1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vigintisexviri

VIGINTISEXVIRI, in Roman history, the collective name given in republican times to “twenty-six” magistrates of inferior rank. They were divided into six boards, two of which were abolished by Augustus. Their number was thereby reduced to twenty and their name altered to Vigintiviri (“the twenty”). They were originally nominated by the higher magistrates, but subsequently elected in a body at a single sitting of the comitia tributa; under the empire they were chosen by the senate. The following are the names of the six boards: (1) Tresviri capitales (see Tresviri); (2) Tresviri monetales; (3) Quatuorviri viis in urbe purgandis, who had the care of the streets and roads inside the city; (4) Duoviri viis extra urbem purgandis (see Duoviri), abolished by Augustus; (5) Decemviri stlitibus judicandis (see Decemviri); (6) Quatuor praefecti Capuam Cumas, abolished by Augustus. The members of the last-named board were appointed by the praetor urbanus of Rome to administer justice in ten Campanian towns (list in Mommsen), and received their name from the two most important of these. They were subsequently elected by the people under the title of quatuorviri jure dicundo, but the date is not known.

See Mommsen, Römisches Staatsrecht, ii. (1887), p. 592.