[817] Liv. vii. 42 “aliis plebiscitis cautum ne quis eundem magistratum intra decem annos caperet; neu duos magistratus uno anno gereret.” Cf. x. 13.
[818] Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 9, 24 “ne in iis quidem magistratibus quorum certus ordo est.”
[819] Liv. xl. 44 “eo anno rogatio primum lata est ab L. Villio tr. pl., quot annos nati quemque magistratum peterent caperentque.” It probably accepted the age of twenty-eight for the quaestorship; the minimum age for the consulship in the time of Cicero was forty-three (Phil. v. 17, 48); that for the praetorship is quite unknown; thirty-five and forty have been conjectured.
[820] Cic. ad Fam. x. 25, 2 “non est annus hic tibi destinatus, ut, si aedilis fuisses, post biennium tuus annus esset” (i.e. for election to the praetorship). To be elected in the earliest year, when one is qualified by the interval, is to attain a magistracy “anno sibi destinato” (l.c.) or “suo anno” (Cic. pro Mil. 9, 24). Momms. Staatsr. i. pp. 527, 529. The principle of at least one year’s interval seems to have applied to the transition from plebeian to patrician magistracies in the form that candidature during the holding of any office was forbidden (Momms. Staatsr. i. p. 533).
[821] App. B.C. i. 100 καὶ στρατηγεῖν ἀπεῖπε πρὶν ταμιεῦσαι καὶ ὑπατεύειν πρὶν στρατηγῆσαι, καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν τὴν αὐτὴν αὖθις ἄρχειν ἐκώλυσε πρὶν ἒτη δέκα διαγενέσθαι.
[822] Cic. ad Fam. xvi. 12, 3 “se praesentem trinum nundinum petiturum”; Sallust, Cat. 18 “post paulo Catilina pecuniarum repetundarum reus prohibitus erat consulatum petere, quod intra legitimos dies profiteri nequiverit.” The interval was probably twenty-four days. See the section on the comitia.
[823] Plut. Aem. Paul. 3; Sull. 5.
[824] Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 9, 24 (63 B.C.) “praesentem profiteri jubet, quod nulla alia in lege unquam fuit, ne in iis quidem magistratibus quorum certus ordo est”; Suet. Caes. 18 (60 B.C.) “cum edictis jam comitiis ratio ejus haberi non posset ... et ambienti ut legibus solveretur multi contradicerent, coactus est triumphum, ne consulatu excluderetur, dimittere.” Cf. Plut. Caes. 13.
[825] Dio Cass. xl. 56 (Pompeius) τὸν περὶ τῶν ἀρχαιρεσιῶν νόμον τὸν κελεύοντα τοὺς ἀρχήν τινα ἐπαγγέλλοντας ἐς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν πάντως ἁπαντᾷν, ὥστε μηδένα ἀπόντα αἱρεῖσθαι, παρημελημένον πῶς ἀνενεώσατο.
[826] Hence their association with sequestres—the agents in whose hands the candidate deposited money. Cic. pro Planc. 18, 19; Q. Cic. de Pet. Cons. 14, 57.