Delegation: The Power of Decision of the Consuls at Rome and Senatorial Procedures in the Second and First Centuries BCE

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Delegation: The Power of Decision of the Consuls at Rome and Senatorial Procedures in the Second and First Centuries BCE
Rosillo-López, Cristina

From the journal Hermes Hermes, Volume 151, June 2023, issue 2

Published by Franz Steiner Verlag

article, 12771 Words
Original language: English
Hermes 2023, pp 155-176
https://doi.org/10.25162/hermes-2023-0013

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Abstract

The present study aims at elucidating two aspects of Roman governance: first of all, the overlooked, but relevant, power of decision of the consuls (and, in a minor degree, of the praetors); secondly, the relationship between magistrates and Senate. The sources, especially epigraphic senatus consulta, consistently describe a procedure through which the Senate voted to delegate fully or partially decision-making on specific matters of foreign affairs to a consul or praetor who was in Rome. This procedure is present in almost half of the decisions recorded in epigraphic senatus consulta, on a variety of matters throughout the second and first centuries. This procedure was characterised by the use of the formula ita utei ei e re publica fideque sua videbitur esse/videretur (found in both epigraphic and literary sources), which referred to the cultural and ideological connotation that addressed the relationship between the Senate and magistrates.

Author information

Cristina Rosillo-López

Keywords

Late Roman Republic | Senate | consul | praetor | decision-making process

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