CURULE CHAIR, in Roman antiquity, a chair adorned with ivory, wherein the great magistrates of Rome had a right to sit and be carried.
The curule magistrates were the sediles, the praetors, censors, and consuls. The chair was fitted in a kind of chariot, whence it had its name. The senators who had borne the offices of sediles, praetors, &c. were carried to the senate-house in this chair, as were
all those who triumphed, and such as went to administer justice, &c. See ÆDILE, &c.