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Roman Magistrates and the Cursus Honorum
How Rome was governed: the magistracies of the cursus honorum, the officials of the imperial administration, and the assemblies.
Quiz yourself on these in RomeDrill →Magistrates and officials
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Augustus (title) | Proposed by Munatius Plancus in 27 BC, the name carried religious overtones (augur, augere). It became the title of full emperors; under the Tetrarchy the two senior rulers were Augusti and their juniors Caesars. |
| Caesar (title) | Originally the cognomen of the Julii Caesares, it was adopted by every emperor. From Hadrian's adoption of Lucius Aelius (AD 136) it designated the heir apparent, and under the Tetrarchy the two junior emperors. It is the origin of 'Kaiser' and 'Tsar'. |
| Censor | The censorship was created in 443 BC. The two censors conducted the census, carried out the lectio senatus, could stigmatise misconduct with a nota, and let contracts for taxes and public works. They had no imperium but immense prestige; their work closed with the lustrum. |
| Consul | The two consuls were the highest regular magistrates of the Republic, elected annually by the comitia centuriata, each with imperium, twelve lictors and a veto over his colleague. Under Sulla's rules the minimum age was 42. The office survived as an honour under the Empire. |
| Cursus honorum | The Lex Villia annalis (180 BC) first fixed minimum ages, and Sulla (81 BC) tightened the order: quaestor at 30, praetor at 39, consul at 42, with two years between offices and ten before repeating one. Holding each office at the earliest legal age was called doing so 'suo anno'. |
| Dictator | The dictator was named by a consul, usually on the Senate's advice, to meet a military or civil crisis, and appointed a magister equitum as deputy. No regular dictator was named after 202 BC; Sulla (82 BC) and Caesar (dictator perpetuo, 44 BC) revived the title in a new form, and Antony abolished it in 44 BC. |
| Dux | Diocletian and Constantine separated military from civil authority: duces commanded the limitanei of a frontier sector (e.g. the dux Britanniarum) under the magistri militum. In earlier Latin the word simply meant 'leader'. |
| Fasces | Of Etruscan origin, the fasces symbolised imperium. Inside the pomerium the axe was removed (except for a dictator) in recognition of the citizens' right of appeal, and the fasces were lowered before the assembled people. Victorious generals wreathed theirs in laurel. |
| Imperator | In the Republic a commander was acclaimed imperator after a major victory and kept the title until his triumph. Octavian took it as a praenomen (Imperator Caesar), emperors numbered their acclamations (IMP X), and it became the normal word for the ruler. |
| Imperium | Imperium included the right to command armies, to take the auspices, and to coerce and punish citizens. It was conferred by election and a lex curiata, was limited by collegiality, annuality and provocatio, and in its military form could not be exercised within the pomerium. |
| Lictor | Lictors, usually freedmen, carried the fasces before magistrates with imperium: twenty-four for a dictator, twelve for a consul, six for a praetor. Thirty lictors also represented the curiae in the vestigial comitia curiata. |
| Praetor | Praetors held imperium and six lictors. The office was created in 367 BC (one praetor), a second was added c. 242 BC, there were four from 227, six from 197 and eight under Sulla. Minimum age after Sulla was 39; ex-praetors governed provinces as propraetors. |
| Quaestor | Quaestors administered the aerarium and the finances of armies and provinces. Their number rose from two to four (421 BC), eight (c. 267 BC), twenty under Sulla and forty under Caesar. Minimum age after Sulla was 30, and the office gave automatic membership of the Senate. |
| Rex | The king was not hereditary but chosen after an interregnum and confirmed by the curiate assembly, holding imperium, auspices and priestly functions. After the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus, Spurius Cassius, Spurius Maelius and Marcus Manlius were all killed for allegedly seeking kingship (adfectatio regni). A rex sacrorum kept the king's ritual duties. |
Assemblies and the Senate
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Senate | Supposedly founded by Romulus with 100 members, the Senate was enrolled by the censors from ex-magistrates. Sulla raised it to about 600, Caesar to about 900, and Augustus cut it back to 600. It met only in a consecrated templum, between dawn and sunset. |
