Originally a college of 26 men (Vigintisexviri) it was reduced in the imperial period by Augustus to reduce redundancies in administrative positions. It was an office held for one year essentially as an entry level (20 years of age) into more advanced politics and administrative duties.
In 13 AD, a law was passed making these offices open only to the Equestrian class, eliminating it as a necessity for either higher office in the Cursus Honorum or as a prerequisite to later admission into the senate.
The duties fell into the following 4 categories:
- Decemviri Litibus (stlitibus) Judicandis - 10 men who had jurisdiction in capital matters such as slavery.
- Triumviri Monetales - 3 men in charge of the overseeing the imperial coin mints.
- Quatuorviri Viarum Curandarum - 4 men in charge of maintaining the roads in Rome.
- Triumviri Capitales - 3 men in charge of prisons and capital punishment.
Did you know...
Augustus reduced the number of officers of this college to twenty (vigintiviri), as the two curatores viarum for the roads outside the city and the four Campanian praefects were abolished.
