DECURIO

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 917 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: DAH-DEM

DECURIO , a Roman official title, used in three connexions. (I) A member of the senatorial order in the Italian towns under the administration of Rome, and later in provincial towns organized on the Italian model (see CURIA 4). The number of decuriones varied in different towns, but was usually loo. The qualifications for the office were fixed in each town by a

special

SPECIAL

law. for that community (lex municipalis). Cicero (in Verr. 2. 49,120) alludes to an age limit (originally thirty years, until lowered by

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

to twenty-five),to a property qualification (cf. Pliny, Ep. i. 19. 2), and to certain conditions of rank. The method of appointment varied in different towns and at different periods. In the early municipal constitution ex-magistrates passed automatically into the senate of their town; but at a later date this order was reversed, and membership of the senate became a qualification for the magistracy. Cicero (l.c.) speaks of the senate in the Sicilian towns as appointed by a vote of the township. But in most towns it was the duty of the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

magistrate

MAGISTRATE (Lat. magistratus, from magister, master, properly a public office, hence the person holding such an office)

to draw up a

list

LIST (O.E.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. lust, Ger. Leiste, adapted in Ital. lista and Fr.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
)
FRIEDRICH
- FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )
_1789_1846_.html">LIST,
FRIEDRICH
- FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )
(1789-1846)

(album) of the senators every five years. The decuriones held office for life. They were convened by the

magistrate

MAGISTRATE (Lat. magistratus, from magister, master, properly a public office, hence the person holding such an office)

, who presided as in the Roman senate. Their powers were extensive. In all matters the magistrates were obliged to act according to their direction, and in some towns they heard cases of appeal against judicial sentences passed by the magistrate. By the time of the municipal law of

Julius

JULIUS

Caesar (45 B.C.)

special

SPECIAL

privileges were conferred on the decuriones, including the right to appeal to Rome for trial in criminal cases. Under the principate their status underwent a marked decline. The office was no longer coveted, and documents of the 3rd and 4th centuries show that means were devised to compel members of the towns to undertake it. By the time of the jurists it had become hereditary and compulsory. This

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

was largely due to the heavy

financial

FINANCIAL

burdens which the Roman government laid on the municipal senates. (2) The president of a decuria, a subdivision of the curia (q.v.). (3) An officer in the Roman cavalry, commanding a troop of ten men (decuria).

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