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 p748  Medix Tuticus

Unsigned article on pp748‑749 of

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.

MEDIX TUTICUS, the name of the supreme magistrate among the Oscan people. Medix appears to have signified a magistrate of any kind (meddix apud Oscos nomen magistratus est, Festus, s.v. p123, ed. Müller), and tuticus to have been equivalent to magnus or summus. Livy, therefore, in calling the medix tuticus the summus magistratus, gives a literal translation of the word. In the time of second Punic war, the Campanians were governed by the medix tuticus, who seems to have been elected annually (Liv. XXIII.35, XXIV.19, XXVI.6); and we may infer from a line of Ennius (apud Fest. s.v.), "Summus ibi capitur meddix, occiditur alter," that there was another  p749 magistrate of the same name under him, who perhaps took his place in case of death, or of his being incapacitated by illness or other causes from discharging his duties. In Oscan inscriptions the name occurs in the form of meddíss túvtiks; so that the orthography of Festus is more correct than that of Livy, which is placed at the head of this article. (Lepsius, Inscr. Umbr. et Oscae.)


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