Princeps was directly interested, we have only to consider the consulship and the censorship, for they were the only two whose titles or powers were sufficient to warrant their assumption by the head of the state.

The consulship was no integral part of the imperial power after Augustus had ceased to employ it in this way;1 but it was frequently assumed as an occasional office by the Princeps, who held it for a short time, generally at the beginning of his rule.

The censorship had disappeared as a Republican office, and we might have expected that its vast powers combined with its Republican traditions would have made it a valuable supplement to the authority of the Prince. But there were reasons against its assumption. In its pure form it was an occasional office, and its permanent tenure might have shocked Republican sentiment; while the fact that the assessment of the Roman people for the comitia and the army soon ceased to be necessary made its absence scarcely felt. On the analogy of the tribunicia potestas, the powers of the office without the office itself were, in the form of a cura legum et morum, offered to Augustus, but declined by him.2 There was no constitutional difficulty about exercising some of the functions of the censorship through the imperium, whether consular or quasi-consular, and this was done by Augustus when he revised the list of the Senate in 29 and 18 B.C.3 Two of the succeeding Principes, however, Claudius and Vespasian, thought fit to assume the office in its old temporary form, and Domitian carried out the design of making it an integral part of the Principate by assuming the position of censor for life (censor perpetuus). His precedent was not followed because it was unnecessary. The revision of the list of the Senate and equites the only meaning that the cura morum now had-was established by consent as an admitted right of the Princeps,5 and even the power of creating Patricians came to be recognised as one inherent in his office. This power had been conferred on

1

p. 340.

4

2 The statement of Suetonius (Aug. 27 "Recepit et morum legumque regimen aeque perpetuum") is not borne out by the Monumentum Ancyranum or by Augustus' titular designations.

3 Suet. Aug. 35; Mon. Anc. ii. 5 "consulari cum imperio lustrum solus feci."

4 Dio Cass. lxvii. 4 τιμητὴς δὲ διὰ βίου πρῶτος δὴ καὶ μόνος καὶ ἰδιωτῶν καὶ αὐτοκρατόρων ἐχειροτονήθη.

5 ib. liii. 17 καὶ τοὺς μὲν καταλέγουσι καὶ ἐς τὴν ἱππάδα καὶ ἐς τὸ βουλευτικόν, τοὺς δὲ καὶ ἀπαλείφουσιν, ὅπως ἂν αὐτοῖς δόξῃ.

1

Caesar and Augustus by law; Claudius and Vespasian exercised it as censors; but, apparently without further enactment, this power of ennobling, extinct since the beginning of the Republic 2 and no part of the Republican census, became an admitted imperial prerogative. It was only when the destined Princeps was himself a Plebeian that this honour, which was considered a necessary qualification for his office, was conferred on him by the Senate.3

(iv.) The chief of the extraordinary rights conferred on the Princeps by special enactment were those which had relation to the Senate, the right of recommendation to office (commendatio) and a dispensation from the operation of certain laws.

The special privileges which distinguished the Emperor from other magistrates in transacting business with the Senate were three in number. First, he has not merely the power to put a motion (referre) when present in the house, but he can send a written recommendation (relationem facere) when the Senate meets under the presidency of another magistrate. In such a meeting the Emperor as a rule only claims priority for one item in a single sitting (jus primae relationis); hence we sometimes find, as a special privilege, the right of priority given him for three, four, or five.5 The power which he possesses of dividing the house upon his motion without debate (senatus consultum per discessionem facere) is not a new one, but one that might be exercised by the consul of the later Republic. Secondly, the Emperor has the power to withdraw a relatio of his own which is already before the house (relationem remittere); and thirdly, the privilege of ordering the Senate to meet under the presidency of another magistrate.

