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91-478: The status of the praetor in the early republic is unclear. The traditional account from Livy claims that the praetorship was created by the Sextian-Licinian Rogations in 367 BC, but it was well known both to Livy and other Romans in the late republic that the chief magistrates were first called praetor . For example, Festus "refers to 'the praetors, who are now consuls'". The form of

182-673: A pretura (a court). The pretori are appointed by the canton's parliament . In the Star Trek franchise, Praetor is the usual title of the leader of the Romulan Empire . In the New Phyrexia expansion of the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game , the five Phyrexian rulers were labeled as praetors. In the sci-fi gaming franchise StarCraft , two of the major characters, Fenix and Artanis, hold

273-405: A tribune of the plebs . Some modern scholars such as A. H. M. Jones have defined imperium as "the power vested by the state in a person to do what he considers to be in the best interests of the state". Imperium was indicated in two prominent ways: a curule magistrate or promagistrate carried an ivory baton surmounted by an eagle as his personal symbol of office; any such magistrate

364-528: A Praetor in either was as follows. In an actio , which was civil, the Praetor could either issue an interdictum (interdict) forbidding some circumstance or appoint a iudex ( judge ). Proceedings before the praetor were technically said to be in iure . At this stage, the Praetor would establish a formula directing the iudex as to the remedy to be given if he found that certain circumstances were satisfied; for instance, "Let X be iudex . If it appears that

455-444: A fully-formed praetorship without colleague, as Livy's account implies, would be a "tremendous violation of Roman practice in which all regular magistracies were created in colleges consisting of at least two". "Scholars increasingly view the [rogations] as establishing a college of three (and only three) praetors, two of whom eventually developed into the historical consuls". What became the classical praetorship in its early years also

546-509: A gold-brocaded hat ( skiadion ), a plain silk kabbadion tunic, and a plain, smooth wooden staff ( dikanikion ). Classical Latin Praetor became medieval Latin Pretor; Praetura, Pretura, etc. During the interwar period the 71 counties of Romania were divided into a various numbers of plăși (singular: plasă ), headed by a Pretor , appointed by the Prefect . The institution headed by

637-512: A multitude of private leaders leading private armies. These early military leaders were eventually institutionalised into fixed magistrate bodies elected by the people with clear state control over military activities. This was also probably assisted by "the use of recuperatores to mediate disputes and fetial priests to control the declaration of war". The effect to make it more difficult for private individuals to start wars against Rome's neighbours. Reforms in 449 BC also may have required "for

728-647: A praetor in Constantinople, as a high-ranking judge. He is possibly identical to the Palaiologan-era post of the praitōr tou demōu , whose holders are attested until 1355. According to the Book of Offices of pseudo-Kodinos , compiled around the same time, the praitōr tou demōu occupied the 38th place in the imperial hierarchy, between the megas tzaousios and the logothetēs tōn oikeiakōn , but held no official function. His court uniform consisted of

819-604: A term of six months at times of crisis), who strongly opposed the bills and threatened the use of violence. However, he had to resign for unclear reasons. The plebeian tribunes put the bills to the vote of the Plebeian Council (the assembly of the plebeians). The bills on land and debt were passed, but the one on plebeian consuls was rejected. Livy wrote that "both the former [bills] would probably have been carried into law if [Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius] had not said that they were putting them en bloc." Another dictator

910-420: A total of 100). For the 400-376 BC period, in 400, 399 and 396 BC the majority of these tribunes were plebeians (4, 5, and 5 out of 6, respectively) and in 379 BC there were three plebeians of six. This raises some questions. Why from 444 to 401 BC were there only two plebeians? Why, given the presence of plebeians in the subsequent period, which shows their eligibility to the highest office, was plebeian access to

1001-480: Is a Senate with two Praetors, one male and one female. In the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV , "The Praetorium " is a level 50 dungeon. In the 2022 game Elden Ring , one of the antagonists Rykard holds the title of Praetor among his fellow demi-gods in the Lands Between. Sextian-Licinian Rogations The Licino-Sextian rogations were a series of laws proposed by tribunes of

