Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

ADVERSARIA.

8

AEDILES.

with impunity; and the law was also the
same with respect to a concubine (7raAAa/oj).
He might also inflict other punishment on
the offender. It appears that there was no
adultery, unless a married woman was con-
cerned. The husband might, if he pleased,
take a sum of money from the adulterer, by
way of compensation, and detain him till he
found sureties for the payment. The husband
might also prosecute the adulterer in the ac-
tion called fioix*ia.s 7parf»j. If the act of adul-
tery was proved, the husband could no longer
cohabit with his wife, under pain of losing
his privileges of a citizen (anfiia). The adul-
teress was excluded even from those temples
which foreign women and slaves were allowed
to enter ; and if she was seen there, any one
might treat her as he pleased, provided he did
not kill her or mutilate her.—(2) Roman.—
The word adulterium properly signifies, in
the Roman law, the offence committed by a
man's haying Bexual intercourse with another
man's wife. Stuprum (called by the Greeks
4>0opa) signifies the like offence with a widow
or virgin. In the time of Augustus a law was
enacted (probably about b.c. 17), entitled
Lex Julia de adultcriis coercendis, which
seems to have contained special penal provi-
sions against adultery ; and it is also not im-
probable that, by the old law or custom, if
the adulterer was caught in the fact, he was
at the mercy of the injured husband, and that
the husband might punish with death his
adulterous wife. By the Julian law, a woman
convicted of adultery was mulcted m half of
her dowry (dos) and the third part of her
property [bona), and banished (relegata) to
some miserable island, such as Seriphos, for
instance. The adulterer was mulcted in half
his property, and banished in like manner.
This law did not inflict the punishment of
death on either party ; and in those instances
under the emperors in which death was in-
flicted, it must be considered as an extraordi-
nary punishment, and beyond the provisions
of the Julian law. The Julian law permitted
the father (both adoptive and natural) to kill
the adulterer and adulteress in certain cases,
as to which there were several nice distinctions
established by the law. If the wife was di-
vorced for adultery, the husband was entitled
to retain part of the dowry. By a constitu-
tion of the Emperor Constantine, the offence
in the adulterer was made capital.

ADVERSARIA, a note-book, memorandum-
bcok, posting-book, in which the Romans en-
tered memoranda of any importance, especi-
ally of money received and expended, which
were afterwards transcribed, usually every
month, into a kind of ledger. (Tabtttae justae,
codex accepti ct expensL)

ADVERSARIUS. [Actor.]

ADUNATI (aWcaTot), were persons sup-
ported by the Athenian state, who, on account
of infirmity or bodily defects, were unable to
obtain a livelihood. The sum which they
received from the state appears to have varied
at different times. In the time of Lysias and
Aristotle, one obolus a day was given ; but it
appears to have been afterwards increased
to two oboli. The bounty was restricted to
persons whose property was under three
minae ; and the examination of those who
were entitled to it belonged to the senate of
the Five Hundred. Peisistratus is said to
have been the first to introduce a law for the
maintenance of those persons who had been
mutilated in war.

ADVOCATUS, seems originally to have
signified any person who gave another his
aid in any affair or business, as a witness for
instance; or for the purpose of aiding and
protecting him in taking possession of a piece
of property. It was also used to express a
person who in any way gave his advice and
aid to another in the management of a cause ;
but, in the time of Cicero, the word did not
signify the orator or patronus who made the
speech. Under the emperors it signified a
person who in any way assisted in the con-
duct of a cause, and was sometimes equiva-
lent to orator. The advocate's fee was then
called Honorarium.

ADYTUM. [Tempixm.]

AEDES. [Doml-s; Tf.mplx-m.1

AEDILES (ayopam/j-oi). The name of
these functionaries is said to be derived from
their having the care of the temple (aedes) of
Ceres. The aediles were originally two in
number : they were elected from the plebs,
and the institution of the office dates from
the same time as that of the tribunes of the
plebs, b. c. 494. Their duties at first seem
to have been merely ministerial; they were
the assistants of the tribunes in such matters
as the tribunes entrusted to them, among
which are enumerated the hearing of causes
of smaller importance. At an early period
after their institution (b. c. 446), we find
them appointed the keepers of the stnatus-
consulta, wThich the consuls had hitherto
arbitrarily suppressed or altered. They were
also the keepers of the plebiscita. Other
functions were gradually entrusted to them,
and it is not always easy to distinguish their
duties from some of those which belong to
the censors. They had the general superin-
tendence of buildings, both sacrcl and pri-
vate ; under this power they provided foi
the support and repair of temples, curiae,
&c, and took care that private buildings
which were in a ruinous state were repaired