[327] Quaestores parricidii were mentioned in the Twelve Tables (Pompon. in Dig. 1, 2, 2, 23).
[328] Liv. i. 26.
[329] They are mentioned in the trial of M. Volscius (459 B.C.) for an ordinary criminal offence (Liv. iii. 24), but also in the public trials of Sp. Cassius in 485 B.C. (Liv. ii. 41; Cic. de Rep. ii. 35, 60), and of Camillus in 396 B.C. (Plin. H.N. xxxiv. 3, 13); but various accounts are given of the procedure in these two trials.
[330] Plut. Public. 12 ταμιεῖον μὲν ἀπέδειξε τὸν τοῦ Κρόνου ναόν ... ταμίας δὲ τῳ δήμῳ δύο τῶν νέων ἔδωκεν ἀποδεῖξαι. The first quaestors appointed were Publius Veturius and Marcus Minucius. Pomponius (p. 80) puts the creation of the financial quaestors after the first secession of the Plebs; Lydus (de Mag. i. 38) attributes them to the Licinian law of 367.
[331] Tac. Ann. xi. 22 “Sed quaestores regibus etiam tum imperantibus instituti sunt, quod lex curiata ostendit ab L. Bruto repetita. Mansitque consulibus potestas deligendi, donec eum quoque honorem populus mandaret. Creatique primum Valerius Potitus et Aemilius Mamercus sexagesimo tertio anno post Tarquinios exactos, ut rem militarem comitarentur” (i.e. 447 B.C.; hence Mommsen, Staatsr. ii. p. 529, thinks the change was due to the Valerio-Horatian laws of 449 B.C.). Plutarch (see note 1) thinks they were elected from the first. The meaning of the passage of Tacitus seems to be that the king nominated his quaestors after his own election, and their appointment was then ratified by the lex curiata. Another explanation is that the lex recited that the kings had appointed quaestors and empowered the consuls to do so. Cf. Ulpian in Dig. 1, 13.
[332] Festus p. 246, cited p. 59.
[333] Zonaras (vii. 9) makes Servius Tullius introduce Plebeians into the Senate.
[334] Liv. ii. 1 “Deinde, quo plus virium in senatu frequentia etiam ordinis faceret, caedibus regis diminutum patrum numerum primoribus equestris gradus lectis ad trecentorum summam explevit: traditumque inde fertur, ut in senatum vocarentur qui patres quique conscripti essent: conscriptos videlicet in novum senatum appellabant lectos”; Festus p. 254 “‘Qui patres, qui conscripti’: vocati sunt in curiam, quo tempore regibus urbe expulsis P. Valerius consul propter inopiam patriciorum ex plebe adlegit in numerum senatorum C. et LX. et IIII. ut expleret numerum senatorum trecentorum” (for these numbers cf. Plut. Public. 11 τοὺς δ’ ἐγγραφέντας ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ λέγουσιν ἑκατὸν καὶ ἑξήκοντα τέσσαρας γενέσθαι). So adlecti, Festus p. 7 “adlecti dicebantur apud Romanos, qui propter inopiam ex equestri ordine in senatorum sunt numero adsumpti: nam patres dicuntur qui sunt patricii generis, conscripti qui in senatu sunt scriptis adnotati.” Plutarch (Qu. Rom. 58, Rom. 13) makes the added members Plebeians. Tacitus (Ann. xi. 25) wrongly identifies these added members with the minores gentes. (Claudius creates Patricians A.D. 48—“paucis jam reliquis familiis, quas Romulus majorum et L. Brutus minorum gentium appellaverant.”)
[335] Willems (Le Sénat ii. 39 ff.) makes patres conscripti simply equivalent to “assembled fathers.”
[336] The first clear instance of a plebeian senator dates from the year 401. Liv. v. 12. P. Licinius Calvus, created military tribune with consular power, was “vir nullis ante honoribus usus, vetus tantum senator et aetate jam gravis.” Cf. Liv. iv. 15. Of Sp. Maelius (439 B.C.) it is asked “quem senatorem concoquere civitas vix posset, regem ferret.”