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1092-495: Is what led to the higher prestige of the consulship. Only in 180 BC with the passage of the lex Villia annalis was holding the praetorship after the consulship prohibited. Even after the consulship emerged from the praetorship with higher prestige and desirability, praetorian imperium was still not legally distinct (or inferior to consular imperium ) until the very end of the republic. Starting in 241 BC, praetors started to be prorogued, allowing former praetors to act in

1183-471: The praefectus vigilum , who was hitherto responsible for security, by a praetor populi (in Greek πραίτωρ [τῶν] δήμων, praitōr [tōn] dēmōn ), with wide-ranging police powers. In the early 9th century, the praitōr was a junior administrative official in the themata , subordinate to the governing stratēgos . Gradually however, the civil functionaries assumed greater power, and by the late 10th century,

1274-508: The Praetor's Edict . These Edicts were statements of praetor's policy as to judicial decisions to be made during his term of office. The praetor had substantial discretion regarding his Edict, but could not legislate. In a sense the continuing Edicts came to form a corpus of precedents. The development and improvement of Roman Law owes much to the wise use of this praetorial discretion. The expansion of Roman authority over other lands required

1365-648: The Roman Republic and Empire . One's imperium could be over a specific military unit , or it could be over a province or territory . Individuals given such power were referred to as curule magistrates or promagistrates . These included the curule aedile , the praetor , the consul , the magister equitum , and the dictator . In a general sense, imperium was the scope of someone's power, and could include anything, such as public office, commerce, political influence, or wealth. Imperium originally meant absolute or kingly power —the word being derived from

1456-488: The law beyond its mere interpretation, extending imperium from formal legislators under the ever-republican constitution: popular assemblies, senate, magistrates, emperor and their delegates to the jurisprudence of jurisconsults . While the Byzantine Eastern Roman Emperors retained full Roman imperium and made the episcopate subservient, in the feudal West a long rivalry would oppose

1547-511: The pirates , were invested with imperium maius , meaning they outranked all other holders of imperium of the same type or rank (in Pompey's case, even the consuls) within their sphere of command (his being "ultimate on the seas, and within 50 miles inland"). Imperium maius later became a hallmark of the Roman emperor . Another technical use of the term in Roman law was for the power to extend

1638-614: The praetor urbanus . In the absence of the consuls, he was the senior magistrate of the city, with the power to summon the Senate and to organize the defense of the city in the event of an attack. He was not allowed to leave the city for more than ten days at a time. He was therefore given appropriate duties in Rome. He superintended the Ludi Apollinares and was also the chief magistrate for the administration of justice and promulgated

1729-495: The praitores (or kritai , "judges") were placed at the head of the civil administration of a thema . This division of civil and military duties was often abandoned in the 12th century, when the posts of civil praitōr and military doux were frequently held in tandem. The provincial post fell out of use after the collapse of the Empire in 1204. According to Helene Ahrweiler , Emperor Nikephoros II (r. 963–969) reinstituted

1820-572: The (now Christian) world. Rome was again to be the capital of the world and Frederick was to become the real emperor of the Romans, so he energetically protested against the authority of the Pope. The emperor's successes, especially his victory over the Lombards at the battle of Cortenuova (1237), only aggravated tensions between Church and State. The pope again excommunicated the "self-confessed heretic",

1911-527: The Greek world. Tarquinius Superbus , the seventh and last king of Rome, was said to have bought these books from a Sybil from Cumae, a Greek city in southern Italy (near Naples, 120 miles south of Rome) in the late seventh century BC. The law provided for the creation of a college of ten priests (decemviri) as a replacement of the duumviri, known as the Decemviri sacris faciundis . Five of them were to be patricians and five were to be plebeians. This would break

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2002-460: The Holy See possessed both an earthly and a heavenly imperium , the royal priesthood. Thenceforth, the "Donatio" acquires more importance and is more frequently used as evidence in the ecclesiastical and political conflicts between the papacy and the secular power: Anselm of Lucca and Cardinal Deusdedit inserted it in their collections of canons; Gratian excluded it from his Decretum , but it

