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 patrician magistrate. Hence, when a sudden occasion arose for the appointment of an interrex, it was the duty of the Senate to give notice to the patrician magistrates and to request them to retire from office. The plebeian magistrates still remained in the exercise of their functions.

It was, in the later Republic, the Senate which took all further necessary action. In the early Republic there was no possibility of its being summoned, and the patrician senators met at their own discretion to appoint the interrex. But after the tribune, who was still in office, had gained the right of transacting business with the Senate, it was he who put the question, and the Senate who suggested that the patricii should meet for the purpose. From this time onwards the electors felt no obligation to meet except on the suggestion of the Senate.

The collegiate principle of the regal interregnum and the use of the lot had both disappeared; the agreement of the patrician senators took the form of the election (creatio) of a single interrex (prodere interregem). This magistrate nominated his successor, as the consul nominated the dictator, each succeeding interrex holding office for five days. There was no limit to the number that might be created, the interreges varying from the minimum of two to the known maximum of fourteen; but there must be at least two, the first being incapable of holding the consular election, probably because he was regarded as having received the auspicia irregularly. The qualifications for the interrex were, that he should be a Patrician and a senator, and the instances seem to show that he was invariably chosen from the past