Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/232

 218 THE EXTBAORDINAEY MILITARY COMMANDS. conferred exemptions from various laws without any plea of necessity and without any proviso as to popular ratification. Gains Cornelius^ a tribune of 67, who at this time occupied a unique position as a real reformer, attempted to deprive the senate of this power, but succeeded only in establishing the rule that it should not concede any dispensation from a law unless at least two hundred senators were present, and that no one was to interpose a veto, if such a concession was sub- mitted to the people for ratification or rejection. In other words, he practically conceded the principle, but expected to abolish ^' congressional evening sessions,'^ so to speak. He carried another law ordering the praetors to administer jus- tice according to the edicts which they issued before or on entering office (edicta perpetua). The notorious Verres and others had begun to shape the legal principles so as to accom- modate their friends or purchasers. All the other bills of Cornelius were defeated chiefly by means of tribunician intercession, but one led to the passage of the Calpumian law on corrupt canvassing for office Qex Calpumia de ambitu), which condemned those found guilty to pay a fine, and made them permanently ineligible to office. It also punished their accomplices (divisares). The Pirates and Marcus Antonius. — Early in the same year another tribune, Aulus Gabinius, introduced a far more im- portant measure in order to suppress piracy. For years pirates had flourished in the Mediterranean and in adjoining waters, and interfered not only with the pursuits of peace, but even with Koman military operations. In 74 the sen- ate, it seems, appointed the praetor Marcus Antonius, the elder son of the orator, imperial admiral. He was to be limited to no particular province (that is, he had imperium infinitum). This new command became a necessity when the consuls were as a rule to be civil magistrates in Italy, and practically lost their former command-in-chief at sea.