Vigintisexviri
Encyclopedia
The Vigintisexviri was a college (collegium
Collegium (ancient Rome)
In Ancient Rome, a collegium was any association with a legal personality. Such associations had various functions.-Functioning:...

) of minor magistrates (magistratus minores) in the Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

; the name literally means "Twenty-Six Men". The college consisted of six boards:
  • decemviri stlitibus iudicandis - 10 magistrates who judged lawsuits, including those dealing with whether a man was free or a slave;
  • the tresviri capitales, also known as nocturni - three magistrates who had a police function in Rome, in charge of prisons and the execution of criminals;
  • the tresviri aere argento auro flando feriundo, also known as tresviri monetalis - three magistrates who were in charge of striking and casting bronze, silver and gold (minting coins);
  • the quattuorviri viis in urbe purgandis, also known as quattorviri viarum curandarum - four magistrates overseeing road maintenance within the city of Rome;
  • the duoviri viis extra urbem purgandis, also known as duoviri curatores viarum - two magistrates overseeing road maintenance near Rome;
  • the four praefecti Capuam Cumas - praefecti sent to Capua
    Capua
    Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...

     and Cumae
    Cumae
    Cumae is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy , and the seat of the Cumaean Sibyl...

     in Campania to administer justice there.

The singular of tresviri is triumvir; triumviri is also sometimes used for the plural but is considered to be less correct.

In the Republic, the Vigintisexvirate had served as a stepping stone for the sons of senators to begin their own public careers in the cursus honorum; Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 had served as curator viarum and restored parts of the Via Appia. In AD 13, however, the Senate passed a senatus consultum
Senatus consultum
A senatus consultum is a text emanating from the senate in Ancient Rome. It is used in the modern phrase senatus consultum ultimum...

restricting the reduced Vigintivirate to the Equestrians
Equestrian (Roman)
The Roman equestrian order constituted the lower of the two aristocratic classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the patricians , a hereditary caste that monopolised political power during the regal era and during the early Republic . A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques...

.

During the Principate, Caesar Augustus abolished the duoviri viis extra urbem purgandis and the four praefecti Capuan Cumas, thereby changing the vigintisexviri into the vigintiviri ("Twenty Men").

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