to have been exercised by them jointly. In the superintendence of the public festivals or solemnities, there was a further distinction between the two sets of aediles. Many of these festivals, such as those of Flora and Ceres, were superintended by either set of aediles indifferently; but the plebeian games were under the superintendence of the plebeian aediles, who had an allowance of money for that purpose; and the fines levied on the pecuarii, and others, seem to have been appropriated to these among other public purposes. The celebration of the Ludi Magni or Romani, of the Ludi Scenici, or dramatic representations, and the Ludi Megalesii, belonged specially to the curule aediles, and it was on such occasions that they often incurred a prodigious expense, with a view of pleasing the people, and securing their votes in future elections. This extravagant expenditure of the aediles arose after the close of the second Punic war, and increased with the opportunities which individuals had of enriching themselves after the Roman arms were carried into Greece, Africa, and Spain. Even the prodigality of the emperors hardly surpassed that of individual curule aediles under the republic; such as C. Julius Caesar, the dictator, P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, and, above all, M. Aemilius Scaurus, whose expenditure was not limited to bare show, but comprehended objects of public utility, as the reparation of walls, dock-yards, ports, and aquaeducts. In B.C. 45, Julius Caesar caused two curule aediles and four plebeian aediles to be elected; and thenceforward, at least so long as the office of aedile was of any importance, six aediles were annually elected. The two new plebeian aediles were called Cereales, and their duty was to look after the supply of corn. Though their office may not have been of any great importance after the institution of a praefectus annonae by Augustus, there is no doubt that it existed for several centuries, and at least as late as the time of the emperor Gordian. The aediles belonged to the class of the minores magistratus. The plebeian aediles were originally chosen at the comitia centuriata, but afterwards at the comitia tributa, in which comitia the curule aediles also were chosen. It appears that until the lex annalis was passed (B.C. 180) a Roman citizen might be a candidate for any office after completing his twenty-seventh year. This law fixed the age at which each office might be enjoyed, and it seems that the age fixed for the aedileship was thirty-six. The aediles existed under the emperors; but their powers were gradually diminished, and their functions exercised by new officers created by the emperors. After the battle of Actium, Augustus appointed a Praefectus urbi, who exercised the general police, which had formerly been one of the duties of the aediles. Augustus also took from the aediles, or exercised himself, the office of superintending the religious rites,