Definition: "Aediles [Roman magistrates] were created by the Plebes to assist the Tribunes. Originally they were given judicial power and were likely sacrosanct like the tribunes. The plebeian aediles kept their records and offices in the temple of Ceres on the Aventine. Any sacrosanctity had ended by the Middle Republic. During the political agitation of Licinius and Sextius (376-367 B.C.), which resulted in the Plebes gaining access to the consulship, the patricians counteracted this shift in power with the creation of the offsetting pair of curule aediles and a praetorship. The Plebes countered with the notion that two aediles were enough and the two factions agreed to elect their aediles in alternate years (Particians in odd years). The Plebes almost immediately gained access to the curule aedileships."
REYNOLDSDC
REYNOLDSDC
- An Aedile was a magistrate who looked after the city of Rome, its corn supply, municipal regulations, and games.
- The Concilium Plebis elected plebian aediles, while the Comitia Tributa annually picked curule aediles.
- The office of aedile came between quaestor and praetor in the cursus honorum.
- It was not necessary to become aedile in order to advance to the next step.
Examples:
Each year four aediles were elected. There were 2 curule aediles and 2 plebeian aediles.Although a work of historical fiction, Benita Kane Jaro's 2002 book on Cicero, The Lock, contains a clear explanation of the aedile, why people might want to become aedile, and the other offices of the Cursus Honorum. In more scholarly format, Erich S. Gruen also discusses this magistracy in The Last Generation of the Roman Republic.