2093-508: The Latin verb imperare (to command)—which became somewhat limited under the Republic by the collegiality of the republican magistrates and the right of appeal, or provocatio , on the part of citizens. Imperium remained absolute in the army, and the power of the imperator (army commander) to punish remained uncurtailed. The title imperator later was exclusively held by the emperor, as

2184-491: The Leges Liciniae Sextiae was the facilitation of the emergence of a patrician-plebeian aristocracy and once the leading plebeians had entered the ruling class on an equal footing with the patricians, they turned their back on the poor plebeians, who "gained some temporary economic relief, but lost control of their organisation." The plebeian council passed the agrarian and the debt laws, which were in tune with

2275-493: The Plebeian Council (the assembly of the plebeians) in 375 BC. Two of them concerned land and debt (which were two issues which greatly affected the plebeians) and the third concerned the termination of the military tribunes with consular power (often referred to as consular tribunes), who had periodically replaced the consuls as the heads of the Republic (444, 438, 434–32, 426–24, 422, 420–14, 408–394 and 391–76 BC),

2366-471: The Pope and the Emperor the antagonism between Church and State became more evident: the Pope claimed for himself the imperium animarum ("command of the souls", i.e. voicing God's will to the faithful) and the principatus rerum et corporum in universo mundo ("primacy over all things and bodies in the whole world"), while the Emperor wished to restore the imperium mundi , imperium (as under Roman Law) over

2457-702: The Pope, Bishop of Rome , versus the Holy Roman Emperor (even though his seat of power was north of the Alps). The Donatio Constantini , by which the Papacy had allegedly been granted the territorial Patrimonium Petri in Central Italy, became a weapon against the Emperor. The first pope who used it in an official act and relied upon it, Leo IX , cites the "Donatio" in a letter of 1054 to Michael Cærularius , Patriarch of Constantinople, to show that

2548-420: The Praetor and his assessors and friends, as opposed to the subsellia , the part occupied by the iudices (judges) and others who were present. In court, the Praetor was referred to as acting e tribunali or ex superiore loco (lit. from a raised platform or from a higher place) but he could also perform ministerial acts out of court, in which case he was said to be acting e plano or ex aequo loco (lit. from

2639-467: The Praetor would either hear the whole case in person or appoint a delegate (a iudex pedaneus ), taking steps for the enforcement of the decision; the formula was replaced by an informal system of pleadings . During the time of the Roman Republic , the Urban Praetor allegedly issued an annual edict , usually on the advice of jurists (since the Praetor himself was not necessarily educated in

2730-462: The Praetor's de facto legislative role was abolished. The Praetors also presided at the quaestiones perpetuae (which were criminal proceedings), so-called because they were of certain types, with a Praetor being assigned to one type on a permanent basis. The Praetors appointed judges who acted as jurors in voting for guilt or innocence. The verdict was either acquittal or condemnation. These quaestiones looked into crimina publica , "crimes against

2821-469: The Pretor was called Pretură . Currently, this office has survived only in the Republic of Moldova , where praetors are the heads of Chişinău 's five sectors. In Italy, until 1998, Praetor was a magistrate with particular duty (especially in civil branch). The Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino has pretori (singular: pretore ) which is the chief magistrate (civil branch) of a district, heading

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2912-431: The addition of praetors. Two were created in 227 BC, for the administration of Sicily and Sardinia , and two more when the two Hispanic provinces were formed in 197 BC. The dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla transferred administration of the provinces to former consuls and praetors , simultaneously increasing the number of praetors elected each year to eight, as part of his constitutional reforms . Julius Caesar raised

3003-519: The amount of this land which could be given to the poor (plebeian) farmers. Several laws limiting private ownership of land to limit this encroachment on the ager publicus were passed, but they seemed have been easy to evade and to have only a limited effect, if at all. The restrictions on the amount of grazing on public land was due to the fact that extensive grazing could reduce the resources available to poor farmers from this common land, which they needed to sustain their livelihoods. This law provided for

