Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/99

III Here we have kingship no longer denoting, as in Homer, a social position of chieftaincy which bears with it certain vaguely-conceived prerogatives, but a clearly defined magistracy within the fully realised State. The rights and duties of the Rex are indeed defined by no documents, and the spirit of the age still seems to be obedience and trust; but we also find the marks of a formal customary procedure, which is already hardening into constitutional practice, and will in time further harden into constitutional law. The monarchy has ceased to be hereditary, if it ever was so; and the method of appointment, though we are uncertain as to its exact nature, is beyond doubt regulated with precision, and expressed in technical terms. Let us fix our attention for a moment on one of these terms, — the most famous of them all, and the one which best exemplifies that stage in the government of the City-State which the Roman monarchy seems to represent.

The functions of the Rex show the same three sides as those of the Homeric Basileus. He was priest for the whole people, he commanded the army in war, and he dispensed justice at home. But the Romans have learnt to sum up the whole of this power in one technical term of wonderful force and meaning. This word, imperium, introduces us at once to a new range of ideas, which we may call political, and which belong to the newly realised life of the City-State. Imperium is a technical term, the first we