Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/117

Rh 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 ; 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,