Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

citizens). These same people got to vote on all legislation of last ing effect. The consuls’ powers rested mainly on the ability to issue temporary edicts and to propose legislation. Over the first three centuries or so of the Republic, the details of this gov ernment evolved quite a bit, but the basic structure remained largely unchanged. Other elected officials (collectively called “magistrates”) were created: praetors, aediles, quaestors, and tribunes. (As with the consuls, so with the lower offices; more than one person at a time held each post.) In principle, there was a hierarchy of these magistrates, in the order just listed, but the different offices also had specialized functions, so they largely did not interfere with each other. For instance, the various “praetors” could serve as generals and/or provincial governors, but came increasingly to be in charge of the judi cial system. “Aediles” supervised the markets and much of the urban infrastructure. “Quaestors” served bureaucratic func tions, often as the assistant to a particular higher magistrate. “Tribunes of the people” were ombudsmen who protected individual rights and, most importantly for present purposes, were the main proposers of legislation. (The tribunes seem to have originated as popular organizers and always remained a little outside the hierarchy of the other offices.) That legislation continued to be approved and the various magistrates to be elected by the people. In principle, every adult male citizen still got to vote on every question. But depending on what was being voted on, there were different systems of voting that made different people’s votes count for more or less. In the earliest days of the Republic, there was some struggle

14