|
The Vigintisexviri (sing. vigintisexvir) were a college (collegium) of minor magistrates
(magistratus minores) in the Roman Republic; the name
literally means "Twenty-Six Men". Its membership consisted of the triumviri capitales, the triumviri monetales,
the quatuorviri viarum curandarum (for roads within the city), the two curatores viarum (for roads without the
city), the decemviri stlitibus iudicandis, and the four
praefecti sent to Campania to administer justice there. During the Principate, Caesar Augustus abolished the two
curators of roads and the four Campanian prefects, thereby changing the vigintisexviri into the vigintiviri
("Twenty Men").
In the Republic, the Vigintisexvirate had served as a stepping stone for the sons of senators to begin their own public careers the cursus honorum; Julius Caesar had served as
curator viarum and restored parts of the Via Appia. In AD 13, however, the Senate passed a senatus consultum restricting the reduced
Vigintivirate to the Ordo Equester.
|