in the Senator’s official career: the quaestors, twenty in number since Sulla, were young men (often concerned with finance) who stood almost in a filial relationship to the consuls or governors with whom they served. They were appointed to provinces by lot.
SENATE. The chief Council of the state, its numbers raised to 600 by Sulla and 900 by Caesar. Sulla made admission depend mainly on tenure of the quaestorship (q.v.). Technically an advisory body, but with great traditional influence over the executive Assembly (q.v.).
SESTERCE (sestertius). A unit of currency, containing four asses. At this time, however, neither sesterce (earlier a tiny silver coin) nor as (originally a bronze piece declining in size from 1 Roman lb. to J oz. in 89–86 B.C.) was issued, the principal coin being the silver denarius of 16 asses and 4 sesterces.
TREASURY. The main state Treasury was in the Temple of Saturn below the Capitol, and was controlled by quaestors (q.v.).
TRIBE. All Roman citizens were registered in one of the thirty-five territorial tribes (four urban and the rest ‘rustic’), which were the units for voting on certain matters in the Assembly (e.g. in the election of tribunes and one sort of aedile), and for census, taxation, and the military levy. The tribes also elected to the augurship one of two persons nominated by the augurs (q.v.).
TRIBUNES OF THE PEOPLE possessed ancient revered ‘democratic’ powers entitling them to ‘protect the people’ by intercession and veto. The Gracchi revived these long obsolete powers, Sulla again abolished them but they reappeared in the years 70–49 B.C.
TRIUMPH. The processional return of a victorious Roman general, when he sacrificed to Jupiter on the Capitol. Triumphs were awarded by the Senate.
TRIUMVIRS. The informal, autocratic First Triumvirate was formed by Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus in 60–59 B.C., and the formal Second Triumvirate, with dictatorial powers, by Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus in 43 B.C.