be lawfull for any to kill him And lest afterwards the people should abrogate this Law they made all the Citizens take the most solemn Oath that could be devised both for themselves and posterity to preserve it for ever inviolable as (k) Lib. 6. Dionysius writeth who hath also exemplified the Law it self To this (l) Pro Sext. Cicero addeth that they were not onely by sacred Laws fortified against Force and Arms but against words also and interruption of speech 41. But as their power of Interposing was most powerfull against Consuls and Senate The ballance to their power so also against themselves the dissent of one man being sufficient to hinder whatever all his Collegues designed This appeareth to have been the onely constant effectual means for moderation of that power which afterwards they assumed when the Patritians could prevail with one of the College to interpose By that awe which their Sacrosanct Magistracy struck into all men improved through their prompt boldnesse very common in men of meanest condition they took advantage to inlarge their bounds * Lib. 2. cap. 2. Exemp 7. Valerius Maximus writeth that at first it was not lawfull for them to enter into the Senate but they had seats placed before the door where examining the Decrees of the Fathers such of them as they suffered to passe they signed with the letter T. But nothing in Dionysius is more common than their speaking in the Senate and their contentions with the Members thereof in that very place at the very time and that in the infancy of their Office However these fellows at first presumed not to Tyrannise and disturb all as afterwards they did they presumed not at first to assemble the Senate which afterward they did in the 277 year of the Citie in processe of time to dismisse it also when called by another Within a small time they assembled the people preferred Laws The extravagancy of their power executed their sawcy Decrees against the Magistrates themselves commanding the Consuls to be carried to prison especially after the enacting of the Hortensian Law whereby the Plebiscita obliged the whole Roman people for that they were the chief Officers of the Commons 42. Great were the Seditions and Tumults which turbulent spirits backed with such liberty stirred up so as notwithstanding their first end was to preserve right Lucan rightly termeth them Turbantes jura Sylla was the first that bridled their extravagancy by depriving them of liberty to prefer Laws to make Orations and obtain any Office of Magistracy but after his death Aurelius Cotta by a new Law restored the later privilege to them and all the rest they recovered when Pompey and M. Crassus were Consuls Their power thus recovered they kept till the Emperours swallowed it up themselves and left them little more than a name which continued till the time of Constantine As for the Ensigns of their Office they wore not the Praetexta had no Lictors or Sargeants neither used they a Curule Chair onely a sort of Beadle called Viator went before them For want of these Ceremonies as because they entred not at the beginning of the year and laid not down their Office upon the Creation of a Dictator which others did Plutarch writeth that some held them to be no Magistrates but rather a curb and restraint to such Several other sorts of Tribunes Lastly besides these Tribunes and the Tribuni Celerum formerly mentioned there were afterwards many other sorts as Tribuni Militum and Tribuni Aerarii during the Commonwealth under the Emperours are found Tribunus Voluptatum Tribunus Matrimoniorum Tribunus Chartariorum Tribunus Provinciarum Tribunus Fori and Tribunus Scholarum concerning which Cassiodorus in his Epistles and Lissius in his Commentary of the Magistrates of old Rome are to be consulted 43. The Commons having got from the Senate a confirmation of the Office of Tribunes obtained further that they might yearly chuse out of their own body two to be as Ministers to these Officers to Judge certain causes referred to them from the Tribunes take care of publick buildings and provisions These were first called the Ministers and Assistants of the Tribunes The Aediles created but afterward saith Dionysius from one of their Duties had the name of Aediles Many things of great consequence were committed to their trust being very much like to the Agoranomi amongst the Greeks Festus acknowledging that in the beginning Aediles was a Magistrate who took care both of publick and private buildings yet saith he was so called quòd facilis ad eum plebis aditus esset Truer is the derivation which Varro giveth agreeable to that of Dionysius that they were named Aediles from Aedes the buildings of which they took care or those particularly wherein the Plebiscita were kept of which they had the over-sight This later Etymology is rendred by Pomponius who in his second book of the Original of Law describing the several Offices of Magistracy maketh the end of the constitution of the Aediles to have been that they might take care of that house where the Decrees of the people were laid up Whence soever the