ABSTRACT
Consul Two consuls elected annually by the comitia centuriata; both had imperium (executive power), and were recognised as the chief military and political executives of the state, the tenure of the consulship generally being regarded as the apex of a political career (save perhaps for the censorship). The consuls would command armies in the field, preside over the comitia and the senate, and they proposed laws to the people (ius agendi cum populo). They theoretically had rights of jurisdiction, though in criminal cases this was generally delegated, and civil jurisdiction was taken over by the praetorurbanus. Each was attended by twelve lictors. (After 367 BC, at least one consul had to be a plebeian.)
Praetor The office went back probably to the regal period, though it appears to have been ‘re-invented’, probably in 367 BC, and possibly as a way of answering the concession of that year which gave one of the annual consulships as of right to a plebeian. A praetor was elected each year with special responsibility for civil jurisdiction (praetor urbanus): but he, and his later colleagues, possessed imperium and could properly act as army commanders and preside over the assemblies and senate and introduce business to them. The praetor’simperium, however, was inferior to that of the consul and had to yield before it, and he was attended by only six lictors. In 242 BC, a second praetor was added to deal with civil jurisdiction between citizens and foreigners (praetor peregrinus). Two further praetors were instituted in 227 BC with responsibility respectively for Sicily and Sardinia, so that there were four praetors elected annually by the beginning of the second Punic War. Two more were instituted in 197 BC to govern the two provinces of Spain, and the number was raised to eight by Sulla
and to sixteen by Julius Caesar. Praetors were elected in the comitia centuriata.