The second special right has reference to the elections of 1 Tac. Ann. xi. 25 "Isdem diebus in numerum patriciorum adscivit Caesar (Claudius as censor) vetustissimum quemque e senatu aut quibus clari parentes fuerant exhaustis etiam quas (familias) dictator Caesar lege Cassia et princeps Augustus lege Saenia sublegere." Cf. Suet. Otho 1; and for Vespasian's censorship Vita Marci 1 "Annius Verus adscitus in patricios . . a Ves

3 Vita Juliani 3 "in patricias familias relatus"; Macrini 7 "senatus Macrinum in patricios allegit novum hominem." Cf. Dio Cass. lxxviii. 17. 4 Lex de imp. Vesp. 1. 3 "utique ei senatum habere, relationem facere, remittere, senatus consulta per relationem discessionemque facere liceat." In 1. 7 we find the right of the Princeps to summon the Senate ex mandatu.

5 Jus tertiae relationis (Vita Probi 12), quartae (Vita Pertinacis 5), quintae (Vita Marci 6, Alexandri 1).

magistrates, and introduces us to the question how far the Princeps could control them. Two functions are attributed to him by our authorities, that of nomination and that of commendation; but the effects of the two are very different. The nominatio is merely the negative power possessed by the Republician magistrate of receiving names and excluding unqualified aspirants from candidature. With respect to most offices the praetorship, for instance-it was exercised by the Princeps conjointly with the consuls, and the number of candidates whom he nominated was, at least in the early Principate, limited.1 The practical effect of the Prince's nomination on the election might be great, but its legal influence was nil.2 Commendatio, on the other hand, a privilege developed from the Republican practice by which candidates were recommended by distinguished persons for election, is a right legally conferred, and one which absolutely secures the choice by the electing body of the person so commended. The extent to which it might be employed differed with the various magistracies; thus in Tiberius' reign, out of at least twelve candidates for the praetorship only four were commended by the Emperor. Magistrates, who had gained their position by this act of imperial favour, were designated candidati Caesaris.5 The highest office of all, the consulship, seems, at least in the early Principate, never to have been awarded on a formal imperial recommendation; for the description of the method by which Tiberius filled up this post at his pleasure shows that the Emperor effected his object by a clever use of the nomination. This may have been a limitation of practice, not of theory, for the

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1 Tac. Ann. i. 14 "candidatos praeturae duodecim nominavit (Tiberius), numerum ab Augusto traditum, et hortante senatu ut augeret jure jurando obstrinxit se non excessurum.'

"

2 This practical effect seems sometimes to have been obviated by the Emperor's selecting his candidates for nomination by lot (Dio Cass. lviii. 20). See Mr. Strachan-Davidson in Smith Dict. of Antiq. ii. p. 237.

3 Lex de imp. Vesp. 1. 10 "utique quos magistratum potestatem imperium curationemve cujus rei petentes senatui populoque Romano commendaverit, quibusque suffragationem suam dederit promiserit, eorum comitis quibusque extra ordinem ratio habeatur." Cf. Tac. Ann. i. 15 "sine repulsa et ambitu designandos.' For the precedent set by Caesar's use of it see Suet. Caes. 41.

4 Tac. Ann. i. 15 "moderante Tiberio ne plures quam quattuor candidatos commendaret, sine repulsa et ambitu designandos.'

5 e.g. praetor, tribunus, quaestor candidatus (Wilmanns Index pp. 551 ff.). 6 Tac. Ann. i. 81 "plerumque eos tantum apud se professos disseruit, quorum nomina consulibus edidisset: posse et alios profiteri, si gratiae aut

words of the law as we have it exempt no office from this imperial control, and it is certain that from the time of Vespasian onwards the consulship too was subject to the commendatio.1

2

The Princeps, according to the enactment which confers powers on Vespasian, was dispensed from certain laws (legibus solutus). There is no implication here of an exemption from the operation of the ordinary civil and criminal law. The Princeps is not above the laws, nor are the courts of the community his courts; and, if he was exempt from prosecution during his year of office, this was the normal privilege of the Republican magistrate. What is meant is the dispensation from certain principles of the constitution or enactments, which the Principate as a magistracy necessarily violated or which were found inconvenient to the Princeps. Such were the leges annales, or the rule forbidding the holding of the imperium within the walls. In choosing an heir the Emperor was also exempted from following the precise formalities of adrogation;3 he could manumit without the vindicta and was not subject to the disabilities of the Julian and Papian law.5

