That the duration of the quinquennial office was one year is certain,[[276]] that it was eponymous is also sure,[[277]] but whether the officers who performed these duties every five years did so in addition to holding the highest office of the year, or in place of that honor, is a question not at all satisfactorily answered. That is, were the men who held the quinquennial office the men who would in all probability have stood for the duovirate in the regular succession of advance in the round of offices (cursus honorum), or did the government at Rome in some way, either directly or indirectly, name the men for the highest office in that particular year when the census was to be taken? That is, again, were quinquennales elected as the other city officials were, or were they appointed by Rome, or were they merely designated by Rome, and then elected in the proper and regular way by the citizens of the towns?
At first glance it seems most natural to suppose that Rome would want exact returns from the census, and might for that reason try to dictate the men who were to take it, for on the census had been based always the military taxes, contingents, etc.[[278]] The first necessary inquiry is whether the quinquennales were men who previously had held office as quæstors or ædiles, and the best place to begin such a search is in the municipal calendars (fasti magistratuum municipalium), which give the city officials with their rank.
There are fragments left of several municipal fasti; the one which gives the longest unbroken list is that from Venusia,[[279]] which gives the full list of the city officials of the years 34-29 B.C., and the ædiles of 35, and both the duovirs and prætors of the first half of 28 B.C. In 29 B.C., L. Oppius and L. Livius were duoviri quinquennales. These are both good old Roman names, and stand out the more in contrast with Narius, Mestrius, Plestinus, and Fadius, the ædiles and quæstors. Neither of these quinquennales had held any office in the five preceding years at all events. One of the two quæstors of the year 33 B.C. is a L. Cornelius. The next year a L. Cornelius, with the greatest probability the same man, is præfect, and again in the year 30 he is duovir. Also in the year 32 L. Scutarius is quæstor, and in the last half of 31 is duovir. C. Geminius Niger is ædile in 30, and duovir in 28. So what we learn is that a L. Cornelius held the quæstorship one year, was a præfect the next, and later a regularly elected duovir; that L. Scutarius went from quæstor one year to duovir the next, without an intervening office, and but a half year of intervening time; and that C. Geminius Niger was successively ædile and duovir with a break of one year between.
The fasti of Nola[[280]] give the duovirs and ædiles for four years, 29-32 A.D., but none of the ædiles mentioned rose to the duovirate within the years given. Nor do we get any help from the fasti of Interamna Lirenatis[[281]] or Ostia,[[282]] so the only other calendar we have to deal with is the one from Præneste, the fragments of which have been partially discussed above.
The text of that piece[[283]] which dates from the first years of Tiberius' reign is so uncertain that one gets little information from it. But certainly the M. Petronius Rufus who is præfect for Drusus Cæsar is the same as the Petronius Rufus who in another place is duovir. The name of C. Dindius appears twice also, once with the office of ædile, but two years later seemingly as ædile again, which must be a mistake. M. Cominius Bassus is made quinquennalis by order of the senate, and also made præfect for Germanicus and Drusus Cæsar in their quinquennial year. He is not found in any other inscription, and is otherwise unknown.[[284]] The only other men who attained the quinquennial rank in Præneste were M. Petronius,[[285]] and some man with the cognomen Minus,[[286]] neither of whom appears anywhere else. A man with the cognomen Sedatus is quæstor in one year, and without holding other office is made præfect to the sons of Germanicus, Nero and Drusus, who were nominated quinquennales two years later.[[287]] There is no positive proof in any of the fasti that any quinquennalis was elected from one of the lower magistrates. There is proof that duovirs were elected, who had been ædiles or quæstors. Also it has been shown that in two cases men who had been quæstors were made præfects, that is, appointees of people who had been nominated quinquennales as an honor, and who had at once appointed præfects to carry out their duties.
Another question of importance rises here. Who were the quinquennales? They were not always inhabitants of the city to the office of which they had been nominated, as has been shown in the cases of Drusus and Germanicus Cæsar, and Nero and Drusus the sons of Germanicus, nominated or elected quinquennales at Præneste, and represented in both cases by præfects appointed by them.[[288]]
From Ostia comes an inscription which was set up by the grain measurers' union to Q. Petronius Q.f. Melior, etc.,[[289]] prætor of a small town some ten miles from Ostia, and also quattuorvir quinquennalis of Fæsulæ, a town above Florence, which seems to show that he was sent to Fæsulæ as a quinquennalis, for the honor which he had held previously was that of prætor in Laurentum.
At Tibur, in Hadrian's time, a L. Minicius L.f. Gal. Natalis Quadromius Verus, who had held offices previously in Africa, in Moesia, and in Britain, was made quinquennalis maximi exempli. It seems certain that he was not a resident of Tibur, and since he was not appointed as præfect by Hadrian, it seems quite reasonable to think that either the emperor had a right to name a quinquennalis, or that he was asked to name one,[[290]] when one remembers the proximity of Hadrian's great villa, and the deference the people of Tibur showed the emperor. There is also in Tibur an inscription to a certain Q. Pompeius Senecio, etc.—(the man had no less than thirty-eight names), who was an officer in Asia in 169 A.D., a præfect of the Latin games (præfectus feriarum Latinarum), then later a quinquennalis of Tibur, after which he was made patron of the city (patronus municipii).[[291]] A Roman knight, C. Æmilius Antoninus, was first quinquennalis, then patronus municipii at Tibur.[[292]]
N. Cluvius M'. f.[[293]] was a quattuorvir at Caudium, a duovir at Nola, and a quattuorvir quinquennalis at Capua, which again shows that a quinquennalis need not have been an official previously in the town in which he held the quinquennial office.
C. Mænius C.f. Bassus[[294]] was ædile and quattuorvir at Herculaneum and then after holding the tribuneship of a legion is found next at Præneste as a quinquennalis.