ĂDŬNĂTI (ἀδύνατοι), were persons supported by the Athenian state, who, on account of infirmity or bodily defects, were unable to obtain a livelihood. The sum which they received from the state appears to have varied at different times. In the time of Lysias and Aristotle, one obolus a day was given; but it appears to have been afterwards increased to two oboli. The bounty was restricted to persons whose property was under three minae; and the examination of those who were entitled to it belonged to the senate of the Five Hundred. Peisistratus is said to have been the first to introduce a law for the maintenance of those persons who had been mutilated in war. ADVOCATUS, seems originally to have signified any person who gave another his aid in any affair or business, as a witness for instance; or for the purpose of aiding and protecting him in taking possession of a piece of property. It was also used to express a person who in any way gave his advice and aid to another in the management of a cause; but, in the time of Cicero, the word did not signify the orator or patronus who made the speech. Under the emperors it signified a person who in any way assisted in the conduct of a cause, and was sometimes equivalent to orator. The advocate’s fee was then called _Honorarium_. ĂDỸTUM. [TEMPLUM.] AEDES. [DOMUS; TEMPLUM.] AEDĪLES (ἀγορανόμοι). The name of these functionaries is said to be derived from their having the care of the temple (_aedes_) of Ceres. The aediles were originally two in number: they were elected from the plebs, and the institution of the office dates from the same time as that of the tribunes of the plebs, B.C. 494. Their duties at first seem to have been merely ministerial; they were the assistants of the tribunes in such matters as the tribunes entrusted to them, among which are enumerated the hearing of causes of smaller importance. At an early period after their institution (B.C. 446), we find them appointed the keepers of the senatus-consulta, which the consuls had hitherto arbitrarily suppressed or altered. They were also the keepers of the plebiscita. Other functions were gradually entrusted to them, and it is not always easy to distinguish their duties from some of those which belong to the censors. They had the general superintendence of buildings, both sacred and private; under this power they provided for the support and repair of temples, curiae, &c., and took care that private buildings which were in a ruinous state were repaired by the owners or pulled down. The care of the supply and distribution of water, of the streets and pavements, with the cleansing and draining of the city, belonged to the aediles; and, of course, the care of the cloacae. They had the office of distributing corn among the plebs, but this distribution of corn at Rome must not be confounded with the duty of purchasing or procuring it from foreign parts, which was performed by the consuls, quaestors,