[967] For this there is no direct evidence, but the aediles complain about the transgression of sumptuary laws in Tac. Ann. iii. 52-55.
[968] Momms. Staatsr. ii. p. 499. He takes “cum tabernariis pugnarem” (Cic. ad Fam. viii. 6, 4, cited p. 209) in this sense.
[969] Dig. 21, 1, 1; Gell. iv. 2.
[970] Cic. in Verr. v. 14, 36.
[971] Liv. x. 47; xxvii. 6. They were shared by both colleagues (Suet. Caes. 10).
[972] Liv. xxiii. 30.
[973] Dio Cass. xliii. 48 (44 B.C.). Here by a decree of the Senate the Megalesia are celebrated by the plebeian aediles.
[974] When during the first Punic war Clodia uttered her ill-omened wish about the Roman people, “C. Fundanius et Ti. Sempronius, aediles plebei, multam dixerunt ei aeris gravis viginti quinque milia” (Gell. x. 6). Cf. Suet. Tib. 2.
[975] Cicero promises, as aedile, to prosecute those “qui aut deponere aut accipere aut recipere aut pollicere aut sequestres aut interpretes corrumpendi judicii solent esse” (in Verr. Act. i. 12, 36).
[976] An instance is furnished by Clodius’ prosecution of Milo in 56 B.C. (Cic. pro Sest. 44, 95; ad Q. fr. 2, 3). A prosecution by the aedile in defence of his own dignity or person is an outcome of his coercitio. An instance is furnished by Gell. iv. 14.