a personal though limited power co-ordinate with that of his colleagues and not a joint power as member of a Board or Cabinet, so in the contest for magistracies each man is chosen separately and independently and each must "fight for his own hand." An election to the consulship is the advance of an individual in the official career, and the door of admission to the most dignified order in the State, not the triumph of a party or of a principle. The aspirant does not wait to be adopted as the representative of a party, whether as the reward for past services or in hopes that he will carry out its political programme. If to high nobility and connections he unites a decent character and tolerable capacity, he drifts naturally to the front[1]; if he be the son of a Roman Knight, destitute of the advantages of aristocratic lineage, he must force his way by personal exertions. In either case it is a question "of men, not of measures."
The ideal Roman elector was supposed to look to the merit or "dignity," as it was called of the candidate, resting partly on a man's ancestry, partly on his own services to the State at home or abroad. But "merit" was always liable to be overridden hy "favour" ; "each man who votes considers more frequently what claims the candidate has on him,
- ↑ When Domitias Ahenobarbus was cut out of his hopes of the consulship of 55 B.C. by the unexpected and irresistible candidature of Pompey and Crassus, Cicero exclaimed (Ad Att., iv., 8, b. 2): "What can be more annoying than for him, who has been designated for the consulship since his cradle, to miss it when his turn comes." After all Domitius was only put off till the next year.
