DECURIO
A Roman official title, used in three connexions.
1 - A member of the senatorial
order in the Italian towns under the administration of Rome, and later in provincial
towns organized on the Italian model. The number of decuriones varied in
different towns, but was usually 100. The qualifications for the office were fixed
in each town by a special law for that community (lex municipalis) . Cicero
(in Verr. 2. 49,120) alludes to an age limit (originally thirty years,
until lowered by Augustus to twenty-five), to a property qualification (cf. Pliny,
Ep. i. 19. 2), and to certain conditions of rank. The method of appointment
varied in different towns and at different periods. In the early municipal constitution
ex-magistrates passed automatically into the senate of their town ; but at a later
date this order was reversed, and membership of the senate became a qualification
for the magistracy. Cicero (l.c.) speaks of the senate in the Sicilian
towns as appointed by a vote of the township. But in most towns it was the duty
of the chief magistrate to draw up a list (album) of the senators every
five years. The decuriones held office for life. They were convened by
the magistrate, who presided as in the Roman senate. Their powers were extensive.
In all matters the magistrates were obliged to act according to their direction,
and in some towns they heard cases of appeal against judicial sentences passed
by the magistrate. By the time of the municipal law of Julius Caesar (45 B.C.)
special privileges were conferred on the decuriones, including the right
to appeal to Rome for trial in criminal cases.
Under the principate their status underwent a marked decline. The office was no
longer coveted, and documents of the 3rd and 4th centuries show that means were
devised to compel members of the towns to undertake it.
By the time of the jurists it had become hereditary and compulsory. This change
was largely due to the heavy financial burdens which the Roman government laid
on the municipal senates.
2 - The president of a decuria, a subdivision of the curia (q.v.).
3 - An officer in the Roman cavalry, commanding a troop of ten men (decuria).
Bibliography. C. G. Bruns, Fontes juris Romani, c. 3, No. 18 c. 4, Nos. 27, 29, 30 (leges municipales) ; J.C.Orelli, Inscr. Latinae, No. 3721 (Album of Canusium) ; Godefroy, Paratitl. ad cod. Theodosianam, xii. i (vol. iv. pp. 352 et seq., ed. Ritter) ; J. Marquardt, Romische Staatsyerwaltung, i. pp. 183 et seq. (Leipzig, 1881)- P. Willems, Droit public remain, pp. 535 et seq. (Paris, 1884) ; Pauly- Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, IV. ii. pp. 2319 foil. (Stuttgart, 1901) ; W. Liebenam, Städteverwaltung im römischen Kaiserreiche (Leipzig '900).
Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed. 1910-1911.