word was derived it came out of Latium being a name of certain Magistrates in the Latine Towns as was also Dictator and Duumvir as some observe out of Spartianus To these Aediles Plebis who were instituted in the 271 year of the Citie at the same time with the Tribunes were added two more out of the Patritian order 117 years after called for distinction Aediles Curules because they used the Curule Chair whereas the other onely sate on Benches as the Tribunes and Quaestors The occasion of creating those shall be shewn in its place the end was onely then for celebrating of Games 44. This number continued till the time of C. Julius Caesar who in the 710 year of the Citie added two more whom he would have created also out of the Patritians They were called (a) Diod. lib. 43. Cereales from Ceres being appointed to take care of and make provision for Corn. This number of six thus distinguished continued till the time of Constantine as is probably conjectured and were as most other Offices of Magistracy taken away by him The Aediles Their Office saith (b) 3. de Legibus Cicero are the Curators of the Citie of provisions and of solemn Games Of the Citie because they looked to publick works and Temples made provision against fires which Augustus seemeth to have charged upon them saith Lipsius had inspection over Funerals and such like Rites of smaller moment over Marriages and Adulteries Baths Aqueducts Sinks and Streets both for repairing and cleansing of them Of Provisions for that they had the over-sight of all things to be sold men and other creatures determining judging and censuring by their words and edicts Of solemn Games and onely solemn not votive and private ones as the Ludi Florales Circenses Megalenses Romani c. Sometimes at
three moneths after the foundation was laid The number of the Colony 2. The number of the Colony amounted scarce to 300 horsmen and 3000 foot Dionys lib. 2. Livius lib. 1. wherewith Romulus which some make but the diminutive of Romus his true name planted this new Citie called Rome after himself To increase the number of his Citizens he opened a Sanctuary to all malefactors and discontented persons which then resorted to him in great numbers from the Countreys adjoyning Setting about the frame of the Commonwealth by his Grandfathers advice he remitted it to the choice of the people what kind of Government they would have whereby obtaining the Kingdom in way of gift his power became the more plausible He divided the people into three Tribes The division and distinction of Citizens every Tribe into ten Curiae and every Curia into ten parts or Decuriae over all which he appointed Officers According to the number of the Curiae he divided the grounds into thirty parts onely excepting one portion for publick use and another for superstitious Ceremonies He made a distinction of his people according to honour and dignity giving to the better sort the name of Patres either for that they were elder had Children for the Nobility of their stock or if detractors may be heard he therefore named these Patricii because they alone could shew their fathers the other multitude being a rable of fugitives that had no free and ingenuous parentage wherefore when an Assembly of the people was called by the King the Patricians were by a Cryer cited by their own and fathers name but the inferiour sort or Plebeians were gathered together by the sound of Ox horns Having distinguished his subjects into these two ranks he ordered what each should do The Patritii were to take care of superstition bear Offices of Magistracy administer Justice and Govern the Commonwealth together with the King The Plebeians till the fields feed Cattel and exercise trades lest by their medling in the Government and by mutual contention of the poorer and richer sort such seditions might arise as were too visible in other Commonwealths 3. To bind each to the other he commended to the Patricians certain of the Plebeians Patrons and Clients whom they should protect and countenance liberty being given to the common sort to make choice of whom they would for their Patrons This custome of Patron and Client was very ancient in Greece Dionysius especially amongst the Thessalians and Athenians where yet the Clients were very imperiously used their Patrons imposing on them services ill beseeming freemen and beating them like slaves if they disobeyed their commands The Athenians called them Thetae for their service and the Thessalians Penestae upbraiding them with their fortune But Romulus refined the use of Patronage rendring it profitable unto both Patrons by him were ordered to advise their Clients concerning Law of which they were ignorant and take care of them as well absent as present as their own children in what concerned mony and contracts undertaking sutes for them when oppressed and procuring them quiet both as to publick and private businesse On the other hand it was the duty of Clients to help their Patrons with money in the marriage of their daughters if need should be and redeem them or their sons if taken captive to