Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/42

 general powers of the magistrates, or contract their sphere of action, but left an aggregate of powers truly royal in extent and character. They accomplished their design by establishing a collegiate and annual tenure of the supreme magistracy.

Collegiate Tenure. — It was enacted that in place of one king there should be two supreme magistrates. These were first called generals (praetores), or judges (judices), later colleagues (consules). The two consuls were vested with exactly the same powers, and had in law identical spheres of action. Nevertheless, they did not exercise their powers jointly as a board of two, but separately. They might govern or command by turns, or agree to occupy different fields in war, or decide by lot on some division of their functions; but this was simply a matter of practical convenience ; in law both continued to possess full authority.

The object of having two executives was to check one by means of the other and thus to control both. For this reason each consul was given power (jus intercedendi) personally to cancel almost every official act of his colleague while it was in progress. This institution of coordinate supreme authorities was an original Roman idea. The fact that such a contrivance for producing deadlocks worked at all is an excellent proof of the political capacity of the Roman people.

Annual Term. — The consuls were not to remain in office longer than one year, and at the expiration of this term they legally ceased to be magistrates. The short term was a great limitation on the consular power both for good and evil. It tended to prevent the establishment of a tyranny, but it also hindered, as far as the consuls were concerned, the design and execution of extensive campaigns in war, of large and statesmanlike reforms in peace. The consuls