3094-690: The assignments given to either consuls or praetors in some detail. As magistrates, they had standing duties to perform, especially of a religious nature. However, a consul or praetor could be taken away from his current duties at any time to head a task force, and there were many, especially military. Livy mentions that, among other tasks, these executive officers were told to lead troops against perceived threats (domestic or foreign), investigate possible subversion, raise troops, conduct special sacrifices, distribute windfall money, appoint commissioners and even exterminate locusts. Praetors could delegate at will. The one principle that limited what could be assigned to them

3185-407: The business in that department of the law had become considerable, but Titus reduced the number to one; and Nerva added a Praetor for the decision of matters between the fiscus ( treasury ) and individuals. Marcus Aurelius appointed a Praetor for matters relating to tutela ( guardianship ). Roman court cases fell into the two broad categories of civil or criminal trials. The involvement of

3276-470: The claims to supremacy within post-Roman Christianity between sacerdotium in the person of the Pope and the secular imperium of the Holy Roman Emperor, beginning with Charlemagne, whose title was claimed to have "restored" the office of Western Roman Emperor among the new kingdoms of Western Europe. Both would refer to the heritage of Roman law by their titular link with the very city of Rome:

3367-548: The commander of the armed forces. In fact, the Latin word imperator is the root of the English word emperor . In ancient Rome, imperium could be used as a term indicating a characteristic of people, their wealth in property, or the measure of formal power they had. This qualification could be used in a rather loose context (for example, poets used it, not necessarily writing about state officials). However, in Roman society, it

3458-518: The consulship became an unbroken line of shared office only after that. Cornell notes that, according to Livy and his sources, the regular and unbroken sharing of the consulship stemmed from the Lex Genucia proposed by the plebeian tribune Lucius Genucius in 342 BC which, it is claimed, allowed plebeians to hold both consulships. However, the Fasti consulares (a chronicle of yearly events in which

3549-432: The consulship considered such a landmark for the political promotion of the plebeians? Why was there such resistance to this? The sources seem to see the law as a breakthrough not just because it provided access to the consulship, but because it required that one of the two consuls each year be a patrician. However, during one twelve-year period after the passage of the laws, from 355 to 343 BC, both consuls were patricians and

3640-408: The consulship has been analysed by T.J. Cornell. He thinks that very little of Livy's narrative can be accepted. However, its institutional changes are "reasonably certain." He argues that the significance of the law on the consulship is unclear and its background is "extremely puzzling" due to obscurity around the military tribunes with consular power. Livy wrote that they had been instituted because it

3731-515: The consulship. There were two reasons for this: to relieve the weight of judicial business and to give the Republic a magistrate with imperium who could field an army in an emergency when both consuls were fighting a far-off war. By the end of the First Punic War , a fourth magistrate entitled to hold imperium appears, the praetor qui inter peregrinos ius dicit ("the praetor who administers justice among foreigners"). Although in

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3822-452: The consulship; "the men who held them did not consider themselves in any way bound to promote the interests of the mass of the plebs." Livy described some plebeian tribunes as 'slaves of the nobility' Imperium In ancient Rome , imperium was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from auctoritas and potestas , different and generally inferior types of power in

3913-459: The decline of the other traditional Roman offices such as that of tribune , the praetorship remained an important portal through which aristocrats could gain access to either the Western or Eastern senates. The praetorship was a costly position to hold as praetors were expected to possess a treasury from which they could draw funds for their municipal duties. Like many other Roman institutions,

4004-446: The defendant ought to pay 10,000 sesterces to the plaintiff, let the iudex condemn the defendant to pay 10,000 sesterces to the plaintiff. If it does not so appear, let the plaintiff absolve him." After they were handed over to the iudex , they were no longer in iure before the Praetor, but apud iudicem . The iudicium of the iudex was binding. By the time of Diocletian , however, this two-stage process had largely disappeared, and

4095-527: The disturbances by arranging a compromise; the nobility made a concession in the matter of a plebeian consul, the plebs gave way to the nobility on the appointment of a praetor to administer justice in the City who was to be a patrician. Thus after their long estrangement the two orders of the State were at length brought into harmony". This law provided that the interest already paid on debts should be deducted from

