The Magistrature

New Roman">The tribunes

During the Principate the tribunes retained their rights of intercessio and auxilium. However, their authority was greatly diminished as a result of the

disappearance of the concilium plebis as an independent political assembly and, in practice, none of their powers could be effectively exercised without the emperor's consent.^[851] In the first century AD the tribunes occasionally summoned and presided over meetings of the senate and, together with the praetors and the aediles, were entrusted with the general superintendence of the fourteen districts into which the city of Rome had been divided.

The consuls

In the period under consideration the consulship retained much of its earlier prestige but was now under the control of the emperor who conferred it upon whom he pleased or assumed it in person (despite the fact that he already possessed the imperium consulare) whenever he thought fit.^[853] Moreover, whereas during the Republic the office of consul was normally held by two persons in the course of one year, it now became common practice to appoint several pairs of consuls during one year, the number varying according to the number of persons on whom the emperor wished to bestow the title. Under normal circumstances, the consuls remained in office for a period of two months (thus there were twelve consuls in all in each year).^[854] The two consuls who took office at the beginning of the year (consules ordinarily gave their name to the year and were held in higher honour than those who followed (the latter were

The Principate 255 referred to as consules suffecti, or consules minores).'⁰ The consuls retained the right of summoning and presiding over the senate and the comitia centuriata, and occasionally acted as judges in civil cases.

The praetors

During the Principate the praetors continued to exercise their usual judicial functions in the context of the formulary system. However, with the gradual replacement of the formulary system by the new system of the cognitio extra ordinem, their role in the administration of justice diminished as more and more cases came within the jurisdiction of imperial officials. During this period the number of praetors was increased, initially to twelve and later to eighteen.^[857] Of these the praetor urbanus and the praetor peregrinus exercised general jurisdiction, whilst the jurisdiction of the rest was limited to certain matters only. Thus, in the Augustan era the management of the public treasury (aerarium) was entrusted to two praetors, referred to as praetores aerarir, from the time of Claudius a special praetor was appointed to deal with cases concerning trust estates (praetor de fideicommissis)', under Nerva a special praetor was entrusted with the resolution of disputes that arose between private individuals and the imperial exchequer (praetor fiscalis)·, and in the time of the Antonine emperors the appointment of guardians and the resolution of disputes which arose between guardians were consigned to a special praetor known as praetor tutelarius. The office of praetor peregrinus disappeared after the Roman citizenship was granted to all the free inhabitants of the empire in the early third century AD.

urbanus continued to exist until the end of the Western Roman Empire in the middle of the fifth century AD.^[858]

The aediles

The aediles, whose number had been increased to six by Julius Caesar, continued to exist as independent magistrates during the first two centuries of the Principate. However, most of their original duties were taken over by imperial officials. As was noted before, the task of ensuring the regular supply of Rome with com and other provisions was assigned to the praefectus annonae, and the aediles' police duties were transferred to the praefectus urbi and the praefectus vigilum. Within the aediles sphere of responsibilities remained only the inspection of streets, baths and other public places and the enforcement of sanitary regulations. The aedileship finally disappeared in the third century AD.

The quaestors

The number of the quaestors, which had been increased to forty by Julius Caesar, was reduced by Augustus to twenty, as it was in the time of Sulla.^[859] In the Augustan era the duties of the quaestores urbani pertaining to the administration of the public treasury {aerarium) were transferred to the two praetores aerarii and an imperial magistrate who bore the title praefectus aerarii. Two of the quaestors were assigned to the emperor and were referred to as quaestores principis, whilst the rest served under the consuls {quaestores consulis) and the provincial governors {quaestores provinciarum). The office of quaestor retained some significance as it was regarded as an important first step by those who wished to attain a high magistracy or to join the imperial civil service.

The censors

During the later Republic the office of censor was stripped of most of its powers and, by the middle of the first century BC, it appears to have fallen into disuse. As was noted before, in the early years of the Principate Augustus took upon himself the supervision of public morals {cura morum) and the drawing up of the list of senators {lectio senatus), tasks originally entrusted to the censors. In 48 AD Emperor Claudius assumed the title of censor, as did Vespasian in 74 AD. From the time of Domitian (81-96 AD) it became customary for the emperors to exercise censorial powers for life and the censorship ceased to exist as an independent office.^[860]