Executive magistrates of the Roman Republic
Ordinary magistrates (magistratus) were divided into several ranks according to their role and the power they wielded: censors, consuls (who functioned as the regular head of state), praetors, curule aediles, and finally quaestor.
The magistrates (magistratus) were elected by the People of Rome, which consisted of plebeians (commoners) and patricians (aristocrats).
Thereafter in descending order came the censor (who, while the highest-ranking ordinary magistrate by virtue of his prestige, held little real power), the consul, the praetor, the curule aedile, and the quaestor.
If this obstruction occurred between two magistrates of equal rank, such as two praetors, then it was called par potestas (negation of powers).
Only Roman citizens (both plebeians and patricians) had the right to confer magisterial powers (potestas) on any individual magistrate.
Defined narrowly, imperium simply gave a magistrate the authority to command a military force.
Defined more broadly, however, imperium gave a magistrate the constitutional authority to issue commands (military, diplomatic, civil, or otherwise).
[6] Magistrates with imperium sat in a curule chair, and were attended by lictors (bodyguards) who carried axes called fasces which symbolized the power of the state to punish and to execute.
Examples include flogging, imprisonment, fines, mandating pledges and oaths, enslavement, banishment, and sometimes even the destruction of a person's house.
[11] One check over a magistrate's power was collegiality (collega), which required that each magisterial office be held concurrently by at least two people.
[12] The check on the magistrate's power of Coercion was Provocatio, which was an early form of due process (habeas corpus).
In this case, the citizen would cry "provoco ad populum", which required the magistrate to wait for a tribune to intervene, and make a ruling.
[7][16] Once a consul's term ended, he held the honorary title of consulare for the rest of his time in the senate, and had to wait for ten years before standing for re-election to the consulship.
While components of public administration were delegated to other magistrates, the management of the government was under the ultimate authority of the consul.
[18] While the consuls had supreme military authority, they had to be provided with financial resources by the Roman Senate while they were commanding their armies.
[18] The praetors administered civil law and commanded provincial armies,[20] and, eventually, began to act as chief judges over the courts.
[25] A censor had the ability to fine a citizen, or to sell his property,[25] which was often a punishment for either evading the census or having filed a fraudulent registration.
Other actions that could result in a censorial punishment were the poor cultivation of land, cowardice or disobedience in the army, dereliction of civil duties, corruption, or debt.
A censor could reassign a citizen to a different tribe (a civil unit of division), or place a punitive mark (nota) besides a man's name on the register.
[26] Once a census was complete, a purification ceremony (the lustrum) was performed by a censor, which typically involved prayers for the upcoming five years.
[18] Aediles were officers elected to conduct domestic affairs in Rome, and often assisted the higher magistrates.
The Tribal Assembly, while under the presidency of a higher magistrate (either a consul or praetor), elected the two curule aediles.
Aediles had wide-ranging powers over day-to-day affairs inside the city of Rome, and over the maintenance of public order.
[28] They also had the power to repair and preserve temples, sewers and aqueducts, to maintain public records, and to issue edicts.
[34] Their sacrosanctity was enforced by a pledge, taken by the plebeians, to kill any person who harmed or interfered with a tribune during his term of office.
[37] Tribunes, the only true representatives of the people, had the authority to enforce the right of Provocatio, which was a theoretical guarantee of due process, and a precursor to our own habeas corpus.
[39] In times of emergency (military or otherwise), a Roman dictator (magister populi or "Master of the Nation") was appointed for a six-month term.
[40] Ordinary magistrates (such as consuls and praetors) retained their offices, but lost their independence and became agents of the dictator.
Thus, dictatorial appointments were tantamount to a six-month restoration of the monarchy, with the dictator taking the place of the old Roman king.
After 202 BC, extreme emergencies were addressed through the passage of the senatus consultum ultimum ("ultimate decree of the senate") which suspended civil government, and declared something analogous to martial law.
