sedile

[Lat. ædilis, originally from ædes =(1) a sanctuary, a temple, (2) a dwelling for men.] 1. ( Plural .) In ancient Rome: Magistrates who had charge of public and private buildings, of aqueducts, roads, sewers, weights, measures, the national worship, and, specially when there were no censors, public morality. There were two leading divisions of ædilesplebeian and curule. Two of the former cla were created in A.U. 260, to a ist the tribunes in their judicial functions. The same number of curule ædiles were elected from the patricians A.U. 387, to perform certain public games. For a time these officers were chosen alternately from the patricians and the plebeians, then they were taken indiscriminately from either of these castes. Their insignia of office were like those of the old kings-the toga prætext a (a purple robe) and the sella curulis, or curule chair, ornamented with ivory. To the ordinary two plebeian ædiles Julius Cæsar added another pair, called cereal adiles , to look after the corn supplies and the food of the capital generally. or godde from whom Numa Pompilius pretended that he received his laws.] A genus of Sphinxes (Hawk-moths), the typical one of the family Ægeridæ. Example, the Currant Clear-wing, E. tipuliformis , so called from its resemblance to the two-winged tipula, whilst the English appellation points to the fact that the larva feeds on currant bushes.