and the other conspirators; but M. Antonius, who desired to rule in Cæsar's room, prevented it. And Hirtius and Pansa, the consuls of the following year, being slain at Mutina, Octavius, who was afterwards called Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus shared between them the provinces of the republic, and exercised absolute power under the title of TRIUMVIRI reipublicæ constituendæ.

The combination between Pompey, Cæsar, and Crassus, commonly called the first triumvirate, which was formed by the contrivance of Cæsar, in the consulship of Metellus and Afranius, A. U. 693, Vell. Pat. ii. 44. Horat. Od. ii. 1., is justly reckoned the original cause of this revolution, and of all the calamities attending it. For the Romans, by submitting to their usurped authority, showed that they were prepared for servitude. It is the spirit of a nation alone which can preserve liberty. When that is sunk by general corruption of morals, laws are but feeble restraints against the encroachments of power. Julius Cæsar would never have attempted what he effected, if he had not perceived the character of the Roman people to be favourable to his designs.

After the overthrow of Brutus and Cassius at the battle of Philippi, A. U. 712, Augustus, on a slight pretext, deprived Lepidus of his command, and having vanquished Antony in a sea-fight at Actium, became sole master of the Roman empire, A. U. 723, and ruled it for many years under the title of PRINCE or EMPEROR (Princeps vel Imperator). The liberty of Rome was now entirely extinguished; and although Augustus endeavoured to establish a civil monarchy, the government perpetually tended to a military despotism, equally fatal to the characters and happiness of prince and people.

In the beginning of the republic, the consuls seem to have been the only stated magistrates, Liv. iv. 4.; but as they, being engaged almost in continual wars, could not properly attend to civil affairs, various other magistrates were appointed at different times, prætors, censors, ædiles, tribunes of the commons, &c. Ib. Under the Emperors various new magistrates were instituted.

OF MAGISTRATES IN GENERAL.

A MAGISTRATE is a person invested with public authority (Magistratus est qui præsit, Cic. de Legg. iii. 1. Dicitur magistratus a magistro. Magister autem est, qui plus aliis potest, Festus).

The office of a magistrate in the Roman republic was different from what it is among us. The Romans had not the same discrimination betwixt public employments that we have. The same person might regulate the police of the city, and direct the affairs of the empire, propose laws, and execute them, act as a judge or a priest, and command an army, Liv. x. 29. et alibi passim. The civil authority of a magistrate was called magistratus or potestas, his judicative power jurisdictio, and his military command imperium. Anciently all magistrates who had the command of an army were called PRÆTORES, (vel quod cæteros præirent, vel quòd aliis præessent, Ascon. in Cic.)

MAGISTRATUS either signifies a magistrate; as, Magistratus jussit: or a magistracy; as, Titio magistratus datus est, Festus. So, POTESTAS; as, Habere potestatem, gerere potestates, esse in v. cum

MAGISTRATUS MAJORES, CURULES, ETC.

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potestate, to bear an office; Gabiorum esse potestas, to be magistrate of Gabii, Juvenal. x. 99. Jurisdictionem tantùm in urbe delegari magistratibus solitam, etiam per provincias POTESTATIBUS demandavit, Suet. Claud. 24. MAGISTRATUS was properly a civil magistrate or magistracy in the city; and POTESTAS in the provinces (Magistratus, vel iis, qui in potestate aliquâ sint, ut putà proconsul, vel prætor, vel alii, qui provincias regunt, Ulpian). But this distinction is not always observed, Sallust. Jug. 63.

