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CVRATOR VIARVM
#1
Avete omnes!<br>
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I have a question. It may be a dumb one, but I have to ask anyway. Last night I was looking at a pic (I'm assuming this was not a complete pic of the inscription)with an inscription online and something held my curiosity.....one of the offices this someone held was of Curator Viarum....I'm now assuming he had to do something with road works....maybe someone in charge of repairing roads?. Now was this his only task or did a curator viarum handle more than just roads? What was this task equivalent to in todays civil administration?<br>
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Any answer would be of great help.<br>
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Salve <p></p><i></i>
aka: Julio Peña
Quote:"audaces Fortuna iuvat"
- shouted by Turnus in Virgil\'s Aeneid in book X just before he is utterly destroyed by Aeneas\' Trojans.
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#2
I think its something to do with bridges...............but i could be wrong <p><br>
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<span style="color:red;"><strong>[url=http://pub55.ezboard.com/btalkinghistory" target="top]Talking History Forum[/url]</strong></span></p><i></i>
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#3
Looks like it included roads and bridges; it looks like a consular title. Found this about the Ponte Fabricio in Rome:<br>
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Ponte Fabricio<br>
History<br>
PONS FABRICIUS (previously named Pons Judaeorum, Four Heads bridge) between the island and the Campo Marzio bank.<br>
from Rodolfo Lanciani [1] - pages 30-31:<br>
The island of Esculapio should be already connected to the left bank by a wooden bridge since 192 b.C. (Liv.,XXXV,21,5). A similar structure was supposed to be on the opposite side, in direction of Trastevere and the fortified top of the Gianicolo.<br>
On 62 b.C., L.Fabricio, responsible of the roads (<strong>curator viarum</strong>), transformed it in a solid stone bridge.<br>
The memorial inscription, engraved on both sides, is followed by the statement of the two consuls on 21 b.C., P.Lepido and M.Lollio, that approved the work as fully satisfactory. These inscriptions indicate us the wisdom of the roman management: the contractors of the bridges construction were guarantors of the solidity of the work for 40 years, and only on 41st they could get back the caution money they payed in advance. The fact that the bridge is still survived is the best evidence of its solidity.<br>
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Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
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#4
Originally, the construction and general upkeep of roads was carried out by the censors (cf. Cicero, de Legibus 3.3), assisted by consuls and other officials. During the late C2nd and C1st BC the administration of the roads became a political football, being such a prestige issue. For example, a certain Thermus was "curator" of the via Flaminia in 65 BC (Cicero (ad Atticum 1.1): the pons Fabricius inscription shows Fabricius as curator viarum for 62 BC; Julius Caesar held the same office for the via Appia, and spent a lot of his own money upon it (Plutarch, Caesar 5).<br>
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Under Augustus, Agrippa, as aedile, repaired all roads at his own expense; after this Augustus took upon himself the restoration of the via Flaminia as far as Ariminum (see the Res Gestae), and allocated the rest of the roads to the most distinguished men in the state, to be paved out of the money obtained from spoils of war ("ex manubiali pecunia sternendas", Suetonius, Life of Augustus 30; Cassius Dio 53.22). These men were known as "curatores viarum". Basically, from then on the post of inspector-in-chief (curator) for each road was considered a high honour (Pliny the Younger, Letters 5.15), and the emperors often took it upon themselves as a result.<br>
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But these titles were more honorific than involving any actual work; this seems to have been carried out from Augustus' time by two ex-praetors, to whom he assigned two lictors each. These men would have got on with the nitty-gritty, subject to the supervision of the curatores of each particular road.<br>
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For the prestige of roads, cf. the Golden Milestone in the forum at Rome (showing the distance to all major cities of the empire by road), and Trajan's cutting at Terracina (I think), where the cutting was marked with depth inscriptions to show just how much rock had been cut away to make it passable. There's also a truly hideous poem by Statius (Silvae 4.3) to commemorate Domitian's construction in AD95 of a road in Italy from Sinuessa to Naples, cutting a big detour out of the journey along the via Appia; particularly foul are lines 40-66, where the actual business of road-construction is put into poetry ("the first labour was to dig ditches..."). Statius my candidate for worst poet of all time - even worse than the Vogons.<br>
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Shaun <p></p><i></i>
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