Aediles are the second step on our trek up ancient Rome's Cursus Honorum.
They're unique in that they're an optional step.
It was possible to move directly from Quaestor to Praetor, but with the minimum age for Quaestors
being 30, and the minimum age for Praetors being 39, there was a potential 9 year gap
between the two positions where the future leaders of Rome needed a chance to build their
resume.
We talked about Quaestors before, and you may remember that Quaestors were largely relegated
to being the second in command to more powerful politicians.
This was not the case with Aediles.
Unlike Quaestors, becoming an Aedile was an excellent platform from which to build a political
brand.
The position could not be a mandatory step in a political career, since there were only
4 open positions on any given year.
Becoming an Aedile was particularly good career move for populist politicians, since the nature
of the job involved a direct day-to-day contact with the lower classes.
Hold on, we're getting ahead of ourselves.
First, what did Aediles do?
The popular conception of Aediles is usually something along the lines of elected religious
officials, but that's way off the mark.
The Romans had Pontiffs, who were totally separate and did their own thing.
Aediles did much more.
The word Aedile can literally be translated as temple builder, which gives you a clearer
idea of how the job began.
Speaking as generally as possible, Aediles attended to public life within the city of
Rome.
That's such a broad description that it's almost meaningless, so let's start to get
slightly more specific.
Even though name means temple builder, Aediles didn't have to build temples anywhere.
Anybody was allowed to build temples.
Private citizens, the Roman Senate, anybody.
The Aediles were the ones responsible for the upkeep of these temples.
What does upkeep mean?
At this point you might be thinking to yourself temple maintenance?
Why would people fight over this job?
It was a bigger deal than you might think.
For instance, the Temple to Saturn functioned as Rome's treasury.
The Temple of Castor and Pollux was Rome's Senate House.
There wasn't really such thing in ancient Rome as government buildings, but temples
were the closest thing they had.
But it didn't stop at government buildings.
Aediles also had to oversee the baths, which were giant architectural works of genius open
to the public.
There is really no modern equivalent to the Roman baths.
Most citizens, unless they were dirt poor, would make a trip to the baths in the middle
of the day.
It was a huge part of Roman social life, and these bath complexes eventually grew to include
room for such as weight lifting, wrestling, dice games, board games, libraries, restaurants,
and shopping centers.
Just running the public baths could be a full time job, but it didn't stop there.
Consistent supplies fresh water was essential in order to have well functioning bathhouses,
which meant that the Aediles were also responsible for the maintenance of the aqueducts and the
sewer systems, which were amazing feats of engineering in their own right.
They didn't just oversee the city's water, but its food too.
Cheap or free bread bought and given out as a government program, and Aediles were responsible
for making this happen.
They had the monumental task of securing a steady supply of grain for the city, storing
it in government warehouses, and stockpiling enough to last through the winter.
I won't go on, but I think you get my point.
Most of the day-to-day things that we would associate with municipal or local government
were overseen by the Aediles.
In the minds of the elected Aediles, everything I just mentioned probably took up like 40%
of their brains.
Honestly, their main concern was the fact that Aediles were in charge the festivals
and public holidays.
In the minds of the Romans, this was the big draw important part of being an Aedile, and
it's why they have that undeserved reputation as religious officials.
To put on the public festivals, the state granted the Aediles a modest annual budget,
but over time it became customary for the Aediles to go above and beyond by using their
own private wealth.
Their most important moment to shine during the year was a 15 day long festival in September
which was simply called the Roman Games.
These were held to celebrate the end of the military campaigning season, where they would
hold elaborate parades, chariot races, theatrical productions, feasts, and gladiatorial contests.
Julius Caesar borrowed and spent several fortunes just to be elected Aedile.
He borrowed and spent several more fortunes to put on some of the most lavish games on
record.
He was an ambitious guy, and damned determined to make a name for himself.
Let me give you one example of him trying to stir up some publicity as Aedile.
This requires a bit of context, but I swear it's a good story.
When Caesar was a teenager there was a civil war between two men named Sulla and Marius.
Sulla was an aristocratic conservative who wanted to restore the rights of the senate
and the upper class.
Marius was a low-born populist who believed in the power of the more democratic popular
assemblies.
Or, this is the justification that each used.