| Centuria praerogativa | After the third-century BC reform of the comitia centuriata, one century of juniors of the first class was drawn by lot to vote first. Cicero says its choice almost always carried the election. It is the origin of the word 'prerogative'. |
| Comitia centuriata | Attributed to Servius Tullius and military in origin, it met outside the pomerium under a magistrate with imperium. The equites (18 centuries) and first class (originally 80) voted first and could decide the result before the poor voted. It also heard capital appeals. |
| Comitia curiata | The curiate assembly of the regal period passed the lex curiata de imperio confirming magistrates' power. Under the pontifex maximus (as the comitia calata) it witnessed adrogations and certain wills. |
| Comitia tributa | Presided over by a consul or praetor, the tribal assembly was quicker than the centuriate assembly and less weighted by wealth, though the 31 rural tribes outvoted the 4 urban tribes where the city poor were enrolled. It also elected the 24 military tribunes of the first four legions. |
| Concilium plebis | Established during the Conflict of the Orders (traditionally 494 BC, tribal organisation from 471 BC). The Lex Hortensia of 287 BC gave its plebiscites the force of law, making it the main legislative body of the later Republic, used by the Gracchi and other tribunes. |
| Contio | Contiones preceded legislative votes and were the main forum for political oratory before the people; Cicero's speeches 'ad populum' (e.g. the second and third Catilinarians) were delivered at them. |
| Intercessio | Veto is Latin for 'I forbid'. Any one of the ten tribunes could paralyse public business; the veto did not apply against a dictator or outside the city. Tiberius Gracchus had his colleague Octavius deposed in 133 BC for using it. |
| Lectio senatus | The Lex Ovinia (c. 318–312 BC) transferred the enrolment of senators from the consuls to the censors, who were to choose 'the best men' of every rank, in practice ex-magistrates. Augustus conducted three purges (29, 18 and 11 BC). |
| Lex curiata de imperio | By the late Republic the measure was a formality, but its absence could be exploited: in 49 BC the Pompeians at Thessalonica could not hold elections for want of it, and Appius Claudius (consul 54 BC) argued about whether he needed one to govern his province. |
| Patres conscripti | The phrase was explained in antiquity as 'fathers and enrolled men' (patres et conscripti), distinguishing the original patrician senators from those, including plebeians, added later at the start of the Republic. |
| Pedarii | Senators were asked their opinions in order of rank: consulars first, then praetorians and so on, so that pedarii seldom spoke. Their name was derived from voting 'with their feet' in a division (discessio). |
| Plebiscitum | Plebiscita were enacted by the concilium plebis. After the Lex Hortensia (287 BC) they were equivalent to leges, and most later 'laws' (e.g. the Gracchan land law) were technically plebiscites. |
| Provocatio | Attributed to a Lex Valeria of 509 BC and reaffirmed in 449 and 300 BC, provocatio was seen as the bulwark of citizen liberty; the Leges Porciae (early second century BC) extended it outside Rome. Under the Empire it became appeal to Caesar, as invoked by St Paul. |
| Senatus consultum | A senatus consultum (abbreviated SC) recorded the Senate's advice on a magistrate's motion and could be vetoed by a tribune, in which case it was recorded merely as a senatus auctoritas. The SC de Bacchanalibus (186 BC) survives on bronze. |
| Senatus consultum ultimum | The 'final decree' (the name comes from Caesar) was used against Gaius Gracchus (121 BC), Saturninus (100), Lepidus (77), Catiline (63) and Caesar (49). Its legality was contested: it did not formally suspend a citizen's right of appeal, as Cicero found after executing the Catilinarians. |
| Tribus | The number of tribes grew with Roman territory from 21 (495 BC) to a final 35 in 241 BC (the last being Velina and Quirina). Freedmen and the city poor were confined to the four urban tribes, limiting their voting weight. A citizen's tribe formed part of his full name. |
| Trinundinum | The rule ensured that rural voters coming to market could learn of proposals. It was reinforced by the Lex Caecilia Didia of 98 BC, which also banned omnibus bills (leges saturae). |
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