this regal prerogative were necessarily colleagues, the praetor was a colleague of the consuls. He was created, as the phrase ran, "under the same auspices,"[1] and therefore by the same assembly and under the same formalities of election. He bore the early title of the consuls, which, in spite of its inappropriateness to his usual peaceful duties, came to cling to him exclusively. But, though he was needed chiefly for purposes of jurisdiction, one branch of the imperium could not be singled out to the exclusion of the others. The praetor possesses all the aspects of the supreme power, the capacity for command in war, for initiating legislation, for summoning and transacting business with the Senate. How these powers were harmonised with, and subordinated to, the similar powers of the consuls, will be described elsewhere. The main business of the original praetor did not clash with that of his colleagues, for, though in theory perhaps the consul never did lose his control of civil jurisdiction,[2] practice decided against his interference with it, and the praetor was for more than 120 years (366-242) the sole civil magistrate of Rome. At the close of this period a second praetor was appointed, whose duty it was to decide cases between foreigners (peregrini) and between Roman citizens and foreigners—an addition rendered necessary by the growth of Rome's territory and business, and which has no further political significance.
The praetorship, if it ever was a patrician preserve, did not long remain such. Thirty years after its institution (337 B.C.) a Plebeian, Q. Publilius Philo, successfully contested the post. The objections of the presiding magistrate, whether based on law or custom, were overruled and Plebeians declared eligible for the office.[3]
The appointment, simultaneously with the praetor, of two additional aediles, secured nothing for the Patricians, but a great deal for the state. The military duties which prevented the consul from administering justice and attending to registration, also hindered him from devoting himself to the minutiae of
- ↑ Liv. vii. 1 "collegam consulibus atque iisdem auspiciis creatum." Cf. Gell. xiii. 15.
- ↑ An instance of the exercise of a consular veto over a judicial decision of a praetor in 77 B.C. is preserved by Valerius Maximus (vii. 7, 6).
- ↑ Liv. viii. 15 "eodem anno Q. Publilius Philo praetor primus de plebe, adversante Sulpicio consule, qui negabat rationem ejus se habiturum, est factus; senatu, cum in summis imperiis id non obtinuisset, minus in praetura intendente."