4

6

(v.) The separation of religious from political duties, which had been a characteristic of the Republic, was continued theoretically under the Principate. The Emperor was in no sense a high priest, and ritual was still a function of the sacerdotal colleges. But he was a member of the great religious guilds which dealt with augury and with the jus divinum, and the law gives him the power to carry out the orders of such societies if he thinks it to be in the interest of the state. We have not, however, merely the phenomenon of the civil assisting the religious arm, for the meritis confiderent." It may have been a person so appointed who inaccurately describes himself as "per commendation (em) Ti. Caesaris Augusti ab senatu co(n)s(ul) dest(inatus)" (Inscr. Reg. Neap. n. 4762; C.I.L. ix. n. 2342). 1 C.I.L xiv. n. 3608 "hunc Caesar Aug. Vespasianus iterum cos. fecit" Plin. Paneg. 77 (of Trajan) "praestare consulibus ipsum qui consules facit." Mommsen (Staatsr. ii. p. 925) thinks that the change came with Nero.

2 Lex de imp. Vesp. 1. 22 "utique quibus legibus plebeive scitis scriptum fuit, ne divus Aug(ustus), Tiberiusve Julius Caesar Aug(ustus), Tiberiusque Claudius Caesar Aug(ustus) Germanicus tenerentur, iis legibus plebisque scitis imp(erator) Caesar Vespasianus solutus sit."

3 Tac. Hist. i. 15 (Galba to Piso on the latter's adoption) "si te privatus lege curiata apud pontifices, ut moris est, adoptarem." 4 Paulus in Dig. 40, 1, 14, 1.

6 Dio Cass. liii. 17 ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἱερωσύναις ἱερῶσθαι.

5 Ulpian in Dig. 1, 3, 31.

7 Lex de imp. Vesp. 1. 17 "utique quaecunque ex usu rei publicae majestateque divinarum rerum esse censebit, ei agere facere jus potestasque sit."

Prince, as pontifex maximus, represents both in his own person. The chief pontificate was specially conferred on him with the other imperial powers; he may originally have been invested, like the pontifex of the Republic, by the assembly of the seventeen tribes,1 but later the creation seems to have been wholly the work of the Senate, although a formal announcement of the result (renuntiatio) was still made before the assembly.2 When the Principate came to admit the principle of colleagueship, only one of the Augusti was made chief pontiff, and the association of the highest religious and civil power continued until the stole was rejected by the piety of Gratian.*

It is obvious that the attempt to keep the rôles of pontiff and Princeps apart, even if made, could never have been successful. Where crime was also sin the pontiff could now utter authoritative law and exercise coercion; the lay and the religious character are strangely mixed in the methods adopted by Domitian for the punishment of incest,5 and when the jussio principis speaks on a question of burial law, it must have been difficult to tell whether it was the Prince or the pontiff who was giving his decision.

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Apart from its influence on law, the chief pontificate was valuable for its powers of patronage. Few distinctions were more earnestly sought by young nobles than admission to the religious colleges, and the door to them lay chiefly through the Princeps. His influence might be exercised by his right of nomination or by his commendation to the electing body.7

§ 2. Titles, Insignia, and Honours of the Princeps

In dealing with the titles of the Princeps, it is as well to begin with those which were not in the list of official titles, for, impressed on the ruler, as they were, by current usage, they were often the most significant. The word Princeps, although it 2 Mommsen Staatsr. ii. p. 31.

1 p. 254.

3 Dio Cass. liii. 17. In the decrees to Maximus and Balbinus the pontificatus maximus is mentioned (Vita 8), and it is possible that it was held by both these 4 Zosimus iv. 36. emperors conjointly.

5 Suet. Dom. 8 "Incesta Vestalium virginum. . . varie ac severe coercuit : priora capitali supplicio; posteriora, more veteri."

6 Ulpian in Dig. 11, 7, 8.

7 Dio Cass. liii. 17; Tac. Hist. i. 77 "Otho pontificatus auguratusque honoratis jam senibus cumulum dignitatis addidit "; Plin. ad Traj. 13 (8) “rogo dignitati, ad quam me provexit indulgentia tua, vel auguratum vel septemviratum, quia vacent, adicere digneris."