Notes

The government of the Roman Republic. There were, at the top, the magistrates (quaestor, aedile, praetor, consul [plebs could only first become consuls in the 360s and ensured one consulship in 342], censor) and the Senate (who served as advisors to the consul). When someone completed their term as a magistrate, they would enter the Senate for the rest of their lives.

The government also had four assemblies, three comitia, and one council. With the exception of the Curia, these assemblies engaged in legislation. There was the Centuriate Assembly, dividing the citizens by centuries (193 in the Servian organization from 509-241 BC, 373 in the organization of 241-27 BC) and electing praetors, consuls, and censors. It approved laws and made declarations of war. There was the Tribal Assembly, dividing the citizens by 35 tribes (31 urban, 4 rural) and electing quaestors, aediles, and tribunes. The final one was the Curiate Assembly, which originally elected consuls in the Roman Kingdom (the only elected magistrate at the time), but when the Republic was created, most of its power went to the Centuriate and Tribal assemblies, and later only conferred elected magistrates their imperium (authority) and authorized adoptions. Next, there was the council, the Plebeian Council which elected the Tribunes of the Plebs. Whereas a comitia was open to all Roman citizens, only specific groups could join a council. In terms of the Plebeian Council, only plebs could join (thus excluding patricians).

The final part of the Republican Roman government was the Tribunes. The most important tribunes were the Tribune of the Plebs and the military tribunes. The Tribune of the Plebs could veto the decisions of consuls and other magistrates that had to do with the plebs, and any attack on the person of the Tribune of the Plebs was illegal. The Tribune of the Plebs could propose plebiscites which the Plebeian Council would vote on, binding on the population. The Tribune of the Plebs along with the Centuriate Assembly essentially had sovereign power, but in practice almost always followed the guidance of the Senate.

"The magistrates were the officials elected annually from the nobility to run the daily business of government. First and foremost were two consuls who held the imperium (executive power) once wielded by the king. During their year in office, the consuls were the political and military heads of the state. They presided over the Senate, proposed laws if required, and commanded armies in the field. The consulship was usually the pinnacle of a Roman noble's career, and the Roman calendar dated each year by the names of those who held this highest office. The hatred of autocracy that had inspired the expulsion of Tarquin Superbus, however, remained strong. The election of two consuls prevented any one man from having too much power, and the consulship was held only for a single year. Below the consuls were lesser magistrates, again elected annually. The major offices were those of praetor, aedile, quaestor, and tribune of the plebs. The praetor was the only magistrate apart from the consul to hold imperium, the right to command armies and preside over the Senate. The authority of the praetor was inferior to that of the consul, and the praetor's main role was civil and later provincial jurisdiction. Below the praetors were the aediles, who were responsible for the urban maintenance of Rome, including roads, water supply, food, and games. The most junior magistrates were the quaestors, who performed financial and legal duties. The exact roles and numbes of these tree lesser magistracies expanded over time as the growth of Roman power increased the burden on the Roman state. Tribunes of the plebs differed somewhat from the other magistrates. The office of tribune appeared afte rthe First Secession of the Plebs in 494 BC and was originally the only office open to wealthy plebeians. Ten tribunes were elected each year, and their intended role was to defend plebeians from unjust actions by patrician magistrates. For this reason the tribunes held considerable powers, including the right to intervene in support of a citizen being arrested by a magistrate, the right to veto the action of another magistrate, and the right to propose legislation in the Concilium Plebis. In theory the person of a tribune was sacrosanct, although this did not always protect those who used the office to pursue radical policies, most famously the Gracchi brothers of the 2nd century. The other slightly unusual office was that of censor. Two censors were elected approximately every five years, but they held office only until they had completed their functions and never for longer than 18 months. Their primary role was to revise the list of citizens and assess both their property and their morality. This duty included a review of the Senate, into which they could enroll new members and remove any found guilty of improper behaviour. The censorship was therefore a prestigious office and was almost invariably held by ex-consuls. The most notorious censor of the Republican period was Cato the Elder (also known as Cato the Censor), who held the office in 184 BC. Cato strongly believed that the Republic of his day was declining from the moral standards of the early Romans. As censor he expelled from the Senate those whom he regarded as flouting traditional Roman behaviour, condemning one senator who had embraced his wife by daylight in the presence of their daughter. These offices together formed the cursus honorum, the sequence of magistracies that a leading Roman noble might hold. In a conventional career, a man held his first office as a quaestor at a minimum age of around 28. He then became either an aedile or a tribune of the plebs, before seeking election as praetor. Those of sufficient renown could then aspire to the consulship and later perhaps stand as censor. A gap of two years was expected between the possession of each office, and in the 1st century, when age requirements were imposed for the major magistracies, they were set at 39 for praetor and 42 for consul. These expectations could not always be enforced." (pp. 20-22, A Very Short Introduction to the Roman Republix, Oxford 2012)