bear the charges of private sutes or publick fines and that at their own cost in way of gratitude to assist them with their purses in defraying the charge of Magistracy or honourable employments This was common to both that neither ought to accuse the other to give any testimony or suffrage or to be reckoned amongst his Enemies which if any one did he was held guilty of treason by Romulus his Law and it was lawful for any one to kill him Hereby for many Ages this Patronage continued in force and was as effectual for love and mutual help as consanguinity or alliance it was the glory of the Nobility to have many Clients devolved upon them from their Ancestors and obtained by their own virtue But not onely the Plebeians in the City found themselves secured by this Patronage but in processe of time all Colonies associate Cities and such as were subdued by war had their Patrons to whom many times the Senate would remit such controversies as were brought before it from the said Cities or Common-wealths and ratifie their judgement Lastly such firm concord followed this constitution of Romulus that for 730 years as Dionysius reckoneth though many and great contests arose betwixt the Nobility and Commons about the Commonwealth as is usual in all both great and little States yet it never came to blood or slaughter but mutually yielding and granting all controversies were composed by civil expostulations till Caius Grachus Tribune of the people overthrew the peace of the City after which they neither spared to kill and banish one another nor to commit any other wickednesse whereby they might compasse Victory and their own devices 4. After this Romulus resolved to chuse a Senate which should assist him in the Government and from amongst the Patricians selected 100 after this manner Out of them all he first made choice of one particular man to whom Idem when he was constrained to be absent in the wars he committed the Government of the City Then he commanded every Tribe to chuse three men such as were eminent for birth and wisdom The Senate and every Curia to elect three out of the Patricians This number he called a Senate either for their age or virtue or because as Festus will have it nothing was done without their permission the Senate being named a Sinendo Perceiving after this that he stood in need of a Guard for his own person he caused the Curiae by their suffrages Celeres to chuse him out 300 young men ten out of each whom he called Celeres from their readinesse to execute his commands as most have written or according to Valerius Antias from their Captain whose name was Celer Under him were three Centurions and other inferiour Officers this Company with their Spears defended the King in the City and received his orders in battels were the first leaders and the keepers of his body beginning the fight first and retreating last of all which custom Dionysius thinketh Romulus to have taken from the Lacedaemonians Things being thus appointed The Office of King he limited unto all their work and honours The King's duty was to take care of their superstition to look to the preservation of the Laws and Customs either natural or written to decide the most weighty causes betwixt man and man and refer those of lesser consequence to the Senate into which he was also to have an inspection He was to call together the Senate assemble the people first to speak his opinion and ratifie what was approved by the major part This was the King's work at home who in
contended not Cleareth himself but that very night sent for Carpenters who demolished the house ere morning the next day the People were presented with a new and unexpected sight which fully altered their opinion concerning Valerius who now wanting an house of his own was glad to accept of the courtesie of friends till the People gave him a place wherein he built a mansion lesse stately than the former Further that he might render not onely himself but also his Office in stead of terrible familiar and acceptable to all he removed Axes from the bundle of Rods and the Rods themselves vvhen he came into the Assembly he bowed or vailed to the People thereby intimating that in them lay the chief power which custom his Successors followed Hereby as to his own person he lesned not himself but cut off envy and got so much power as he renounced of liberty the People willingly submitting to him because he flattered them out of which respect they gave him the Sirname of Poplicola not Publicola as Sigonius hath evinced He gave free leave to any to sue for the Consulship but before a Colleague should be joyned with him being ignorant what might happen and fearing he might either through emulation or ignorance crosse his designs by his sole authority he gave birth to several Popular Constitutions which at length produced such effects as shewed the excellency of that Government which he had helped to destroy 11. First he filled up the Senate which had been exhausted by an addition of 164 Persons as some delivered the number Then made he several Laws His constitutions which gave