Functions of the magistrates

At the top of the government of the Roman Republic were two consuls. As supreme Roman magistrates, consuls inherited the primitive royal powers. They possessed the highest imperium, except when a dictator was appointed.

The most important consular function was military command. To relieve the consuls of ordinary administration and jurisdiction, a praetorship was created in 367 bce. As a junior colleague of the consuls, the praetor was vested with the same imperium as the consuls, but the praetor could not veto the consuls. In the beginning, there was only one praetor, but by 242 bce a second one was added. Later, the functions of the praetors were divided: the urban praetor exercised jurisdiction over citizens; the peregrine praetor exercised jurisdiction over foreigners or between foreigners and Roman citizens. Since the administration of provinces was in the hands of praetors, the number of

praetors gradually increased. Praetors were instrumental to developing Roman law by issuing edicts and introducing legislation.

In 367 bce the patrician aedileship was created. Tradition maintained that two plebeian aediles had long existed as assistants of the plebeian tribune. Aediles oversaw public order and security in Rome. They supervised streets, buildings - specifically temples (aedes) - bridges, aqueducts, markets (weights and measures), and market transactions (sales of slaves and animals, among other things).

The quaestorship was probably established at the beginning of the Republic. Quaestors were magistrates who supervised the treasure of Rome. Originally, they served as assistants of the consuls in finance and administrative matters domestically and abroad. Since the quaestors managed the finances of the provinces, the number of quaestors increased constantly during the Republic. Julius Caesar raised the number of quaestors to forty. The Senate supervised the distribution of quaestors, but magistrates seem to have had some discre­tion in selecting quaestors as subalterns. Quaestorship was the lowest of the magistracies and used to be the initial office in a magisterial career.

In 443 bce, the censorship was established as a temporary magistracy with the purpose of creating a census of Roman citizens to count and rank the Roman people and register their properties. The comitia centuriata, presided over by the consul, elected the two censors once every five years, and they held office for eighteen months (so for three and a half years there were no censors). Despite the lack of imperium in the censorship, Roman citizens considered the office to have the highest dignity. As a result, only former consuls were ordinarily elected to this magistracy. The censors made up the list of senators and fixed the tribe and class to which each citizen belonged. Vested with strong discretionary power, the censors became the supervisors of and took responsibility for public morality, especially of the upper class. Toward the end of the Republic, the censorship disappeared.

The nomination of a dictator (also called magister populi) was entrusted to the consuls. The dictatorship was an extraordinary magistracy appointed for a maximum term of six months in times of extreme internal or external diffi­culties. The dictator commanded the army and took care of civil emergencies. He had supreme power and jurisdiction and could not be called to account for his actions.

One of the most famous and popular dictatorships was that of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (Livy, Ab urbe condita 3.26-29; Dionysius of Hali­carnassus, Roman Antiquities 10, 23-25). He was a Roman aristocrat (born around 519 bce) and a citizen of outstanding leadership, consul in 460 bce, and dictator in 458 bce and, according to legend, again in 439 bce. The Romans admired him because he defeated Rome’s enemies, relieved the besieged consul Municius, and then returned to his farm, all within sixteen

Constitutional background of Roman law 35 days. (The first American president, George Washington, was sometimes called the “American Cincinnati” because he retired to his farm at Mount Vernon after defeating the British army and declining the offer of quasi- monarchical powers.) The last constitutional dictatorship was appointed in 201 bce, the last year of the Second Punic War. Afterward, Rome ceased to appoint dictators. The dictatorships of Sulla (82 bce) and Julius Caesar (49 bce) had a different constitutional character.

The office of the plebeian tribunes, which was originally not strictly a magistracy, was established in 494 bce in the course of the first secession of the plebeians in the so-called conflict of the orders (494-287 bce), in which the plebeians sought equality with the patricians. The aim of the office was to protect the plebeians against the abuses and arbitrary use of the imperium of the Roman patrician magistrates. Tribunes were elected by the plebeian assemblies and later by the comitia tributa. In 457 bce, the number of tribunes was increased from probably five to ten. According to the lex Valeria Horatia (449 bce), the person and the office of a tribune could not be violated (sacrosanctitas). As a result, anyone who attacked a tribune or injured him in the performance of his duties might be freely killed by anyone.

The power of the tribune was opposed to the power of the magistrates. In fact, it was the most important check on the power of the magistrates. By virtue of their tribunician power, individual tribunes could veto any activity of the magistrates, to whose imperium plebeian tribunes did not submit. Plebeian tribunes could convene and preside over the plebeian assemblies, attend the meetings of the Senate, propose legislation, and prosecute criminals before the comitia centuriata. They could even pronounce the death penalty. Patricians could become tribunes only by previous adoption into a plebeian family. This was the case, for instance, with clodius, the bitter political enemy of cicero. In 59 bce Clodius was adopted into a plebeian family and was elected tribune for 58 bce. Gradually the tribune of the plebs became indistinguishable from other magistracies, although it never lost its radical flavor and populist char­acter. In the late Republic, the office of the tribunes was terminated and assimilated into the other magistracies.

A number of magistrates of low status were appointed every year by the people, and a number of magistrates were elected occasionally when they were required for the good of the Roman Republic.