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DECURIO

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 917 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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DECURIO , a See also:

ROMAN

Roman See also:

OFFICIAL (Late Lat. QJicialis, for class. Lat. apparitor, from officium, office, duty)

official See also:

TITLE (0. Fr. title, mod. titre, from Lat. titulus)

title, used in three connexions. (I) A member of the senatorial See also:

order in the See also:

ITALIAN

Italian towns under the See also:

ADMINISTRATION (Lat. administrare, to serve)

administration of See also:

Rome, and later in provincial towns organized on the Italian See also:

MODEL (0. Fr. modelle, mod. modele; It. modello, pattern, mould; from Lat. modus, measure, standard)

model (see See also:

CURIA

CURIA 4). The number of decuriones varied in different towns, but was usually See also:

LOO (formerly called " Lanterloo," Fr. lanturlu, the refrain of a popular 17th-century song)

loo. The qualifications for the See also:

OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")

office were fixed in each See also:

TOWN

town by a See also:

SPECIAL

special See also:

law. for that community (lex municipalis). See also:

CICERO

Cicero (in Verr. 2. 49,120) alludes to an See also:

AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from aetas)

age limit (originally See also:

THIRTY

thirty years, until lowered by See also:

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

Augustus to twenty-five),to a See also:

PROPERTY

property qualification (cf. See also:

Pliny, Ep. i. 19. 2), and to certain conditions of See also:

RANK (O.Fr. rant or rent, mod. rang, generally connected with the O.E. and O.H.G. bring, a ring)

rank. The method of See also:

APPOINTMENT, POWER OF

appointment varied in different towns and at different periods. In the See also:

early municipal constitution ex-magistrates passed automatically into the See also:

SENATE (Lat. senatus, from root sen-, as in senex, old; the root is the Sanskrit sana, cf. Gr. 'vos; the same element appears in senor, seigneur, seneschal)

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 See also:

VOTE

vote of the township. But in most towns it was the See also:

DUTY (from " due," that which is owing, O. Fr. deu, dil, past participle of devoir; Lat. debere, debitum; cf. " debt ")

duty of the See also:

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

chief See also:

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

magistrate to draw up a See also:

list (See also:

ALBUM (Lat. albus, white)

album) of the senators every five years. The decuriones held office for See also:

LIFE

life. They were convened by the magistrate, who presided as in the Roman senate. Their See also:

POWERS, HIRAM (1805-1873)

powers were extensive. In all matters the magistrates were obliged to See also:

ACT (Lat. actus, actum)

act according to their direction, and in some towns they heard cases of See also:

APPEAL

appeal against judicial sentences passed by the magistrate. By the See also:

time of the municipal law of See also:

JULIUS

Julius See also:

Caesar (45 B.C.) 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 See also:

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)

change was largely due to the heavy See also:

FINANCIAL

financial burdens which the Roman See also:

government laid on the municipal senates. (2) The See also:

PRESIDENT (Fr. president, from Lat. praesidens, post-Augustan Lat. for praeses, director, ruler, from praesidere, to sit in front of, preside)

president of a decuria, a subdivision of the curia (q.v.).

(3) An officer in the Roman See also:

CAVALRY (Fr. cavalerie, Ger. Kavallerie or Reiterei, derived ultimately from late Lat. caballus, horse)

cavalry, commanding a See also:

TROOP (an adaptation of Fr. troupe, O. Fr. trope; cf. Ital. troppa, troppa; Med. Lat. truppus; the origin is doubtful; suggestions have been made that it represents a German conception of Latin turba, crowd, or is an adaptation of Norw. tarp, flock)

troop of ten men (decuria).

End of Article: DECURIO

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DECRETALS (Epistolae decretales)

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