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 The continuation and accumulation of magistracies were also forbidden by plebiscita of the year 342, which enacted that at least ten years must elapse between the tenures of the same magistracy, and that two magistracies should not be held together in the same year. Such legislation was the starting-point for a series of measures known as leges annales, which specified the order in which the various magistracies must be held (certus ordo magistratuum), the age which qualified for each, the interval which must elapse between the holding of any two, and that which must intervene between the holding of the same, magistracies. In the year 180 the lex Villia, a plebiscitum of a comprehensive character, was passed, which specified the age at which each magistracy might be held; it appears also to have fixed the interval which must elapse between the holding of two patrician magistracies, since from about this period we find the beginning of the rule, which held good in Cicero's day, that a biennial interval must be observed between the patrician offices in the gradus honorum. Finally, Sulla in 81 re-enacted the rules about the certus ordo and the interval between the same magistracies by declaring that the quaestorship must be held before the praetorship, and the praetorship before the consulate, and that ten years must elapse before the resumption of the same magistracy.

The validity of election was dependent on the observance of certain forms, the first of which was concerned with the.]