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On this page: Consularis – Contubernales – Contubernium – Contus – Convenire in Manum – Conventiones

CONTUBERNALES.

for wMcli they had to defray the expenses out of their own means. (Sueton. Nero, 4 ; Juven. xi. 193, &c. ; Cassiod. L <?., and iii. 39, v. 42, vi. 10.) Some emperors indeed granted the money necessary for such purposes and endeavoured to check the growing extravagance of the consuls, but these regulations were all of a transitory nature,, (Lam- prid. AL Sever. 43 ; Vopisc. AureL 12 ; Justin. Nov. 105.) Compare besides the various works on Roman history, K. D. Hullmann, Rom. Grundver- fassung, p. 125, &c.;- K. W. Gottling, GesQ/i. der Rom, Staatsverf. p. 269, &c., and above all, Becker, Handbuch der Rom. Alterth. vol. ii. part ii. pp. 87 —126. [L. S.J

CONSULARIS, throughout the time of the Roman republic signifies a person who has been invested with the consulship ; but under the em­ pire it became a mere title for the higher class of officers, who thereby obtained permission to have the insignia of a consul, without ever having ac­ tually been consuls. Hence the title was almost equivalent to that of an " honorary consul " {consul honorarius; Cod. Theod. vi. tit. 19,. s. 1, vi. tit. 2. s. 2). The title was given especially to generals, as formerly persons after their consulship had usually undertaken the command of an army in the pro­ vinces, and in many instances they were the same as the legati principis or the magistri militum. (Veget. ii. 9 ; Dig. 3. tit. 2. s. 2.) It was further a common custom established, even by the first em­ perors to give to governors, of imperial provinces, the title of consularis, irrespective of their ever having been consuls. (Suet. Aug. 33, Tib. 33, Domit. 6 ; Tac. Agric. 8, 14, 40.) Consularis thus gradually became the established title for those entrusted with the administration of imperial provinces. The emperor Hadrian divided Italy into four re­ gions, and over each he placed an officer who like­ wise bore the title of consularis, and was. entrusted with the administration of justice in his district, whence he is frequently called Juridicus (Spar- tian. Hadr. 22, with the note of Salmas.). At Constantinople the title was given to the super­ intendents of the aquaeducts (consulares aquarum), who had to see that all public and private places were properly supplied with water, and who seem to have been analogous to the curatores aquarum of Rome. They are frequently mentioned in in­ scriptions, and also in the Codex of Justinian and Theodosius. [L. S.J

CONTRACTUS.

CONTRQVE/RSIA,

CONTUBERNALES (o-^ktjvol). This word,, in its original meaning, signified men who served in the same army and lived in the same tent. It is derived from taberna (afterwards tabern(iculu.m)+ which, according to Festus, was the original name for a military tent, as it was. made of boards (tabulae). Each tent was occupied by ten soldiers (contubernales) 9 with a subordinate officer at their head, who was called decanus^ and in, later, times caput contubemii. (Veget. De Re Mil. it. 8. 13.;. compare Cic. Pro. Ligar. 7 ; Hirt. Bell. Aleoa. 16 ; Drakenborch, Ad Liv. v. 2.)

Young Romans of illustrious, families used to accompany a distinguished general on his. expedi­tions, or to his province, for the purpose of gaining tinder his superintendence a practical training in the art of war, or in the administration of public affairs, and were, like soldiers living in the same tent, called his conttibernales. (Cic. Pro Coel. 30,

357'

CONVENTUS.

Pro Plans. 11 j Suet* Cues. 42 ; Tacit. Agr. 5 ; Frontin. Stratey. iv. 1. 11 ; Plutarch. Pomp. 3.)

In a still wider sense-, the name contubernales was applied to persons connected by ties of inti­ mate friendship and living iinder. the same roof (Cic. Ad Fain. ix. 2 ; Plin. Epist. ii. 13) ; and hence when a free man and a slave, or two slaves, who were not allowed to contract a legal marriage, lived together as husband and wife, they were called contubernales; and their connection, as well as their place of residence, contubemium. (Colum. xii. 1. 3, i. 8 ; Petron. Sett. 96 ; Tacit. Hist. i. 43, iii. 74.) Cicero (Ad Aft. xiii. 28) calls Caesar the contubernalis of Qmrinus, thereby alluding to the fact that Caesar had allowed his own statue to be erected in the temple of Quirinus (comp. Ad Ait. xii. 45, and Suet. Caes. 76). [L. S.]

CONTUBERNIUM. [contubernales ;

CONCUBINA.]

CONTUS (/cci/Tos, from K^vreos^ I prick or pi:erce), was, as Nonius (xviii. 24) expresses it, a long and strong wooden pole or stake, with a: pointed iron at the one end. (Virg. Aen. v. 208.) It was used for various purposes, but chiefly as a punt-pole by sailors, who., in shallow water, thrust it into the ground, and thus pushed on the boat. (Horn. Od. ix. 287 ; Virg. I c. and vi. 302.) It also served as a means to sound the depth of the water. (Festus, 5. v. Perconctatio^ p. 214, ed. Mul- ler ; Donat. ad Terent. Heo. i. 2; 2.) At a later period, when the Romans became acquainted with the huge lances or pikes of some of the northern barbarians, the word contus was applied to that kind of weapon (Virg. Aen. ix. 510 ; Tacit. Hist. i. 44, iii-. 27 ; Lamprid. Commod. 13) ; and the long pikes peculiar to the S'armatians were always designated by this name. (Tacit. Hist. i. 79, Annal. vi-. 35 ; Stat. AeMl. ii. 416 ; Valer. Flac. vi. 162, and others.) [L. S.]

CONVENIRE IN MANUM. [matri-

MONIUM.]

CONVENTIONES. [obmgationes.] CONVENTUS (crvvotios, ffvvovo-ia, or ffvva. 70*77]); is properly a name which may be given to any assembly of men who meet for a certain pur-: pose. (Paul. Diac. p. 42, ed. Muller.) But when-the Romans had reduced foreign countries into' the form of provinces, the word conventiis assumed a more definite meaning, and was applied to the' meetings of the provincials in certain places ap­pointed by the- praetor or proconsul for the pur-, pose of administering justice. (Cic. in Verr. ii. 20, 24, 30, iv. 29, 48; Cic. ad Fam. xv. 4 ; Horat. Sat: i. 7. 22'; Caes. Bell. Civ. ii. 21 ; Hirt. Bell. Afr. 97.) In order to facilitate the administration of justice, a province was divided into a number of districts or circuits, each of which was likewise called conventus, forum, or jurisdictio, (Cic. in Verr. ii. 8, 66 ; PJin. JEp. x.^5 ; Plin. H< N. iii. 1, iv. 22, v. 29.) Roman citizens living in a pro­vince were likewise under the jurisdiction of the proconsul1, and accordingly all that had to settle any business at a conventus had to make their appear­ance there. The towns which had the Jus Ita-licum, had magistrates of their own with a juris­dictio, from whom there was no doubt an appeal to the proconsul. At certain times of the year, fixed by the proconsul, the people assembled in the chief town of the district. To hold a con­ventus was expressed by conventus agere^ perac/ere^ forum agere^ ayopaiovs (sc. ^ue'pas) $7ei?>j &c»

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