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 p377  Curio

Article by Leonhard Schmitz, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., Rector of the High School of Edinburgh
on p377 of

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

CU′RIO, the person who stood at the head of a curia, and had to manage its affairs, especially those of a religious nature (Dionys. II.7, 65; Varro, de L. L. V.15, 32, VI.6): in their administration he was assisted by another priest, called flamen curialis (Paul. Diac. p64; Liv. XXVII.8). He was elected in the comitia curiata, and had authority over the curiae as well as over the curiones. It need hardly be observed, that the office of curio could not be held by any one except a patrician; at a comparatively late time we indeed find now and then a plebeian invested with the office of curio maximus (Liv. XXVII.8, XXXIII.42), but this only shows how much the ancient institution of the curiae had then lost of its original meaning and importance; and at the time when the plebeians had gained access to priestly dignities, the office of curio seems to have been looked upon in the light of any other priestly dignity, and to have been conferred upon plebeians no less than upon patricians.

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