When a magistrate was invested with military command by the people, for the people only could do it, he was said esse in v. cum imperio, in justo v. summo imperio. (Cum imperio esse dicitur, cui nominatim est a populo mandatum imperium, Festus.) Thus, Abstinentiam neque in imperiis, neque in magistratibus præstitit, i. e. neque cùm exercitui præesset et jus belli gerendi haberet, neque cùm munera civilia in urbe gereret, Suet. Cæs. 54. Nemine cum imperio (military command) aut magistratu (civil authority), tendente quoquam, quin Rhodum diverteret, Id. Tib. 12. So, magistratus et imperia capere, to enjoy offices civil and military, Id. Cæs. 75. But we find Esse in imperio, simply for Esse consulem, Liv. iv. 7.; and all those magistrates were said Habere imperium, who held great authority and power (qui et coërcere aliquem possent, et jubere in carcerem duci, Paull. 1. 2. ff. de in jus vocando), as the dictators, consuls, and prætors. Hence they were said to do any thing pro imperio, Liv. ii. 56., to which Terence alludes, Phorm. i. 4. 19.; whereas the inferior magistrates, the tribunes of the commons, the ædiles, and quæstors, were said esse sine imperio, and to act only pro potestate, Liv. ii. 56. iv. 26. Sometimes potestas and imperium are joined; thus, Togatus in republica cum potestate imperioque versatus est, Cic. Phil. i. 7.

DIVISION OF MAGISTRATES.

THE Roman magistrates were variously divided; into ordinary and extraordinary, greater and less, curule and not curule; also patrician and plebeian, city and provincial magistrates.

The MAGISTRATUS ORDINĂRII were those who were created at stated times, and were constantly in the republic; the EXTRAORDINARII not so.

The MAGISTRATUS MAJORES were those who had what were called the greater auspices (quæ minoribus magis rata essent, Gell. xiii. 15.) The magistratus majores ordinarii were the consuls, prætors, and censors, who were created at the Comitia Centuriata: the extraordinarii were the dictator, the master of the horse (magister equitum), the interrex, the præfect of the city, &c.

The MAGISTRATUS MINORES ORDINARII were the tribunes of the commons, the ædiles, and quæstors: EXTRAORDINARII, the præfectus annonæ, duumviri navales, &c.

The MAGISTRATUS CURULES were those who had the right of using the sella curulis or chair of state, namely, the dictator, the consuls, prætors, censors, and curule ædiles. All the rest, who had not that right, were called NON CURULES. (Curules magistratus appellati sunt, quia curru vehebantur, Festus: [they had the privilege of going to the senate in a chariot :] In quo curru sella curulis erat,

98

LEX ANNALIS, CORNELIA KINGS.

supra quam considerent, Gell. iii. 18.) The sella curulis was anciently made of ivory, or at least adorned with ivory; hence Horace calls it, curule ebur, Ép. i. 6. 53. The magistrates sat on it in their tribunal on all solemn occasions.

In the beginning of the republic, the magistrates were chosen only from the patricians, but in process of time also from the plebeians, except the interrex alone (quem et ipsum patricium esse, et a patriciis prodi necesse erat, Cic. pro Domo, 14.). The plebeian magistrates were the ædiles and tribunes of the commons.

Anciently there was no certain age fixed for enjoying the different offices, Cic. Phil. v. 17. A law was first made for this purpose (LEX ANNALIS) by L. Villius (or L. Julius), a tribune of the commons, A. U. 573, whence his family got the surname of ANNALIS, Liv. xl. 44., although there seems to have been some regulation about that matter formerly, Id. xxv. 2. What was the year fixed for enjoying each office is not fully ascertained. See p. 5. It is certain that the prætorship used to be enjoyed two years after the ædileship, Cic. Famil. x. 25., and that the 43d was the year fixed for the consulship, Cic. Phil. v. 17. If we are to judge from Cicero, who frequently boasts that he had enjoyed every office in its proper year (se suo quemque magistratum anno gessisse), the years appointed for the different offices by the lex Villia were, for the quæstorship thirty-one, for the ædileship thirty-seven, for the prætorship forty, and for the consulship forty-three. [See p. 107.] But even under the republic popular citizens were freed from these restrictions, ibid., and the emperors granted that indulgence (annos remittebant) to whomsoever they pleased, Plin. Ep. vii. 16.; or the senate to gratify them, Dio. liii. 28. The lex annalis, however, was still observed, Plin. Ep. iii. 20.

