Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/121

Rh from Rome; above all, to build and sail a fleet and to lay siege to maritime fortresses, in which case the coöperation of military and naval forces was necessary.

Conduct of the First Punic War. — Under such circumstances the lack of military training on the part of the Roman commanders-in-chief, the consuls, and especially the evils of the collegiate tenure and the annual changes of the chief command, became manifest. To avoid.the disadvantages of having new men, capable generals were at times granted an extension of their authority (prorogatio imperii). The remedy was ineffectual, as they were then subordinates of the consuls. In other cases able commanders were exempted from the rule of a ten years' interval between two terms in the same office (p. 73), and were reëlected, but none obtained a third consulship. The old stand-by — the dictatorship — was of little account because of the short term of this office. It was resorted to in 249, when the incompetent consul, Publius Claudius Pulcher, practically disobeyed the senate by appointing one of his freedmen to the dictatorship. The new dictator was compelled to resign, and Aulus Atilius Calatinus was appointed in his place. The latter was the only dictator who ever commanded an army outside the Italian peninsula. The aristocracy thenceforth maintained the principle that for religious reasons a dictator could neither be appointed, nor wage war, outside Italy.

Establishment of a Second Praetorship. — The establishment of a second praetorship about the year 242 appears to have been in part a war measure, intended to place an additional magistrate largely at the disposal of the senate. It was the only important formal change in the constitution during the war. The new praetor had, as his primary function, jurisdiction in cases to which one or more parties were