The Aedileship in the Roman Republic

The search for origins of the republican aedileship presents a difficult task. At first sight the story about foundation and evolution of this magistracy lies in ancient sources. On the closer look it may be discerned, that the same sources have their own present intentions. They search for a tradition in oral based history to legitimise the current status of the aedileship and present it in historical context. Yet another question raises ambiguity. The twin character of the magistracy blurs our perceptions and makes it challenging to distinguish whether plebeian and curule aedileships are evolving intertwined or apart of each other. Nevertheless, delving upon the wide variety of ancient sources it is still possible to reconstruct the basic functions and duties of the aediles. Furthermore, the aedileship has to be looked upon in broader picture, in order to figure out, how it is situated in the system of republican magistracies and why the roman aristocrats strived to serve as aediles. The main purpose of this paper is to bring the aedileship out of the shadows and present it as full pledged research topic. Starting with aedileship it may embark us on questioning our knowledge of the republican magistracies. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org