The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

The principal duties of the consuls of the Republic were to raise and command
the armies, and to attend to all aspects of state. Once the Empire was established,
direction of state affairs was no longer their prerogative, but the consulship
was sti ll a coveted of f i ce . The em perors them s elves could hold the
con su l s h i p, s om etimes repe a tedly year after ye a r, and since the el ecti ons were
obliterated, candidates stood little chance of attaining the office unless the emperor
recommended them. Since one of the annual posts was often taken up by
the em peror or one of his rel a tive s , the nu m ber of ava i l a ble con sulships declined,
and this decline was from time to time accompanied by a corresponding
shortage of experienced officials to take up the administrative posts that norm
a lly fo ll owed a con su l s h i p. A useful devi ce was insti tuted , a ll owing the co nsules
ordinarii, who gave their names to the year, to retire from their office after
a short tenure, to make way for extra consuls called consules suffecti. These suffect
or su b s ti tute con suls were appoi n ted wh en ever the ord i n a ry magi s tra te s
died, resigned, or were removed from office. Therefore, this quite normal procedure
was adapted to create legally appointed extra consuls who could then go
on to furt h er posts having ga i n ed a little ex peri en ce of govern m ent at hom e .
The tenure of the suffect consulship was usually at least six months, but in some
instances there were multiple suffect consulships. The future Emperor Severus
was suffect consul in ad 190, but his experience of office was limited to about
two months, since there were no less than twenty-five consuls in that year (Birley,
1988; Southern, 2001).
The Praetors
H i s t o r i c a l Ba c k g r o u n d 65
The chief magistrates of early Republican Rome may have originally been called
praetors, a title that derives from the verb praeire, meaning “to go before.” The
consuls soon took over as chief magistrates, and from then onward the powers
of a praetor were slightly inferior to those of the consuls. The post eventually
became one of the stages on the path to the con su l s h i p. O ri gi n a lly, on ly on e
praetor was elected, who could command armies and was left in full charge of
the city when the consuls were absent. His duties involved legal functions as well
as command of armies.
The number of praetors was continually increased to cope with a growing
workload as the Empire expanded. The first provinces were governed by praetors.
For a short time under Julius Caesar there were sixteen praetors, but the final
total under Augustus was twelve. In the Imperial era the praetors retained
some of their judicial functions and acquired the additional function of organizing
and financing the all - i m portant games to en tertain the peop l e . Af ter
holding office, the ex-praetor’s subsequent post was usually as legate of a legion
or as governor of a senatorial province.