4186-462: The field, a curule magistrate possessing an imperium greater or equal to that of a praetor wore a sash ritually knotted on the front of his cuirass . Furthermore, any man executing imperium within his sphere of influence was entitled to the curule chair . As can be seen, dictatorial imperium was superior to consular, consular to praetorian, and praetorian to aedilician; there is some historical dispute as to whether or not praetorian imperium

4277-418: The first time that all military commanders be confirmed by a popular assembly [representing] the Roman people". The emergence of the classical praetorship was a long process that had been underway by 367 BC. This was when the Sextian-Licinian Rogations were passed, giving the Roman people substantially more power over the selection of their military commanders. While Livy claims that the rogations created

4368-407: The flat ground or from an equal or level place). For instance, he could in certain cases give validity to the act of manumission when he was out-of-doors, such as on his way to the bath or to the theatre. By 395 AD, the praetors' responsibilities had been reduced to a purely municipal role. Their sole duty was to manage the spending of money on the exhibition of games or on public works. However, with

4459-483: The highest office from the consular tribunes to the consulship and, thus, Lucius Sextius becoming the first plebeian consul "becomes rather less impressive." Von Fritz and Sordi also think that the Lex Licinia Sextia on the consuls and the praetors was an administrative reform. The significance of the law on the consulship of 367 BC, according to Cornell, lies elsewhere. He suggests that before this law,

4550-404: The institutions of the plebeian movement to gain entry into the ranks of the ruling class", which necessitated a struggle against the exclusiveness of the patricians. Some of these men were wealthy landowners who, thus, shared the same interests as the patricians, as the case of Gaius Licinius, who was fined for breaking his own agrarian law by exceeding the 500 iugera limit, shows. The outcome of

4641-468: The interests of the poor plebeians, but rejected the law on the consulship. Those who opposed the latter had good reason to be suspicious because "[s]uch a measure, they knew, would destroy the plebeian movement." It lost its identity and ceased to exist as a separate organisation. Its institutions were incorporated into the structures of the state. The tribunate and the aedilship were increasingly occupied by young nobles who treated them as stepping stones for

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4732-426: The later Empire the office was titled praetor inter cives et peregrinos ("among citizens and foreigners", that is, having jurisdiction in disputes between citizens and noncitizens), by the time of the 3rd century BC, Rome's territorial annexations and foreign populations were unlikely to require a new office dedicated solely to this task. T. Corey Brennan , in his two-volume study of the praetorship, argues that during

4823-471: The law), setting out the circumstances under which he would grant remedies. The legal provisions arising from the Praetor's Edict were known as ius honorarium ; in theory the Praetor did not have power to alter the law, but in practice the Edict altered the rights and duties of individuals and was effectively a legislative document. In the reign of Hadrian , however, the terms of the Edict were made permanent and

4914-592: The military crisis of the 240s the second praetorship was created to make another holder of imperium available for command and provincial administration inter peregrinos . During the Hannibalic War , the praetor peregrinus was frequently absent from Rome on special missions. The urban praetor more often remained in the city to administer the judicial system. The praetor urbanus presided in civil cases between citizens. The Senate required that some senior officer remain in Rome at all times. This duty now fell to

5005-506: The new praetor Justinianus of Thrace, with authority over all the former Thracian provinces except for Lower Moesia and Scythia Minor , which became part of the quaestura exercitus . Similarly, the governors of Pisidia and Lycaonia , as well as Paphlagonia (enlarged by merging it with Honorias ) were upgraded to praetores Justiniani , and received the rank of vir spectabilis . In addition, in Constantinople he replaced

5096-446: The number to ten, then fourteen, and finally to sixteen. Augustus made changes that were designed to reduce the Praetor to being an imperial administrator rather than a magistrate. The electoral body was changed to the Senate, which was now an instrument of imperial ratification. To take a very simplistic view, the establishment of the principate can be seen as the restoration of monarchy under another name. The Emperor therefore assumed

