commander.[1] But on the very first transference of the throne a new departure was made. At the accession of Tiberius the oath of fealty was taken voluntarily by the civil orders;[2] it was administered by provincial governors and was renewed twice a year, on the first of January and on the anniversary of the Emperor's accession.[3] The fact that a soldier's oath bound the whole Roman world was the fittest expression of the military character of the new despotism.
A classification of the Emperor's powers in detail, with an attempt to deduce each of them from a prerogative conferred on him at his accession, is rendered difficult by the facts that no Roman lawyer cared or dared to evolve a complete theory of the Imperial constitution, and that here, as in so many other departments of Roman history, we are dealing with an office which, as it grew, gradually absorbed into itself fresh spheres of influence. The Principate, in fact, finally absorbed the state, and the only adequate formula for its authority which later jurists could find was that the people had committed its sovereign power to its delegate. But yet, when we examine the spheres of the Emperor's activity, it becomes clear that, while some are connected with an imperium, others are attached more closely to the tribunician power, while others again are associated with the relics of Republican offices held by the Princeps, or flow from certain extraordinary rights conferred on him by statute.
(i.) The first rights connected with the imperium that strike our attention are those exercised in the military sphere—rights which, on a vast scale, reflect and extend the powers possessed by the imperator of the Republic. The Princeps has the right to raise levies,[4] to nominate officers, and to confer military distinctions. In declaring war he has replaced the comitia of the centuries; and the statutory recognition of his right to conclude a treaty[5] settled a vexed question of Republican*
- ↑ For the monopoly of the sacramentum possessed by the Princeps compare the charge brought against Agrippina after her death (59 A.D.), "Adiciebat crimina . . . quod consortium imperii juraturasque in feminae verba praetorias cohortes . . . speravisset" (Tac. Ann. xiv. 11).
- ↑ "Romae ruere in servitium consules, patres, eques" (Tac. Ann. i. 7).
- ↑ Tac. Hist. i. 55 "Inferioris tamen Germaniae legiones sollemni Kalendarum Januariarum sacramento pro Galba adactae." For the renewal of the oath on the anniversary of accession see Plin. ad Traj. 52.
- ↑ Cf. Tac. Hist. iii. 58 (Vitellius) "vocari tribus jubet, dantes nomina sacramento adigit."
- ↑ Lex de imp. Vesp. 1 "foedusve cum quibus volet facere liceat." These
