Page:Roman public life (IA romanpubliclife00greeiala).pdf/408

 of vetoing and the power of judging is almost unquestionably the basis of that appeal to Caesar which leads to the reformation of a sentence. It is not improbable that the appeal came to operate in this way even against the praetor, although, even if it did not, the effect of Caesar's veto would really be reformatory. Even the tribunes of the Republic could put pressure on a praetor to induce him to alter his formula, and we can hardly imagine the praetor withstanding the suggestion accompanying a veto pronounced by the holder of the tribunicia potestas. The jurisdiction of the municipal towns of Italy was, so far as it was "ordinary" jurisdiction, still under the control of consuls, praetors, and tribunes, at least as late as the reign of Nero. These municipal courts were technically those of the praetor urbanus, and the Princeps probably interfered (if at all) with their jurisdiction only through his control of the rulings of the praetor in Rome. We shall trace elsewhere the mode in which the extraordinary jurisdiction of one of Caesar's delegates, the praefect of the city, came to encroach on the ordinary jurisdiction of the Roman courts.

Another method of appeal springs from the principle of delegated jurisdiction. Caesar, when he cares to exercise civil jurisdiction, can perform it either personally or through mandataries, and there is necessarily an appeal from the mandatary to the higher authority, unless this authority distinctly asserts that no appeal will lie. The appeal in such a case, if it is upheld, issues not merely in the veto but in the reform of the sentence of the mandatary. Caesar may, of course, employ such delegates as he pleases. Augustus used the praetor urbanus and consulares for home and foreign appellationes, a word which in this context: a me istam exceptionem nunquam impetrabunt."](Silanus) [Greek: etimêsen, hôste mêt' ekklêton pote ap' autou dikasai ethelêsai, all' ekeinô panta authis ta toiauta encheirisai]. We do not know what position Silanus held. If, as is generally supposed, he was consul, the reference may be to appeals from jurisdiction in fidei commissa delegated by the Princeps to the consul.]*