5187-461: The office. Only in the 125 years after the election of three military leaders did a clear distinction emerge between what became the consuls and what became the praetors due to the "normal Roman practice to reserve one commander in or near the city for purposes of defence and (eventually) for civilian administration". The glory and prestige won by the praetors fighting foreign wars, then still in Italy,

5278-406: The patrician monopoly of the priesthood for the first time and constituted a step towards the plebeians sharing power, as the priesthoods played an important role in Roman society. Later, other priesthoods were opened up to the plebeians. The patricians retained exclusivity in some of the oldest priesthoods. Livy's account of the struggles of Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius and their legislation on

5369-558: The period of the Roman Republic. This law restricted individual ownership of public land in excess of 500 iugeras (300 acres) and forbade the grazing of more than 100 cattle on public land. Shortages of land for the poor was a significant problem during the Roman Republic. Roman citizens were given plots of lands of two iugera from the ager publicus. These were barely sufficient to feed a family. The rich landowners acquired large estates by encroaching on public land, which reduced

5460-437: The place of a praetor (ie pro praetore ) with power only "to conduct war in his assigned provincia [with] no other concerns or duties". Prorogation, in effect, granted private individuals a legally fictitious power to act in the place of the normal magistrates, allowing them to continue to act within their assigned task ( provincia ). Prorogation allowed a magistrate, whose imperium did not expire with his term until crossing

5551-432: The plebeian tribunes were excluded from high office and that the plebeians who served prior to this were clients of the patricians who had nothing to do with the plebeian movement and its agitations or the Plebeian Council and did not hold plebeian offices (they were neither plebeian tribunes nor aediles, their assistants). Cornell argues "[t]hat the aim of Licinius and Sextius was to abolish all forms of discrimination against

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5642-406: The plebeians as such", and their law was a victory for the plebeians who were attracted to the plebeian movement and chose to join this, rather than becoming clients of patricians, which offered nominal prestige, but no independent power. Many leading plebeians were "wealthy, socially aspiring and politically ambitious". It was a small group of "rich men who made common cause with the poor and [ ] used

5733-476: The plebeians. They persuaded other plebeian tribunes to veto voting on this bill. In retaliation, Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius vetoed the election of the consular tribunes for five years, until 370 BC, when they relented because the Volscian town of Velitrae had attacked the territory of Rome and one of her allies. The election of consular tribunes resumed. With the soldiers engaged in the siege of Velitrae,

5824-410: The plebs , Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus , enacted around 367 BC. Livy calls them rogatio – though he does refer to them at times as lex – as the plebeian assembly did not at the time have the power to enact leges (laws). These laws provided for a limit on the interest rate of loans and a restriction on private ownership of land. A third law, which provided for one of

5915-426: The pomerium or being stripped by the people, to continue in his assigned task or provincia . The elected praetor was a curule magistrate , exercised imperium , and consequently was one of the magistratus majores . He had the right to sit in the sella curulis and wear the toga praetexta . He was attended by six lictors . A praetor was a magistrate with imperium within his own sphere, subject only to

6006-527: The powers once held by the kings, but he used the apparatus of the republic to exercise them. For example, the emperor presided over the highest courts of appeal. The need for administrators remained just as acute. After several changes, Augustus fixed the number at twelve. Under Tiberius , there were sixteen. As imperial administrators, their duties extended to matters that the republic would have considered minima . Two praetors were appointed by Claudius for matters relating to Fideicommissa ( trusts ), when

6097-526: The praetor ( Greek : πραίτωρ , praitōr ) survived in the Eastern Roman Empire . Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) undertook a major administrative reform beginning in 535, which involved the reunification of civil and military authority in the hands of the governor in certain provinces, and the abolition of the dioceses . The Diocese of Thrace had already been abolished by the end of the 5th century by Anastasius, and its vicarius became

6188-399: The praetor should be a patrician. The praetors were chief justices who presided over criminal trials and could appoint judges for civil cases. Later they issued edicts for amendments of existing laws. They also held imperium ; that is, they could command an army. Forty years later, in 337 BC, the plebeians gained access to the praetorship, when the first plebeian praetor, Quintus Publius Philo,

