Apparitores

Apparitores the general name for the free attendants of the magistrates at Rome, as distinguished from the servi publici. They received wages (merces) from the public treasury, and had places of their own in the theatre and circus (Tac. Ann. 16.12), doubtless near the magistrates on whom they waited. They were divided into five classes--the ACCENSI, LICTORES, VIATORES, SCRIBAE, and PRAECONES, treated in separate articles. Sometimes the term apparitores is used to exclude scribae and lictores; but this is less exact, for the last two classes also apparebant magistratibus. (Cf. Serv. on Verg. A. 12.850; Cic. Cluent. 53, 147; Liv. 1.8.) Each class constituted a corporation (corpus), subdivided into decuriae, which had the right of holding property and slaves. The number of members of a decuria varied with the number of attendants to which each magistrate was entitled. The term decuria was afterwards applied, not merely to a subdivision of a corporation, but to the whole of one not so divided. The post of apparitor, though nominally conferred by the magistrates of each year, became practically a permanent one, and was even transferred by sale. (Cf. Mommsen, Staatsr. 1.259-272; Becker, Röm. Alt. 2.2,370-384.)

[A.S.W]