During the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and later, '''adlecti''', or '''allecti''' were those who were chosen to fill up a vacancy in any office or collegium, and especially those who were chosen to fill up the proper number of the senate.<ref name="Palmer1970">{{cite book|author=Robert E. A. Palmer|title=The Archaic Community of the Romans|url=https://archive.org/details/archaiccommunity0000palm|url-access=registration|year=1970|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-07702-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/archaiccommunity0000palm/page/n280 265]–}}</ref> As these would be generally equites, Festus defines the ''adlecti'' to be equites added to the senate: and he appears in this passage<ref>Festus, ''Epitome'' 6 L: ''adlecti dicebantur apud Romanos, qui propter inopiam ex equestri ordine in senatorum sunt numero adsumpti : nam patres dicuntur qui sunt patricii generis; conscripti, qui in senatu sunt scriptis adnotati.''</ref> to make a distinction between the ''adlecti'' and the ''conscripti''. This distinction is supported by the summons form used to call the senate, which reads ''pares'' and ''conscripti'' beginning in 509 BC.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Ryan, Francis X.|year=1998|title=Rank and Participation in the Republican Senate|location=Stuttgart, Germany|publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=CkAvbQD7E-kC&pg=PA166 166]|isbn=978-3-515-07093-5}}</ref> Others argue that they were the same; for in another passage, Festus gives the same definition of the conscripti as he had done of the adlecti, and Livy (ii.1) says ''conscriptos in novum senatum appellabant lectos''.
The '''adelecti''' were also those persons under the empire who were admitted to the privileges and honours of the praetorship, quaestorship, aedileship, and other public offices, without having any duties to perform (''Historia Augusta'', "Helvius Pertinax", 6). In inscriptions, we constantly find, ''adlectus inter tribunos'', ''inter quaestores'', ''inter praetores'', etc.
==Notes== {{Reflist|2}}
==References==
*{{SmithDGRA|title=adlecti|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0063%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D2%3Aentry%3Dadlecti-cn}}
Category:Ancient Romans Category:Political office-holders in ancient Rome
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