Roman magistrate

Magistracy (Latin magistratus, from Latin magister ) was the name for the highest offices in the Roman Republic. A person who has held one of these positions was designated as a magistrate. The traditional sequence of the offices was the Cursus honorum.

Term

The term is magistratus since 4 / 3 Century BC is an inscription in the literature he first appears in Plautus. The term Magistracy is unknown in antiquity. It is possible that the general magistratus - term was associated with a more particular term that describes the exact official power, so potestasve at magistratus or magistratus imperiumve.

In general, the term magistratus is related to the owner of a magistracy, ie a particular choice by a carrier state violence. At the same time, the term also describes the specific office, in the plural, the sum of the individual offices or peregrines Roman origin. The magistracies count at the end of the Roman Republic the Consulen, the praetors, the aedile, the tribunes of the people, the Quaestors the vigintiviri, the Special Office of Censorship and the exception offices dictator and magister equitum. Although the exception offices lacked crucial for magistracies legitimation by the People's Assembly, but they were counted by the extraordinary abundance of power to the canon of magistracies. The Office of the interrex and politically very little significant tribunus the Soldiers, it was not likely to offices of the magistracy.

A Roman magistrate did not have very much in common with an official in our sense, the office was an honorary position and unbesoldet. Your administrative apparatus presented the magistrates themselves, mostly there were slaves and freedmen. Only for special tasks the officials were asked service personnel available, these were paid by the state, their tenure was unlimited, they were called apparitores. However, the Magistrate himself officiated only one year, the censors 18 months. The magistrates also had a veto on decisions of their colleagues and the lower officials, provided they touched their own office area.

Development

The Roman chief magistrates were elected, which was a result of the stands fighting. There were numerous regulations for the order in which you could hold the various offices in the Roman state or what age you could take office in which. The first condition was a ten-year probation in lower offices. After that it was potentially possible to ascend from the Bursary up to the consul. De facto the world, only a few who began the career in office, ascend to the praetor or consul.

The origin of the magistrates is controversial in the research because there is no reliable written sources for the early period of the Roman Republic and the retroactive wrote annalistic historiography is untrustworthy in such points. Thus, it is uncertain whether there was already Magistrate or precursors to the monarchy. It is also unclear whether the Office in the Early Republic was one, two or three digits. A cast of top Magistrates with a double peak for the early period, however, not to accept, as this was probably a merit of the stands fighting in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. It is assumed that after the end of the monarchy, an alternating annually years magistrate ( praetor maximus or magister populi ) was at the head of the city state. This magistrate were probably praetores or tribuni attached to the Soldiers.

As a result of the stands fighting for the top office has the double consulate, in which a consul of the patricians, one was occupied by the plebeians enforced. In addition, a patrician praetor as minor collega. To the in the aftermath ever-growing tasks to be both domestic as well as foreign policy nature Lord, the time created more posts such as censorship and aedileship and increasingly other existing offices as praetor and quaestor in the course. With the lex Hortensia (287 BC), the tribunes of the people were incorporated into the existing office system.

Office Categories

Various office categories were distinguished. So there was the difference between the clad patricians offices, the magistratus patricians, and the magistratus plebeii, to become in the course of the Estates struggles to regular offices institutions of the plebeians. In addition, the so-called curule magistrates were highlighted. These offices possessed in accordance with their jurisdictional powers over certain official insignia sella curulis. These included the consuls and praetors as the the top officials and the patrician ( " curule " ) aediles. In addition, the division is according to rank. Distinction is made here higher and lower offices. The higher offices are those who were elected to the National Assembly comitia centuriata, so the consuls, praetors, and censors, the lower offices elected in the comitia tributa tribunes, aediles and Quaestors.

Promagistrate

Promagistraturen were no office, but an extension of the authority of a public official on the actual tenure beyond. Since the year 327/26 BC magistrates received such an extension ( prorogatio ) after the expiration of their year of office.