A History of Rome to 565 A. D.

by Arthur E. R. Boak

The old Assembly of the Curiae was not abolished, but lost all its political functions except the right to pass a law conferring the imperium upon the magistrates elected by the Assembly of the Centuries. In addition to electing these magistrates the Centuriate Assembly had the sole right of declaring war, voted upon measures presented to it by the consuls, and acted as a supreme court of appeal for citizens upon whom a magistrate had pronounced the death penalty. However, the measures which the Assembly approved had for a long time to receive subsequent ratification by the patrician senators (the patrum auctoritas) before they became laws binding on the community. Finally, the importance of this sanction was nullified [pg 50]by the requirement of the Publilian (339?) and Maenian Laws that it be given before the voting took place.

The magistracy: quaestors and aediles. It has been indicated already that the expansion of the Roman magistracy was effected through the creation of new offices, to which were assigned duties that had previously been performed by the consular pair or new functions required by the rise of new conditions in the Roman state.

The first change came in connection with the quaestorship. About the middle of the fifth century, the officials called quaestors, who had previously been appointed by the consuls to act as their assistants, were raised to the status of magistrates and elected by popular vote. Their number was originally two, but in 421 it was increased to four, two of whom acted as officers of the public treasury (quaestores aerarii), while two were assigned to assist the consuls when the latter took the field.

At approximately the same time that the quaestorship became an elective office, the two curators of the temple of Ceres, called aediles, likewise attained the position of public officials. They henceforth acted as police magistrates, market commissioners, and superintendents of public works. As we shall have occasion to note in another connection, these aediles were elected from among the plebeians.

The censors: 443, 435? The next new office to be created was that of censor. The censorship was a commission called into being at five-year intervals and exercised by two men for a period of eighteen months. The original duty of the censors was to take the census of the citizens and their property as a basis for registering the voters in the five classes, for compiling the roster of those eligible for military service, and for levying the property tax (tributum). Probably the reason for the establishment of this office is to be sought in the heavy demands that such duties made upon the services of the consuls and the inability of the latter to complete the census within any one consular year. The censors further had charge of the letting of public contracts, and, by the end of the fourth century had acquired the right to compile the list of the senators. As this latter duty involved an enquiry into the habits of life of the senators, there arose that aspect of the censors’ power which alone has survived in the modern conception of a censorship.

The military tribunes with consular power. During the period 436 to 362, on fifty-one occasions the consular college of [pg 51]two was displaced by a board of military tribunes with consular power (tribuni militum consulari potestate). The number of these military tribunes varied: there were never less than three, more often four or six, while two boards had eight and nine tribunes respectively. As their name indicates, these were essentially military officers, and this lends support to the tradition that they were elected because the military situation frequently demanded the presence in the state of more than two magistrates who could exercise the imperium.

The praetorship. However, by 362 this method of meeting the increased burdens of the magistracy was definitely abandoned. For the future two consuls were annually elected, and, in addition, a magistrate called the praetor, to whom was assigned the administration of the civil jurisdiction within the city. The praetor was regarded as a minor colleague of the consuls and held the imperium. Consequently, if need arose, he could take command in the field or exercise the other consular functions.

The curule aediles. In the same year there was established the curule aedileship. The two curule aediles were at first elected from the patricians only, and, although their duties seem to have been the same as those of the plebeian aediles, their office was considered more honorable than that of the latter.

Promagistrates. The Roman magistrates were elected for one year only, and after 342 reëlection to the same office could only be sought after an interval of ten years. This system entailed some inconveniences, especially in the conduct of military operations, for in the case of campaigns that lasted longer than one year the consul in command had to give place to his successor as soon as his own term of office had expired. Thus the state was unable to utilize for a longer period the services of men who had displayed special military capacity. The difficulty was eventually overcome by the prolongation, at the discretion of the Senate, of the command of a consul in the field for an indefinite period after the lapse of his consulship. The person whose term of office was thus extended was no longer a consul, but acted “in the place of a consul” (pro consule). This was the origin of the promagistracy. It first appeared in the campaign at Naples in 325, and, although for a time employed but rarely, its use eventually became very widespread.

Characteristics of the magistracy. Thus the Roman magistracy attained the form that it preserved until the end of the Republic. [pg 52]It consisted of a number of committees, each of which, with the exception of the quaestorship, had a separate sphere of action. But among these committees there was a regularly established order of rank, running, from lowest to highest, as follows: quaestors, aediles, censors, praetors, consuls. With the exception of the censorship that was regularly filled by ex-consuls, the magistracies were usually held in the above order. Magistrates of higher rank enjoyed greater authority than all those who ranked below them, and as a rule could forbid or annul the actions of the latter. A magistrate could also veto the action of his colleague in office. In this way the consuls were able to control the activities of all other regular magistrates. However, the extraordinary office of the dictatorship outranked the consulship and consequently the dictator could suspend the action of the consuls themselves. The unity that was thus given to the administration by this conception of maior potestas was increased by the presence of the Senate, a council whose influence over the magistracy grew in proportion as the consulate lost in power and independence through the creation of new offices.