DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0089
12. SENA TE. 63
responsible for the investment of the money belonging to the state ;
the beginning of this custom was proposed by Pliny to Trajan, and
decidedly rejected by him (54, $5); but afterwards it became regular,
and the dekaprotoi, § 13, were especially charged with the management.
Thus the honour was changed first into a duty, and finally into
a burden, running the same course by which all lionores were trans-
formed into munera. When it assumed this form, the burden became
hereditary, for the senate could not be filled up in any other way.
Thus the pernicious system of hereditary castes grew up in the
Byzantine empire \
§ 13. Dekaprotoi. In inscr. no. 6 an e^eraa-Trjs occurs. This is,
however, not a certain proof that the Boman system had been intro-
duced, for e^eraarai or Xoyio-rai or evOvvoL were also well-known
officials of pure Greek type, charged with duties analogous to cer-
tain of the Boman censorial functions. But in this case the same
person who had been e^eTacrTr/s also became dekaprotos ; and the
decemprimi (SeKarrpcoToi) are certainly a Boman idea. Originally
they were siniply the first ten men on the list of the senate; and it
appears from the frequent references to the position of dekaprotos,
and still more from the use of the verb SeKairpmTeveiv, in lists of
municipal offices filled by individual citizens, that some distinct office
and power was implied by the term. According to Mommsen (Staats-
recht III 852) the decemprimi or SeKaTrpcorot regularly appear in
situations where the senate in its official capacity has to play a part,
and does so by deputing a committee to represent it.' It is form-
ally laid down by Ulpian [Digest 50, 3, 1) that the list of municipal
senators must be made in the order of dignity and seniority according
to office, first those who had been quinquennales or had filled that
office which was reckoned highest in the city. A person therefore
could hardly be one of the dekaprotoi unless he had filled the highest
office in the state, and this at Laodiceia must have been that of first
strategos.
Dekaprotoi in the simplest and earliest form are mentioned in two
inscriptions of Amorgos (CIG 2264 and 2264 b add.), where it is
added that they performed the duties which were (in the Greek
senate) performed by prytaneis.
In the third century and later the dekaprotoi seem to have been
specially occupied in the collection of taxes. They were responsible
members, the custom of each city must ! I have to thank Prof. H. P. Pelham
be followed (which implies that fees for answering my questions on several
had become universal in some cities). points about the senates.
responsible for the investment of the money belonging to the state ;
the beginning of this custom was proposed by Pliny to Trajan, and
decidedly rejected by him (54, $5); but afterwards it became regular,
and the dekaprotoi, § 13, were especially charged with the management.
Thus the honour was changed first into a duty, and finally into
a burden, running the same course by which all lionores were trans-
formed into munera. When it assumed this form, the burden became
hereditary, for the senate could not be filled up in any other way.
Thus the pernicious system of hereditary castes grew up in the
Byzantine empire \
§ 13. Dekaprotoi. In inscr. no. 6 an e^eraa-Trjs occurs. This is,
however, not a certain proof that the Boman system had been intro-
duced, for e^eraarai or Xoyio-rai or evOvvoL were also well-known
officials of pure Greek type, charged with duties analogous to cer-
tain of the Boman censorial functions. But in this case the same
person who had been e^eTacrTr/s also became dekaprotos ; and the
decemprimi (SeKarrpcoToi) are certainly a Boman idea. Originally
they were siniply the first ten men on the list of the senate; and it
appears from the frequent references to the position of dekaprotos,
and still more from the use of the verb SeKairpmTeveiv, in lists of
municipal offices filled by individual citizens, that some distinct office
and power was implied by the term. According to Mommsen (Staats-
recht III 852) the decemprimi or SeKaTrpcorot regularly appear in
situations where the senate in its official capacity has to play a part,
and does so by deputing a committee to represent it.' It is form-
ally laid down by Ulpian [Digest 50, 3, 1) that the list of municipal
senators must be made in the order of dignity and seniority according
to office, first those who had been quinquennales or had filled that
office which was reckoned highest in the city. A person therefore
could hardly be one of the dekaprotoi unless he had filled the highest
office in the state, and this at Laodiceia must have been that of first
strategos.
Dekaprotoi in the simplest and earliest form are mentioned in two
inscriptions of Amorgos (CIG 2264 and 2264 b add.), where it is
added that they performed the duties which were (in the Greek
senate) performed by prytaneis.
In the third century and later the dekaprotoi seem to have been
specially occupied in the collection of taxes. They were responsible
members, the custom of each city must ! I have to thank Prof. H. P. Pelham
be followed (which implies that fees for answering my questions on several
had become universal in some cities). points about the senates.