Prominent amongst the minor magistrates (minores magistratus)[1139]stands a group known finally, and perhaps in Republicantimes, as theviginti-sex-viri.[1140]This group was merely a collection of small colleges and not itself acollegium. It is probable that most of its members were originally nominated by superior magistrates; in later times they were all elected in thecomitia tributa, although doubtless a separate elective act was required for each college.
(a) TheIIIviri capitales, sometimes called by the less technical name ofIIIviri nocturni, probably from their duty of extinguishing fires, were introduced as a standing institution about the year 289B.C.[1141]Their general function was that of assistance to the other magistrates in criminal jurisdiction. After the judgment had been pronounced, they guarded the prisoners and carried out the death sentence.[1142]Their duties preliminary to a criminal trial were the preventive imprisonment of the accused and the conduct of a first examination after a criminal charge had been made.[1143]They also heard ordinary police-court charges, such as those of vagrancy or nocturnal disturbance of the peace,[1144]and they exercised police duties in the town, such as that of preserving order in the streets.[1145]When acting as magistrates who could give a final judgment, their dealings seem to have been with slaves and foreigners. There is no evidence that they possessed any right of sentencing citizens or any higher jurisdiction which would bring them into contact with the people.
(b) The triumvirate of the masters of the mint (IIIviri monetales),[1146]originally an occasional, first becomes a standing office about the time of the social war.[1147]
(c) Six sanitary commissioners, acting probably as subordinates to the aediles and bearing the titlesIVviri viis in urbe purgandis(orviarum curandarum),IIviri viis extra propiusve urbem Romam passus mille purgandis, are first mentioned in Caesar’s Municipal Law (45B.C.). The first looked to the cleansing of the streets within Rome, the second perhaps of those within the radius of a mile from the walls.[1148]
(d) TheXviri stlitibus judicandishave a strange history; for, from being simplejudices, they become minor magistrates of the people. They are doubtless the decemvirs who were rendered sacrosanct by the Valerio-Horatian laws of 449B.C.,[1149]the reason for this protection being that they were the jurors who decided in cases of freedom, that ultimate plebeian right which, as the story of Verginia shows, might sometimes be assailed. By Cicero’s time they are still judges inliberales causae, but they have risen to the rank of independent magistrates.[1150]
(e) TheIIIIviri praefecti Capuam Cumas[1151]were the elected delegates who represented the jurisdiction of the praetor in themunicipiaand colonies of the Campanian district. Their functions may be more appropriately discussed when we are dealing with the organisation of Italy.
Certain judicial and military posts were also filled by popular election. The paucity of criminal judges at Rome after the institution of thequaestiones perpetuae[1152]led to the appointment of an annual president of the chief court which tried ordinary crimes—that, namely, which dealt with murder and kindred offences (quaestio de sicariis). The magisterial position of thesejudices quaestionisis shown both by the fixed qualification—it is generally, perhaps always, an ex-aedile that is appointed[1153]—and by the fact that, like the magistrate who takes the oathin leges,[1154]thesejudicesswear to observe the special law which they are administering.[1155]They were probably elected by the people in thecomitia tributa.[1156]
Subordinate military posts were also in the people’s gift, and we have already noticed how the tribunate of the legions became in part a quasi-magistracy.[1157]In the year 311B.C.the appointment of consular delegates for the command and maintenance of the fleet was also entrusted to the tribes.[1158]TheseIIviri navaleswere not annual officials, but, in obedience to the occasional character of the Roman fleet, came into existence when a war required its creation. The office seems to have become extinct by the second centuryB.C.
More occasional still was the creation by thecomitia tributa, in later times occasionally by theconcilium plebis,[1159]of minor magistrates with extraordinary functions. Such were the officials for conducting a colony (coloniae deducendae) for the assignment of land (agris dandis assignandis), or for the dedication of a temple (aedi dedicandae). To this category belong the occasionalcuratoresfor the corn-supply and the roads (annonae,viarum).