Although this plebeian nobility, in the strict sense of the term, could only be formed after the curule offices were opened to plebeians, yet it exhibited in a short time, if not at the very first, a certain compactness of organizationdoubtless because such a nobility had long been prefigured in the old senatorial plebeian families.

Now that the plebeian families ennobled by their curule ancestors were united into one body with the patrician families and acquired a distinctive position and distinguished power in the commonwealth, the Romans had again arrived at the point whence they had started; there was once more not merely a governing aristocracy and a hereditary nobilityboth of which in fact had never disappearedbut there was a governing hereditary nobility, and

The cost of these new festal amusements was defrayed by the magistrates entrusted with the providing of the respective festivals from their own means: thus the curule aediles had, over and above the old national festival, those of the Mother of the Gods and of Flora; the plebeian aediles had the plebeian festival and that of Ceres, and the urban praetor the Apollinarian games.

I myself am not indisposed to follow the opinion of those, who are inclined to believe that it was from the neighbouring Etruscansfrom whom the curule chair and purple-bordered toga were borrowedthat the apparitors of this class, as well as the number itself, were introduced: and that the Etruscans employed such a number because, as their king was elected from twelve states in common, each state assigned him one lictor.

But, as he imagined that in a warlike nation there would be more kings resembling Romulus than Numa, and that they would go to war in person, in order that the sacred functions of the royal office might not be neglected, he appointed a perpetual priest as flamen to Jupiter, and distinguished him by a fine robe, and a royal curule chair.

Besides the usual honours, a place in the circus was assigned to him and his descendants, to see the public games: a curule chair.

the toga prætexta and curule chair, as nothing else but a funeral parade: that when decked with these splendid insignia, as with fillets, [70] they were doomed to death.

[Footnote 18: Curule chairs of office.]

It had been a gradual change, peaceably brought about, and the larger number having absorbed the smaller, the term 'nobiles,' which specifically meant those who had themselves filled a curule office, or whose fathers had done so, comprehended in common usage the old nobility and the new.

To the curule ædiles he entrusted the extinguishment of conflagrations, for which purpose he granted them six hundred slave assistants.

The old senate-roll having been read, he chose as successors to the deceased, first those who had filled a curule office since the censorship of Flaminius and Aemilius, but had not yet been elected into the senate, as each had been earliest created.

He then gave out the day for the comitia, at which the consuls created were Lucius Posthumius in his absence, being then employed in the government of the province of Gaul, for the third time, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, who was then master of the horse and curule aedile.

The curule aediles, Caius Laetorius, and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus consul elect, who during his aedileship had been master of the horse, celebrated the Roman games, which were repeated for three days.

One praetor, likewise, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, was re-elected; the other new ones who were chosen, were Titus Otacilius Crassus a second time, Quintus Fabius, son of the consul, who was at that time curule aedile, and Publius Cornelius Lentulus.

The censors, in consequence of the poverty of the treasury, having abstained from receiving contracts for the repairs of the sacred edifices, the furnishing of curule horses, and similar matters, the persons who had been accustomed to attend auctions of this description, came to the censors in great numbers, and exhorted them to "transact all their business and let out the contracts in the same manner as if there were money in the treasury.

The praetors appointed were Marcus Atilius, and the two curule aediles, Publius Sempronius Tuditanus and Cneius Fulvius Centumalus, together with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.

It is recorded, that the scenic games were this year, for the first time, celebrated for four days by the curule aediles.

This year, Publius Cornelius Scipio, afterwards surnamed Africanus, held the office of curule aedile, with Marcus Cornelius Cethegus; and when the tribunes of the people opposed his pretensions to the aedileship, alleging, that no notice ought to be taken of him, because he had not attained the legal age for candidateship, he observed, "if the citizens in general are desirous of appointing me aedile, I am old enough."

The election was contested with the greatest obstinacy by three candidates, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, the consul, who had been twice consul before and censor, Titus Manhus Torquatus, who had himself also been distinguished by two consulships and the censorship, and Publius Licinius Ciassus, who was about to stand for the office of curule aedile.

Before him there had not been a man for a hundred and twenty years, except Publius Cornelius Calussa, who had been created chief pontiff without having sat in the curule chair.

The consuls created by Claudius were Cneius Fulvius Centumalus, and Publius Sulpicius Galba, the son of Servius, who had never exercised any curule magistracy.

He would have the ruthless Flavius seated on a curule chair of ivory, draped with purple, erected before a portico painted on the back cloth.

It is from Aricia that we have received the Voconian and Atinian laws; from Aricia have come many of those magistrates who have filled our curule chairs, both in our fathers' recollection and in our own; from Aricia have sprung many of the best and bravest of the Roman knights.

Young Appius Claudius accuses Servilius, and makes a mess of the attack, while the praetor mismanages the conduct of the trial, so that nothing comes of it; but finally Appius is himself accused by the Servilii de vi, in order to keep him from further attacks on Servilius![202] Appius the father quarrelled with Caelius and egged on others to accuse him, though he was curule aedile at the time.

CURULE CHAIR, a kind of ivory camp-stool, mounted on a chariot, on which a Roman magistrate, if consul, prætor, censor, or chief edile, sat as he was conveyed in state to the senate-house or some public function.