Aedile

Aedile

Painted electoral programmata from a wall in Pompeii encouraging a vote for Lucius Albucius, worthy for the office of aedile, abbreviated as AED at the beginning of the second line.
Painted electoral programmata from a wall in Pompeii encouraging a vote for Lucius Albucius, worthy for the office of aedile, abbreviated as AED at the beginning of the second line.

An aedile (plural: aediles) was an elected official in the Roman system of administration broadly responsible for the maintenance of public buildings, the holding of public festivals, and maintaining public order. The office is derived from a term for a religious building, an aedes. There were two pairs of aediles in Rome; the aediles plebis (the plebeian aediles) and the aediles curules (the curule aediles). The former was created first, in the early 5th century BCE with the job of acting as assistants to the tribunes, and as the name suggests, was open only to those of the plebeian class and were elected solely by the plebeians. Their duties later expanded to the safeguard of senatorial decrees and those of the concilium plebis (the plebeian council). The aediles curules were added in the 4th century BCE in order to balance the system after the inability of the aediles plebis to take up the added expense of additional festival days.

Painted electoral programmata from a wall in Pompeii encouraging a vote for Gnaeus Helvius Sabinus, worthy for the office of aedile.
Painted electoral programmata from a wall in Pompeii encouraging a vote for Gnaeus Helvius Sabinus, worthy for the office of aedile.

The aediles curules were patricians elected by the comitia tributa, the tribal council. Because of this, the aediles curules were magistrates while the aediles plebis were not, and the former were allowed to issue decrees and were technically of higher rank and enjoyed privileges the latter did not. Their other duties were largely the same, with each aedile having jurisdiction over the maintenance of a particular part of Rome. The aediles plebis were also responsible for the holding of plebeian festivals, while the aediles curules were responsible for the remainder. By the 2nd century BCE, much of the distinction between the two, including the limits on which class could run for which office, largely disappeared.

Painted electoral programmata from a wall in Pompeii encouraging a vote for Gaius Lollius Fucus for aedile.
Painted electoral programmata from a wall in Pompeii encouraging a vote for Gaius Lollius Fucus for aedile.

The office of aedile was usually the second office (or potentially the third office for a plebeian) in the cursus honorum, a sequential order of public offices for those with political ambition, after quaestor and before praetor. This office had the potential to be skipped with the ability of a candidate to go straight from quaestor to praetor. The office was initially open to those starting at age 27, but this was later increased to 36.

Outside of Rome, individual municipalities had aediles that performed the same function at a local level; responsibility for maintenance, public order, and festivals. They were perhaps the most important local magistrates in a town behind the duumviri.