In practice they were both nakedly ambitious men, and by the end of the civil war each
had done the unthinkable and stormed the city of Rome at the head of an army.
In the end Sulla and the conservatives won, but it was a deeply traumatizing time in the
political history of the Republic.
I omitted one key piece of information, important to our story.
Marius was Caesar's uncle by marriage.
When Sulla captured Rome for the last time, there were death lists published, scores being
settled, and general chaos on the streets.
Sulla had almost all of Caesar's wealth confiscated simply because of his family's relationship
with Marius.
Caesar, fearing for his life, was forced to flee the city for many years, not returning
until after Sulla's death.
Flash forward many years, to when Caesar has nearly bankrupted himself in order to become
Aedile.
What does he do with this new power?
Remember how I said that the Aediles were basically responsible for most public buildings
and temples?
Well, Caesar secretly issued an order for all of the tributes and honours and trophies
to be restored to his uncle Marius all around the city.
This all happened in the dead of night, with nobody noticing.
When people woke up the next day and saw all of the tributes to Marius on the monuments
and temples, people were outraged.
Or more specifically, the senate was outraged.
One senator accused him of assaulting the Republic with a battering ram.
On the other hand, the people loved it.
Marius was one of them, and the Sulla years had been bad years anyways.
People were ready to start romanticizing the defeated Marius.
And with that, literally overnight, Caesar had established a political brand for himself.
Caesar was now officially a populist, just like his uncle.
He even bought a house on the Aventine hill, in the poor part of the city, away from all
of the other Senators.
Not to over-state things, but he was able to transform himself from somebody who basically
didn't even have a voice in the senate chamber to somebody who styled himself a champion
of the people.
Caesar really wanted to hit it out of the park for the Roman Games in September.
He borrowed and spent much more than Aediles usually did, and put on massive public feasts,
exotic beast battles, and extravagant gladiatorial contests.
The gladiatorial contests were especially controversial.
Caesar reportedly had huge numbers of gladiators shipped the city from all over, all of whom
he outfitted in the silver armour and the finest weapons money could buy.
Honest to God, the Senate thought that he might be preparing to overthrow the government.
He had freaked them out that much with his little Marius stunt.
They passed a law saying that no man could have more than 300 gladiators in the city
at one time.
Our sources specifically tells us Caesar had exactly 320 gladiators putting on shows during
the Roman Games, which makes you think that he may have been deliberately dipping his
toe over the line just to put the Senate's nose out of place.
During his tumultuous year as Aedile, he shared much of his responsibilities (and expenses)
with his co-Aedile, Bibulus.
In essence, they put on the games together.
Bibulus told a joke at the time, which also requires a bit of context.
Remember how I mentioned the Senate officially met in a temple called the Temple of Castor
and Pollux?
Castor and Pollux were so-called Divine Twins, but people being people, and laziness being
laziness, in everyday speech it was usually just shortened to the Temple of Castor.
Bibulus joked that the joint Aedileship of Caesar and Bibulus was, like the temple of
Castor and Pollux, simply known as the Aedileship of Caesar.
In other words, Bibulus was upset that Caesar got all of the credit.
He saw him as a showoff and and an egoist, and over time, began to cultivate a healthy
hatred for the man.
This isn't the last time we'll hear from Bibulus.
He plays a big role in Caesar's later life.
I'll continue to track his career in the videos ahead.
I'll end with this.
I find it heart warming, but I may be a weirdo.
Remember from the Quaestor video how Cicero was such a good lad during his service in
Sicily?
He gave the landowners a fair shake regarding the grain shipments, and in return he got
a cheap and stable supply for Rome?
Well, during his Aedileship, he could not afford to spend nearly as lavishly as Caesar
or...anyone, really, on the festivals.
He was a newly minted aristocrat from an undistinguished provincial family, who basically got where
he was based on raw personal talent.
He had no family wealth or political favours to cash in.
Luckily, his new clients or allies in Sicily saw this and came to his rescue.
During the important festivals in Cicero's year as Aedile, his new Sicilian friends were
good enough to flood Rome with a wide variety of free food for the public.
People described Cicero's festivals and games as tasteful and modest, which is...not quite
a compliment....
But people generally gave him a pass because of his extravagant feasts, which were offered
free of charge to the poor.
His political contacts from his Quaestor saved him from disaster, and his Aedileship was
ultimately considered a success.