Republican Organization

Political Offices¹

• Prerequisite for any office: 10 years military service
• One-year terms except for censor (18 months) and dictator (maximum of 6 months²)
• Elected annually except censors³ and dictators (appointed only in times of crisis)
• Each magistrate has potestas⁴; those who have imperium⁵ sit on sella curulis and wear toga praetexta
• Specified period before one can be re-elected to same office or is eligible for higher office
• Specified minimum ages for holding certain offices
• White background indicates office mandatory part of cursus honorum (see schema)
• Purple background indicates office carries imperium (signified by fasces)

  Office	Number	Nota Bene
  Dictator 6 24 fasces	1	Appointed by consuls on advice of Senate Supersedes all other magistrates during a military or domestic crisis Assumes imperium of both consuls Appoints lieutenant, the Magister Equitum, who also has imperium
  Censor 7	2	Conduct census and make property assessments for tax purposes8 Control public morals by notae censoriae9 Revise list of senators and equestrians (see Lex Ovinia) Supervise leasing of Ager Publicus Grant government contracts
  Consul 10 12 fasces	2	Command the army Preside over Senate and assemblies Can veto other consul's actions Conduct elections of consuls and praetors Consules ordinarii: regularly elected in any given year Consules suffecti: replace consuls who die or resign
  Praetor 11 6 fasces	1, then 2, 4, 6, 8, and 16	Praetor urbanus: concerned with civil suits between citizens Publish edicta12 Nominate praefecti with jurisdiction over Italian cities Can initiate legislation and convene Senate and assemblies When consuls were away from Rome, praetors assumed their duties Praetor pereginus: concerned with law between citizens and non-citizens
  Aedile 13	2, then 4, then 6	Maintain public buildings and temples Maintain streets in Rome, regulate traffic Supervise water and grain supply Adminster markets, weights & measures Arrange public festivals and games
  Quaestor 14	2, then 4, 8, 20, and 40	Financial officers, treasury officials Conduct funding for military operations Supervise distribution or auction of war booty Record expenses of Roman government Financial assistants to provincial governors Maintain public records Have jurisdiction over certain crimes (quaestores parricidii) 2 quaestores consulis: part of consul's staff 2 quaestores urbani: attached to aerarium15 4 quaestores Italici or classici: in charge of Italy
  Tribune of the Plebs 16	2, then 10	Defend lives and property of their electorate Possess sacrosanctitas17 and intercessio18 Can convene Senate and assemblies Can initiate legislation Supervise election of their successors

• Promagistracies
  • Introduced in 326 BCE to extend the term of office of a consul so he could complete his military campaign¹⁹
  • Proconsuls usually assigned to a province for one year; they fight for favour of Senate, who allocate them either a profitable province or a poor commission
  • Senate allocates each praetor a propraetorship when his term of office expired;²⁰ involved either military leadership, provincial governorship, or control over special commissions

Senate

• Composed solely of ex-magistrates
• Only body where discussion or debate on the floor is possible
• Consultative body that cannot meet unless convened by magistrate
• Over time, changed from advisory body to supervisory body: controls all finances, foreign affairs, and state administration

Assemblies²¹

• Comitia Centuriata
  • Elects censors, consuls, praetors and curule aediles
  • Makes declarations of war
  • Court of appeal for citizens sentenced to death or exile
• Comitia Tributa (Populi)²²
  • Open to all citizens
  • Contains an important subgroup, the Concilium Plebis
  • Elects all other magistrates except tribunes and plebeian aediles
  • Vote "yes" or "no" on laws according to tribes
• Concilium Plebis (Tributum)²³
  • Open only to plebeians
  • Elects political offices open only to plebeians, i.e. tribunes and plebeian aediles
  • Makes resolutions called plebescita
• Comitia Curiata
  • Oldest assembly
  • By late Republic has only ceremonial clan functions (e.g. adoptio, wills, confers imperium)

1.  This review table includes several important modifications that were not made until later in the Republic.

2.  The dictator was required to abdicate his power as soon as the crisis was over or after six months at the latest.  However, the office was held for longer by some individuals, notably Sulla.  Recall that Julius Caesar was assassinated soon after being appointed dictator for life.

