Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/281

Rh In other cases again, where his course was not expressly prescribed, the chief magistrate in the capital had either to act personally or not at all; for instance no delegation was admissible at the introductory steps of a process. This diversity in the treatment of civil and military delegation explains why, in the government of the Roman community proper, no delegated magisterial authority (pro magistratu) was possible nor were purely urban magistrates ever represented by non-magistrates, and why, on the other hand, military deputies (pro consule, pro prætore, pro quæstore) were excluded from all action within the community proper.

Again the right of nominating his successor, which the king had exercised absolutely, was by no means withdrawn from the new head of the community; but he was bound to nominate the person whom the community should designate to him. Through this binding right of proposal the nomination of the ordinary supreme magistrates passed in a certain sense substantially into the hands of the community; practically however there still existed a very considerable distinction between that right of proposal and the right of formal nomination. The consul in conducting the election was by no means a mere returning officer. By virtue of his prerogative essentially similar to the king's, he might reject particular candidates, and disregard votes tendered for them; at first, moreover, he might even limit the choice to a list of candidates proposed by himself; and (what was of still more consequence) the community by no means obtained through its right of proposal the right of deposing a magistrate again, which it must necessarily have obtained had it really appointed him. On the contrary, as the successor was still nominated solely by his predecessor, and thus no actual magistrate ever derived his right from a magistrate still holding office, the old and important principle of Roman state-law, that the supreme magistrate could never be deposed, remained inviolably in force in the consular period also.

Lastly the nomination of the priests, which had been a prerogative of the kings (P. 67), was not transferred to the consuls; but the colleges of priests filled up the vacancies in their own ranks, while the Vestals and single priests were nominated by the college of pontifices, on which devolved also the exercise of the paternal jurisdiction, so to speak, of the community over the priestesses of Vesta. With a view