6279-416: The praetorship in 367 BC to relieve the consuls of their judicial responsibilities, "few modern historians would accept [this] account as written". Beyond the ancient knowledge that a title of praetor dated to the beginning of the republic, what became the classical praetorship was initially a military office with imperium and "virtually identical in authority and capacity to the consulship". Furthermore,

6370-485: The priests who were the custodians of the sacred Sibylline Books . The laws and the long struggle to pass them were part of the two hundred year conflict of the orders between the patrician aristocracy and the plebeians , who were most of the Roman populace. The conflict was one of the major influences on the internal politics of Rome during the first two centuries of the Roman Republic . According to Livy, Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius proposed three bills before

6461-450: The principal and that the payment of the rest of the principal should be in three equal annual instalments. Indebtedness was a major problem among the plebeians, particularly among small peasant farmers, and this led to conflicts with the patricians, who were the aristocracy, the owners of large landed estates and the creditors. Several laws regulating credit or the interest rates of credit to provide some relief for debtors were passed during

6552-479: The public", such as were worthy of the attention of a Praetor. The penalty on conviction was usually death, but sometimes other severe penalties were used. In the late Republic, the public crimes were: The last three were added by the Dictator Sulla in the early 1st century BC. When the Praetor administered justice in a tribunal , he sat on a sella curulis , which was that part of the court reserved for

6643-523: The republic changed substantially over its history and the accounts of the republic's development in the early imperial period are marred with anachronisms projecting then-current practices into the past. In the earliest periods of the republic, praetor "may not have meant anything more than leader in the most basic sense", deriving from praeire (to proceed) or praeesse (to be preeminent). These early praetors may have simply been clan leaders leading "military forces privately and free from state control" with

6734-401: The restoration of consuls and the admission of plebeians to the consulship by providing that one of the two consuls was to be a plebeian. The latter proposal created fierce opposition by the patricians, who held vast political power by monopolising the consulship and the seats of the senate, thinking that, as aristocrats, this was their sole prerogative, and abhorred the idea of sharing power with

6825-512: The tenth time), which meant that the law of the consulship was now also carried. Then they carried the law on the sacred Sibylline Books. This, according to Livy, "was regarded as a further step towards opening the path to the consulship." However, he did not specify why. He also wrote "[t]he plebs, satisfied with their victory, made the concession to the patricians that for the present all mention of consuls should be dropped." Consular tribunes were elected for 367 BC. In 367 BC Marcus Furius Camillus

6916-408: The termination of the military tribunes with consular powers and the return to regular consulships, one of which was to be held by the plebeians. It is possible that the law also provided for the creation of a new and elected magistracy (office of state), the praetorship, as Livy wrote that in 367 BC "the plebs gave way to the nobility on the appointment of a praetor"; that is, the plebeians agreed that

7007-496: The title of Praetor. In the 2016 game Doom , the armor worn by the protagonist is called the Praetor suit. In the 2017 game Xenoblade Chronicles 2 , one of the central antagonists Amalthus holds the title of Praetor in the Praetorium of Indol. In the 2020 game Deep Rock Galactic , one of the common enemies is called a Glyphid Praetorian. In the popular book series by Rick Riordan , The Heroes of Olympus , there

7098-404: The two consuls to be a plebeian, was rejected. Two of these laws were passed in 368 BC, after the two proponents had been elected and re-elected tribunes for nine consecutive years and had successfully prevented the election of patrician magistrates for five years (375–370 BC). In 367 BC, during their tenth tribunate, this law was passed. In the same year they also proposed a fourth law regarding

7189-450: The veto of the consuls (who outranked him). The potestas and imperium (power and authority) of the consuls and the praetors under the Republic should not be exaggerated. They did not use independent judgment in resolving matters of state. Unlike today's executive branches, they were assigned high-level tasks directly by senatorial decree under the authority of the SPQR . Livy describes

