Lustrum

GLOSSARY

aedile an elected official, four of whom were chosen annually to serve a one-year term, responsible for the running of the city of Rome: law and order, public buildings, business regulations, etc auspices supernatural signs, especially flights of birds and lightning-flashes, interpreted by the augurs; if ruled unfavourable no public business could be transacted

Carcer Rome's prison, situated on the boundary of the forum and the Capitol, between the Temple of Concord and the senate house carnifex the state executioner and torturer century the unit in which the Roman people cast their votes on the Field of Mars at election time for consul and praetor; the system was weighted to favour the wealthier classes of society chief priest see pontifex maximus consul the senior magistrate of the Roman republic, two of whom were elected annually, usually in July, to assume office in the following January, taking it in turns to preside over the senate each month comitium the circular area in the forum, approximately 300 feet across, bounded by the senate house and the rostra, traditionally the place where laws were voted on by the people, and where many of the courts had their tribunals curia in its original form, the main assembly of the Roman tribes (of which, prior to 387 BC, there were thirty), consisting of a senior member of each curule chair a backless chair with low arms, often made of ivory, possessed by a magistrate with imperium, particularly consuls and praetors dictator a magistrate given absolute power by the senate over civil and military affairs, usually in a time of national emergency equestrian order the second-most senior order in Roman society after the senate, the 'Order of Knights' had its own officials and privileges, and was entitled to one-third of the places on a jury; often its members were richer than members of the senate, but declined to pursue a public career

Gaul divided into two provinces: Nearer Gaul, extending from the river Rubicon in northern Italy to the Alps, and Further Gaul, the lands beyond the Alps roughly corresponding to the modern French regions of Provence and Languedoc haruspices the religious officials who inspected the entrails after a sacrifice in order to determine whether the omens were good or bad imperator the title granted to a military commander on active service by his soldiers after a victory; it was necessary to be hailed imperator in order to qualify for a triumph imperium the power to command, granted by the state to an individual, usually a consul, praetor or provincial governor legate a deputy or delegate lictor an attendant who carried the fasces – a bundle of birch rods tied together with a strip of red leather – that symbolised a magistrate's imperium; consuls were accompanied by twelve lictors, who served as their bodyguards, praetors by six; the senior lictor, who stood closest to the magistrate, was known as the proximate lictor manumission the emancipation of a slave

Order of Knights see equestrian order pontifex maxiumus the chief priest of the Roman state religion, the head of the fifteen-member College of Priests, entitled to an official residence on the Via Sacra praetor the second most senior magistrate in the Roman republic, eight of whom were elected annually, usually in July, to take office the following January, and who drew lots to determine which of the various courts – treason, embezzlement, corruption, serious crime, etc – they would preside over; see also urban praetor prosecutions as there was no public prosecution system in the Roman republic, all criminal charges, from embezzlement to treason and murder, had to be brought by private individuals public assemblies the supreme authority and legislature of the Roman people was the people themselves, whether constitued by tribe (the comitia tributa, which voted on laws, declared war and peace, and elected the tribunes) or by century (the comitia centuriata, which elected the senior magistrates) quaestor a junior magistrate, twenty of whom were elected each year, and who thereby gained the right of entry to the senate; it was necessary for a candidate for the quaestorship to be over thirty and to show wealth of one million sesterces rostra a long, curved platform in the forum, about twelve feet high, surmounted by heroic statues, from which the Roman people were addressed by magistrates and advocates; its name derived from the beaks (rostra) of captured enemy warships set into its sides senaculum an open space in front of the senate house where it was traditional for senators to assemble before the start of a session senate not the legislative assembly of the Roman republic – laws could only be passed by the people in a tribal assembly – but something closer to its executive, with 600 members who could raise matters of state and order the consul to take action or to draft laws to be placed before the people; once elected via the quaestorship (see quaestor) a man would normally remain a senator for life, unless removed by the censors for immorality or bankruptcy, hence the average age was high (senate derived from senex = old) tribes the Roman people were divided into thirty-five tribes for the purposes of voting on legislation and to elect the tribunes; unlike the system of voting by century, the votes of rich and poor when cast in a tribe had equal weight tribune a representative of the ordinary citizens – the plebeians – ten of whom were elected annually each summer and took office in December, with the power to propose and veto legislation, and to summon assemblies of the people; it was forbidden for anyone other than a plebeian to hold the office triumph an elaborate public celebration of homecoming, granted by the senate to honour a victorious general, to qualify for which it was necessary for him to retain his military imperium – and as it was forbidden to enter Rome whilst still possessing military authority, generals wishing to triumph had to wait outside the city until the senate granted them a triumph urban praetor the head of the justice system, senior of all the praetors, third in rank in the republic after the two consuls