3.  According to Cary & Scullard p. 69, "Two censors were appointed in 443, and thereafter at irregular intervals, varying between three and twelve years, but later they held office every five years; their period of office was fixed in 434 at eighteen months."

4.  According to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, "it seems that this word Potestas, like many other Roman terms, had both a wider signification and a narrower one.  In its wider signfication it might mean all the power that was delegated to any person by the State"  (complete dictionary entry available online at Lacus Curtius).

5.  According to the OCD (p. 751-752), "imperium was the supreme power, involving command in war and the interpretation and execution of law (including infliction of death penalty), which belonged at Rome to the kings and, after their expulsion, to consuls, military tribunes with consular power (from 445 to 367 BC), praetors, dictators, and masters of the horse...later in the republic imperium was held also by proconsuls and propraetors."

6.  This emergency office, originally called the magister populi (Cary & Scullard p. 63), was first held by Titus Larcius in 501 BCE (Livy, ii. 18.6) or more probably in 497 (Cary & Scullard p. 587).

7.  Established in 443 BCE, the office of censor was reserved for men who had completed the cursus honorum and were felt to be of high moral character.

8.  Censors made property assessments and then arranged for the collection of taxes by private contractors called publicani.

9.  "Censor's marks inserted in the census lists against the names of immoral or unpatriotic persons." (Cary & Scullard p. 664)

10.  These magistrates were originally called praetors (literally, "goers-in-front," from prae-eo) but by the mid-fifth century were known as consuls.

11.  Beginning in 366 BCE there was one praetor, the praetor urbanus.  A second office, the praetor peregrinus, was created in 242 BCE.  In 227, two more slots were created for governors of Sicily and Sardinia.  In 197, two others were sent to Spain.  Because of the increase in the number of provinces, Sulla raised their number to eight, Caesar to sixteen.

12.  Edicta were general ordinances for handling cases on which statues or common custom gave no clear ruling.

13.  Aediles originated as two subordinates of the tribunes of the plebs, whose sacrosanctitas (see endnote 17) they shared.  Their central function was to supervise the common temple (aedes) and cults of the plebs (those of Ceres and Diana on the Aventine).  In 367 BCE two slots were created exclusively for patricians, who as curule aediles were entitled to sit in the sella curulis.  In 49 BCE Julius Caesar increased the number of aediles to 6.

14.  The quaestorship was created in 447 BCE (each consul appointed one patrician).  Two slots were added when the office was opened to plebeians in 421 BCE and later 4 more were added (Italici or classici) bring the total to 8.  As provinces were created the number of quaestors was increased (to 20 by Sulla in 88 BCE, to 40 by Caesar in 49 BCE).

15.  The aerarium, the main treasury of the Roman Republic, was housed in the Temple of Saturn in the forum, which Livy assigns to 496 BCE.

16.  In 471 the Lex Publilia recognized the constitutional existence of the Tribunes of the Plebs and the Concilium Plebis.  Soon thereafter (in 469?) the number of tribunes increased from 2 to 10.

17.  The Plebs bound itself by oath (lex sacrata) to hold its officials as sacrosanct.  The Valerio-Horatian Laws enacted that the head of anyone who physically harmed the tribunes or plebeian aediles was Iovi sacrum--that is, the offender was immediately and summarily put to death and his goods were consecrated to Liber, Libera, and Ceres.

18.  Intercessio was the right of veto against magistrate elections, decrees and laws/actions of the Senate and Magistrates.  The tribune said "intercedo" when protecting a citizen from a magistrate.

19.  During the Second Samnite War the Senate requested the tribal assembly prolong the term of the former dictator Publilius Philo so that he could attack Neapolis (Cary & Scullard p. 81).

20.  Eventually, one did not need to be a praetor to obtain propraetorian powers.  The Senate bestowed propraetorian powers on Cn. Pompey when he raised his army of mercenaries even though he had not fulfilled the requirements for propraetorship.

21.  The assemblies were composed of all males with full Roman citizens.  Issues could not be discussed or debated from the floor and individuals had to attend in person in order to vote.

22.  According to Cary & Scullard (p. 588), this assembly probably was not created until 447 BCE.

23.  This assembly was created after First Secession in 494 but not legally recognized until 471.