7280-422: The voting on the bills had to be postponed. Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius proposed a fourth bill regarding the sacred Sibylline Books. In 368 BC the Roman troops came back from Velitrae. As the controversy dragged and given that with the return of the troops voting could be carried out, the patrician senate appointed Marcus Furius Camillus as dictator (a head of state with extraordinary powers appointed for

7371-488: The years are denoted by their consuls) suggest that this law made it obligatory for one consulship to be held by a plebeian. This most probably explains why the first instance of plebeians holding both consulships was in 173 BC despite Livy's interpretation. It might be that it was the Lex Genucia which truly introduced power-sharing between patricians and plebeians and that the Lex Licinia Sextia may simply have been an administrative adjustment which transferred plebeian access to

7462-457: Was again appointed as dictator, this time to fight Gauls who had got into territories near Rome. The senate, bruised by years of civic strife, carried the proposals of the plebeian tribunes and the two consuls were elected. In 366 BC Lucius Sextius Lateranus became the first plebeian consul. The patricians refused to confirm this, commotions broke out and the plebeians were close to seceding (see plebeian secessions ). Marcus Furius, "however, quieted

7553-442: Was also a more formal concept of legal authority . A man with imperium (an imperator ) had, in principle, absolute authority to apply the law within the scope of his magistracy or promagistracy . He could be vetoed or overruled either by a magistrate or promagistrate who was a colleague with equal power (e.g., a fellow consul ), by one whose imperium outranked his – that is, one of imperium maius (greater imperium ), or by

7644-421: Was also escorted by lictors bearing the fasces (traditional symbols of imperium and authority), when outside the pomerium , axes being added to the fasces to indicate an imperial magistrate's power to inflict capital punishment outside Rome (the axes being removed within the pomerium ). The number of lictors in attendance upon a magistrate was an overt indication of the degree of imperium . When in

7735-453: Was appointed, Publius Manlius Capitolinus. However, he appointed a plebeian as his lieutenant ( master of the horse ), much to the annoyance of the patricians, and supported the plebeians. When it was time for the election of the plebeian tribunes, Gaius Licinius and Lucius Sextius announced that they would not stand for reelection unless the plebeians "wanted the proposed measures carried as a whole." The two plebeian tribunes were re-elected (for

7826-403: Was decided that in some years the consulship should be replaced by the consular tribunes (whose numbers varied from three to six), that this office would be open to plebeians and that it had been created as a concession to the plebeians who wanted access to the consulship. However, from 444 BC (the year of the first consular tribunes) to 401 BC there were only two plebeian consular tribunes (out of

7917-531: Was elected. This provided for the abolition of the Duumviri (two men) Sacris Faciundis, who were two patrician priests who were the custodians of the sacred Sibylline Books and consulted and interpreted them at times, especially when there were natural disasters, pestilence, famine or military difficulties. These were the books of the Sibylline oracles , who were Greek oracles who resided in various places in

8008-423: Was not viewed as being less than the consuls, as "it was common practice for men to hold the praetorship after a consulship... since [doing so] was simply a method of holding imperium for a second year". Livy reports that until 337 BC the praetor was chosen only from among the patricians . In that year, eligibility for the praetura was opened to the plebeians , and one of them, Quintus Publilius Philo, won

8099-494: Was soon added to it as Palea ; the ecclesiastical writers in defence of the papacy during the conflicts of the early part of the 12th century quoted it as authoritative. In one bitter episode, Pope Gregory IX , who had several times mediated between the Lombards and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II , reasserted his right to arbitrate between the contending parties. In the numerous manifestos of

8190-462: Was superior to "equine-magisterial" imperium . A promagistrate , or a man executing a curule office without actually holding that office, also possessed imperium in the same degree as the actual incumbents (i.e., proconsular imperium being more or less equal to consular imperium , propraetorian imperium to praetorian) and was attended by an equal number of lictors . Certain extraordinary commissions , such as Pompey 's famous command against

8281-408: Was that their duties must not concern them with minima , "little things". They were by definition doers of maxima . This principle of Roman law became a principle of later European law: Non curat minima praetor , that is, the details do not need to be legislated, they can be left up to the courts. A second praetorship was created around 241 BC, more clearly separating this office from that of

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