It was ordained by the law of Romulus, that no one should enter on any office, unless the birds should give favourable omens (nisi aves addixissent vel admisissent, Liv. i. 36.). And by the CORNELIAN LAW, made by Sulla, A. U. 673, that a certain order should be observed in obtaining preferments; that no one should be prætor before being quæstor, nor consul before being prætor; nor should enjoy the same office within ten years, nor two different offices in the same year, Appian de Bell. Civ. i. p. 412. Liv. xxxii. 7. Cic. Phil. xi. 5. Liv. vii. 40. But these regulations also were not strictly observed.

All magistrates were obliged, within five days after entering on their office, to swear that they would observe the laws (in leges jurare), Liv. xxxi. 5.; and after the expiration of their office, they might be brought to a trial if they had done any thing amiss, Liv. xxxvii. 57. Suet. Jul. 23.

KINGS.

ROME was at first governed by kings, not of absolute power nor hereditary, but limited and elective. They had no legislative authority, and could neither make war nor peace without the concurrence of the senate and people, Dionys. ii. 13. Sallust. Catilin. 6. *

"The senate agreed among themselves on the person to be proposed by the interrex to the curies, whose power was confined to accepting or rejecting him. It was a rogation, as in the case of a law; and hence the interrex is said rogare regem

BADGES OF THE KINGS

TRIBUNUS CELERUM.

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The kings of Rome were also priests, and had the chief direction of sacred things, Dionys. ii. 14., as among the Greeks, Virg. Æn. iii. 80. Cic. Divin. i. 40.

The badges of the kings were the trabea, i. e. a white robe adorned with stripes of purple, or the toga prætexta, a white robe fringed with purple, a golden crown, an ivory sceptre, the sella curulis, and twelve lictors, with the fasces and secures, i. e. carrying each of them a bundle of rods, with an axe stuck in the middle of them.*

The badges of the Roman magistrates were borrowed from the Tuscans, Liv. i. 8. Flor. i. 5. Sall. Cat. 51. fin. Dionys. iii. 61. Strab. v. p. 220.

According to Pliny, Romulus used only the trabea. The toga prætexta was introduced by Tullus Hostilius, and also the latus clavus, after he had conquered the Tuscans, Plin. ix. 39. s. 63. viii. 48. s. 74.

The regal government subsisted at Rome for 243+ years under seven kings, Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, L. Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and L. Tarquinius, surnamed SUPERBUS from his behaviour; all of whom, except the last, so reigned, that they are justly thought to have laid the foundations of the Roman greatness, Liv. ii. 1. Tarquin being universally detested for his tyranny and cruelty, was expelled the city, with his wife and family, on account of the violence offered by his son Sextus to Lucretia, a noble lady, the wife of Collatinus. This revolution was brought about chiefly by means of L. Junius Brutus.

The haughtiness and cruelty of Tarquin inspired the Romans with the greatest aversion to regal government, which they retained ever afterwards. Hence regiè facere, to act tyrannically, regii spiritus, regia superbia, &c.

The next in rank to the king was the TRIBUNUS, or PRÆ

to put his acceptance to the vote. Afterward the same system continues for a considerable time, in the consular elections, as well as the word' rogare. When the king had been accepted, the immediate sanction of the gods was sought for by his inauguration. But the inauguration itself was not sufficient to give the full power, the imperium, to the new king; it was necessary to invest him with it by a specific law, which he himself proposed, and the rejection of which must have compelled him to resign his dignity. Cicero's view of this regulation was, that freemen deemed the intrusting so great a power a measure so grave and hazardous, that they reserved to themselves a double deliberation.”—Nieb. i. p. 293. "The king punished disobedience with corporal penalties and fines: yet an appeal lay from such sentences to the assembly of the citizens; a franchise which can only be conceived to have been enjoyed by the patricians (Cic. de Rep. ii. 31.). Every ninth day the king held his court to his tribunal belonged the adjudication of property and persons, the protection of legal possessions; in a word, every thing that was subsequently included in the prætor's jurisdiction."- P. 295.

