parochi

PA´ROCHIwere certain people who were paid by the state to supply the Roman magistrates, ambassadors, and other official persons, when they were travelling, with those necessaries which they could not conveniently carry with them. They existed on all the principal stations on the Roman roads in Italy and the provinces, where persons were accustomed to pass the night. But as many magistrates frequently made extortionate demands from the parochi, the Lex Julia de Repetundis of Julius Caesar, B.C. 59, defined the things which the parochi were bound to supply, of which hay, fire-wood, salt, and a certain number of beds appear to have been the most important. (Hor. Sat. 1.5, 46; Cic. ad Att. 5.1. 6, 13.2; Heindorf, ad Hor. l. c.; Marquardt, Privatleben, 199.)

Commissaries employed by the Roman State to furnish all necessary supplies to officials who were travelling on public business. They were distributed among the chief postingstations throughout Italy and the provinces. (See cursus publicus; mansio.) A law passed in B.C. 59 by Iulius Caesar defined the supplies which these persons were compelled to furnish, and limited them to the barest necessaries, such as firewood, shelter, beds, etc. See Hor. Sat. i. 5, 46; Cic. Ad Att. v. 16; xiii. 2; Marquardt, Privatleben der Römer, 199.