SPQR – The Senate and People of Rome – Cursus honorum
The Senate was the governing and advisory assembly of the aristocracy in the early Roman Republic. When the Republic began, the Senate functioned as an advisory council. In the early Roman republic it consisted of around 150 senators who served for life. Only patricians were members in the early period, but plebeians were also admitted before long, although they were denied the senior magistracies for a longer period.
The executive magistrates of the Roman Republic were officials of the ancient Roman Republic (c. 510 BC – 44 BC), elected by the People of Rome. Ordinary magistrates (magistratus) were divided into several ranks according to their role and the power they wielded: censors, consuls (who functioned as the regular head of state), praetors, curule aediles, and finally quaestor. Any magistrate could obstruct (veto) an action that was being taken by a magistrate with an equal or lower degree of magisterial powers.
The cursus honorum (Latin: [ˈkʊrsʊs hɔˈnoːrũː]; Latin for ‘course of honors’, or more colloquially ‘ladder of offices’) was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The cursus honorum comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts. Each office had a minimum age for election. There were minimum intervals between holding successive offices and laws forbade repeating an office.
Thus this mod brings exciting new offices for real senatorial gameplay. There is now a greater role for the executive magistrates of the early Roman Republic and a lot of political intrigue!
It adds several new offices to the senate and increases/changes several traits associated.
Let’s begin with the Cursus honorum, you begin as a Roman Senator – everyone begins at this level (there are 150 senators) and since your family are one of the many ruling families/class called the patricians, it’s only a matter of a couple of turns when you become a fresh junior Roman Senator.
As junior Roman Senator you’re debating and gaining experience in the senate waiting for your first office in the magistrate.
After hard work and gaining experience you get promoted to Quaestor.
In the Roman Republic, quaestors (Lat. quaestores) were elected officials who supervised the state treasury and conducted audits. It was the lowest ranking position in the cursus honorum (course of offices). However, this means that in the political environment of Rome, it was quite common for many aspiring politicians to take the position of quaestor as an early rung on the political ladder.
After hard work and gaining experience you get promoted to Aedile.
Aedile (/ˈiːdaɪl/ EE-dyle; Latin: aedīlis [ae̯ˈdiːlɪs], from aedes, "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings (aedēs) and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order and duties to ensure the city of Rome was well supplied and its civil infrastructure well maintained, akin to modern local government.
The office of the aedilis was generally held by young men intending to follow the cursus honorum to high political office, traditionally after their quaestorship but before their praetorship. It was not a compulsory part of the cursus, and hence a former quaestor could be elected to the praetorship without having held the position of aedile. However, it was an advantageous position to hold because it demonstrated the aspiring politician’s commitment to public service, as well as giving him the opportunity to hold public festivals and games, an excellent way to increase his name recognition and popularity.
The functions of the magistracy, the praetura (praetorship), are described by the adjective: the praetoria potestas (praetorian power), the praetorium imperium (praetorian authority), and the praetorium ius (praetorian law), the legal precedents established by the praetores (praetors). Praetorium, as a substantive, denoted the location from which the praetor exercised his authority, either the headquarters of his castra, the courthouse (tribunal) of his judiciary, or the city hall of his provincial governorship.
A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic (509 to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the highest level of the cursus honorum (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspired). Each year, the citizens of Rome elected two consuls to serve jointly for a one-year term. The consuls alternated in holding fasces each month when both were in Rome and a consul’s imperium extended over Rome and all its provinces.
- Senator – Junior or senior Roman Senator
- Quaestor – Managing financial and administrative matters
- Aedile – Looked after particular matters of government such as public buildings, food supply and games
- Praetor – Roman judges and provincial governors
- Consul – Managed state army and affairs of executive government
These positions are special and only the Dictator is higher in rank then Consul, but this position has a very short term limit and appointment is rare. The Pontifex Maximus has become more symbolic as this was a position of the chief high priest of the College of Pontiffs.
The Censor is more like a senior position of ex Consuls
- Censor
- Pontifex Maximus
- Dictator
The censor (at any time, there were two) was a magistrate in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government’s finances.
The power of the censor was absolute: no magistrate could oppose his decisions, and only another censor who succeeded him could cancel those decisions.
The pontifex maximus (Latin for "greatest priest") was the chief high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post. Although in fact the most powerful office in the Roman priesthood, the pontifex maximus was officially ranked fifth in the ranking of the highest Roman priests (ordo sacerdotum), behind the rex sacrorum and the flamines maiores (Flamen Dialis, Flamen Martialis, Flamen Quirinalis). This position is only symbolic in the early Roman republic and only gives you some influence.
A dictator was a magistrate of the Roman Republic, entrusted with the full authority of the state to deal with a military emergency or to undertake a specific duty. All other magistrates were subordinate to his imperium, and the right of the plebeian tribunes to veto his actions or of the people to appeal from them was extremely limited. In order to prevent the dictatorship from threatening the state itself, severe limitations were placed upon its powers, as a dictator could only act within his intended sphere of authority, and was obliged to resign his office once his appointed task had been accomplished, or at the expiration of six months.
Appointment to this office is very rare, the term limit is very short and for a short amount of time you have full immunity from anything. You get the highest stats boosts and the highest amount of influence in the senate.