:

* "As a permanent mark of honour (to the memory of Remus), a second throne was set by the side of the king's, with the sceptre, crown, and other badges of royalty." - Nieb. i. p. 191.

+"According to the chronology of Fabius, the Roman history from the founding to the taking of the city, divides itself into two portions; 240 years under the kings, and 120 after them; or, to express it differently, into three periods, each containing ten times twelve years; twelve being the number of the birds in the augury of Romulus. This scheme was the bed of Procrustes; to which whatever was known or believed about the early times was fitted."-Nieb. i. p. 214.

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INTERREGNUM

CONSULES.

FECTUS CELERUM, who commanded the horse under the king, as afterwards the magister equitum did under the dictator.*

When there was a vacancy in the throne (INTERREGNUM), which happened for a whole year after the death of Romulus, on account of a dispute betwixt the Romans and Sabines, about the choice of a successor to him, the senators shared the government among themselves. They appointed one of their number, who should have the chief direction of affairs, with the title of INTERREX, and all the ensigns of royal dignity, for the space of five days; after him another, and then another, till a king was created, Živ. i. 17. Dionys. ii. 57. +

Afterwards under the republic an interrex was created, to hold the elections when there was no consul or dictator, Liv. iii. 55., which happened either by their sudden death, or when the tribunes of the commons hindered the elections by their intercession, Liv. vi. 35.

ORDINARY MAGISTRATES.

I. CONSULS.

1. THE FIRST CREATION, DIFFERENT NAMES, AND BADGES

CONSULS.

OF

AFTER the expulsion of the kings, A. U. 244, [according to Livy and Dion. Hal. 245,] two supreme magistrates were annually created, with equal authority; that they might restrain one another, and not become insolent by the length of their command, Cic. post red. in Sen. 4. Eutrop. i. 9.

They were anciently called PRÆTORES, Liv. iii. 55. Festus ; also IMPERATORES, Sallust. Cat. 6., or JUDICES, Varro de Lat. Ling. v. 7. Liv. iii. 55.; afterwards CONSULES, either from their consulting for the good of the state (a reipublicæ consulendo), Cic.

"If patres, and its derivative patricii, were titles of honour for individuals, the name of the whole class, as distinguished from the collective body of Romans, appears to have been Celeres. That this was the name of the knights is attested: as also- what is clear from the very nature of all the constitutions of antiquitythat the tribes of Romulus had tribunes; and since the tribunate of the celeres is said to have been a magistracy and a priestly office, it is palpably absurd to regard it as the captaincy of a body-guard. If the kings had such a guard, it was formed assuredly out of the numerous clients who must have been settled on their demesnes. The tribunes of all the three tribes were certainly at once leaders in the field, and magistrates and priests in the city; just as a curion, in his character of centurion, which was his name too in the army, was captain over a hundred in the Romulian legion but among the three, the tribune of the principal tribe, as the first, will have enjoyed signal distinctions, which is the reason that only one has been named. Dionysius, however, is an exception to this: who, ii. 64., mentions the Tribuni Celerum, like the other priests, as a college." Nieb. i. p. 284.

"According to Livy, when there were but 100 senators, one was nominated in each decury. These together formed a board of ten, in which the regal power and its badges, enjoyed by each interrex during five days, devolved in such a manner, that, if no king was created at the expiration of fifty days, the rotation began anew. This statement refers to the superiority of the Ramnes; and in it we see the decem primi, the ten, each of whom was the first in his decury.” — Nieb. i. p. 292.