ADLECTI
ADLECTI or ALLECTI1. 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. As these would be generally equites, Festus (s. v.) defines the adlecti to be equites added to the senate, distinguishing between the patres qui. sunt patricii generis, and the conscripti, qui in senatu sunt scriptis annotati; cf. also Festus, s. v. Conscripti. Livy (2.1) says conscriptos in novum senatum appellabant lectos. [W.S]
2. Under the empire, by adlectio, which answers to the lectio under the republic (Mommsen, Staatsr. 2.877, note), those added to the senate by the emperor were admitted to a place among the senators who had held the rank of consul, praetor, tribune or quaestor, according to the emperor's pleasure. Such were styled adlecti inter consulares, praetorios, tribunicios, or quaestorios, all which titles are found as inscriptions. The full form, however, in use even in the time of Claudius, was adlectus in senatum et inter tribunicios relatus (Corp. Inscr. v. No. 3117 ; cf. Momnmsen, Röm. Staatsr. 2.878, note 2.); the abbreviated expression does not occur before Vespasian (Corp. Inscr. 3.335 ; 6.1359, &c.) the expression adlectus inter consulares apparently not before the 3rd century (Orelli, Inscr. 1178). Mommsen distinguishes this adlectio from the conferring of ornamenta consularia, &c. It is more probable that the two represent the same institution at different periods (cf. Willems, Le Sénat Romain, i. pp. 626-633).
3. Adlecti was also the name applied to those admitted by a decree of the council of a municipium or colonia to a seat in this body, an admission which generally involved heavy charges (cf. Plin. Ep. 10.112, 113; Orell. Inscr. 3721; Malquardt, Staatsv. 1.499, 507-8).
[A.S.W]