beginning to that paramount or rampant liberty whereof the People was afterwards possessed By one he gave leave to an accused person to appeal from the Consuls to the People By another he made it death for any one to take upon him an Office of Magistracy without the People's order A third gave relief to poor Citizens by taking away the payment of Tribute Another punished disobedience towards the Consuls and appointed the mulct to be the price of five Oxen and two Sheep the price of a Sheep was ten Oboli each Obolus was worth 1 d. q. and 100 the value of an Oxe For at that time the use of money was but rare amongst the Romans wealth consisting in plenty of Cattel whence riches were afterwards called Peculia from Pecus and upon the antient money an Oxe Sheep or Hog was stamped which gave it the name of Pecunia and hence they imposed upon their sons as Plutarch observeth the names of Suillii Bubulci Caprarii and Porcii Another Law Valerius made which gave power to any man to kill him unheard that affected the Supreme power if he could demonstrate the crime The last was a Law for the creation of two Quaestors or publick Treasurers as Plutarch writeth For it being necessary that the People should contribute money for maintenance of Wars he would neither undertake the keeping of it himself nor commit the care of it to his friends neither thought it convenient that the Publick money should be kept in a private house therefore he made the Temple of Saturn the Aerarium or Treasury and caused the People to chuse out two young men to be Quaestors The Quaestors The first were P. Veturius and M. Minucius A great quantity of money was now brought into the Aerarium For at the Census 130000 were cessed or valued besides Widdows and Orphans Thus much Plutarch delivereth concerning this Office 12. But some give a more antient beginning to the Quaestors making theirs antienter than any Office except that of the Kings (a) Lib. de Potestatibus Gracchanus a Lawyer wrote When first made that both Romulus and Numa had their Quaestors created by the consent of the People however he saith it is certain that Tullus Hostilius had his (b) Lib. de officio Quaestoris Ulpian confirmeth the later and (c) Annal. l. 16. 11. Tacitus seemeth to agree with either of them affirming that under the Kings there were Quaestors which the Lex curiata sheweth that was renewed by L. Brutus He addeth that the Consuls had power to chuse them till the People took that honour to it self and first of all created Valerius Potitus and Aemilius Mamercus that they might follow the Army in the 63 year after the banishment of Tarquinius Lipsius thinketh this number should be read 23 that it might agree with (d) Lib. 8. Dionysius and also (e) Lib. 3. Livie who first mentioneth the Quaestors in the 269 year of the City 23 years after the banishment of the King and differeth onely in one of their names having for Aemilius Caeso Fabius Concerning the antiquity of these Officers (f) Lib. 2. ff de Orig. Juris Pomponius also the Lawyer agreeth with the rest They had their name à quaerendo saith (g) De Lingua Latin lib. 4. pag. 22. ex Edit Joseph Scalig. Varro because they made inquiry after publick money and also Malefactors or the actions of such which later employment was afterwards committed to the Triumviri for capital matters so that Quaestor is written as for Quaesitor Justus Lipsius is of opinion that though the Kings might have these Officers for the punishment of vice yet the Treasurers were not created till the change of the Government when the Publick Treasure being increased there was need of such At the beginning they were but two by consent of all Their number and those were made for the City retaining afterwards the name of Urbani But afterward when they were to look to the paying of the Armies abroad and selling plunder and booty then were there other two made to accompany the Consuls as Livie saith which hapned about the 232 year of the City 13. This number long continued until all Italy was brought in then was it again doubled no fewer than eight being thought to suffice for the Tributes of the Provinces and this hapned when Silver money was first coined about the 439 year of the City as may be gathered from the Epitome of Livie's 15 Book Not long after Sylla procured by a Law that twenty should be made for the assistance of the Senate as Tacitus writeth to which he had delivered the judicial power and for such an end did Caesar cause fourty to be created The Quaestorship was the first step to Offices of Magistracy Their duty as is clear from several Authors was to gather lay up and pay out the publick revenues Their duty to keep the military Ensignes of Gold and Silver for they then used no banners in the Treasury to sell plunder and booty receive lodge and carry out Ambassadors They had also the government of certain places as Ostia and Cales They received from Augustus the privilege of keeping the Senatus consulta which formerly belonged to the Aediles and Tribunes And the Emperours had a certain Quaestor of their own called Candidatus