User:Ifly6/Tresviri capitales

The tresviri capitales were three minor magistrates in the Roman republic with duties related to public order: supervision of the prison, executions, and a night-time brigade which watched for thieves, runaway slaves, and fires. They were part of the vigintisexviri, a college of twenty-six minor magistrates.

History and duties
According to Livy, the tresviri capitales were created c. 290–87 BC, with a somewhat coterminous set of powers with the triumvir nocturnus who supervised a rudimentary night watch against thieves and fires. In this capacity, they likely were aides to the praetor urbanus. They got their name from their supervision of a jail for those pending trial and where executions were conducted. Some time in the late third century BC, a lex Papiria required the tresviri to be elected by the praetor urbanus. It also give them power to take sacramenta and to judge judicial cases.

By the middle and late republic, the tresviri capitales supervised a public slave gang which acted as a rudimentary fire brigade. After a large fire in Rome, probably in 241 BC, the college was tried and condemned for negligence. They also watched out for thieves and runaway slaves. At night, these responsibilities were taken by five non-senatorial men who assisted the tresviri, called quinqueviri cis Tiberim (five men on the nearer side of the Tiber). Slaves, when caught, were publicly flogged at the Columna Maenia in the Forum. Thieves may also have been so punished due to their infamia. These duties largely related to the protection of citizen lives and property; but due to a lack of resources, they did not act like a modern police force.

In this later period, the tresviri capitales also superseded the criminal role of the quaestores parricidii, taking over investigation of murders. While the aristocracy and political class were largely able to secure justice in the formal criminal courts or before popular assemblies, the common plebs were not treated so lightly. The tresviri capitales had substantial power to punish those they found guilty in a summary fashion; while citizens had provocatio rights to appeal to the people or tribunes, such rights required a tribune to intervene actively against a triumvir's actions, which was unlikely. It was, however, unlikely that the capitales could administer capital punishment summarily.