In November 82 BCE, the victorious proconsul L. Cornelius Sulla (cos. 88) revived the dictatorship to restore law and order in the battered Republic. L. Valerius Flaccus (cos. 100), then princeps senatus, was appointed interrex by the patrician patres. After obtaining the necessary clearances from the Senate and the augural college, Flaccus passed a law ordering him to appoint Sulla to an unprecedented dictatura legibus scribundis et rei publicae constituendae, and himself to the office of magister equitum, and this ad tempus incertum, until the completion of their vast commission. Although Sulla was thus invested with a series of spectacular extraordinary powers, he still scrupulously bothered to involve SPQR in the execution of his momentous political programme. Probably yet before the comitia consularia of 81, Sulla next initiated a gradual and carefully staged return to normalcy. The cornerstone of this policy was his decision to run the Republic in 80 as consul II, in conjunction with Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius. Its climax was Sulla's dramatic abdication of the dictatorship at the outset of 79, proclaiming that he had now fully restored the Republic. RésuméEn novembre 82 av. n. è., le proconsul victorieux L. Cornelius Sylla (cos. 88) ressuscitait la dictature afin de rétablir l'ordre dans la République en ruines. L. Valerius Flaccus (cos. 100), alors princeps senatus, était élu interrex par les sénateurs patriciens. Après avoir obtenu les autorisations nécessaires de la part du sénat et du collège des augures, Flaccus proposait une loi qui lui ordonnait de nommer Sylla dictator legibus scribundis et rei publicae constituendae, une sorte de dictature sans précédent, et lui-même à l'office de magister equitum, et ceci ad tempus incertum, jusqu'à l'accomplissement de leur lourde mission. Alors que Sylla avait été investi d'une série de pouvoirs extraordinaires spectaculaires, il prenait scrupuleusement soin d'impliquer le sénat et le peuple romain dans l'exécution de son programme politique ambitieux. Sans doute dès avant les comitia consularia de 81, Sylla a soigneusement planifié un retour progressif à la normalité. La pierre angulaire de cette politique était sa décision de gouverner la République en 80 comme consul II, en collaboration avec Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius. Son point culminant fut atteint par son abdication de la dictature au début de 79, alors qu'il proclamait avoir rétabli la République.

Cn. Pompeius Magnus is undoubtedly best known for his great commands of 67 and 66 BCE and his subsequent role as ally, then enemy, of Iulius Caesar. Nonetheless, comprehensive scrutiny of Pompeius’ track record from 79 to 70 BCE reveals that this was perhaps the most remarkable and ground breaking stage of his career. In 78, in the face of yet another civil war, the Senate charged Rome’s first ever eques triumphalis with an independent propraetorian commission, under the auspices of the consul Q. Lutatius Catulus. In 77, Pompeius flatly ignored Catulus’ direct orders to disband his army, eager to secure a major role in the war against Sertorius and his Spanish associates. After a long and acerbic debate, the Senate eventually decided to have the People appoint Pompeius to an extraordinary proconsulship. By virtue of an unprecedented provision, the equestrian proconsul was, moreover, authorized to command in Spain on an equal footing with the consular proconsul Metellus Pius, the princeps ciuitatis of the time. In 71, Pompeius boldly decided to stand for the consulship of 70, in collusion with M. Licinius Crassus. As he ran on a decidedly popular platform and, once again, refused to disband his legions, the conscript Fathers had little choice but to grant dispensation from the Cornelian Law as well as a second public triumph. This paper will argue that, in political and constitutional terms, Pompeius played an instrumental role in burying Sulla’s constitutional settlement, and that his extraordinary career in the seventies BCE set a fateful example for the next couple of decades.

During most of the Roman Republican era—traditionally dated from 509 to 27 BC—the magistrates of the people and the plebs demonstrably played an essential role in both the production and the application of Roman law, especially in terms of statute laws and edicts. Although the senate had a tremendous voice, no legislation would have been possible without the proactive involvement of a series of key magistrates of people and plebs. When it comes to the application of the law under the Roman Republic, there was much scope for the so-called minor magistracies, whose involvement in the routine application of the law was probably disproportionate to their attestation in the sources. Importantly, this survey of magistrates who made and applied the law in the Roman Republic never loses sight of the overall socio-institutional background and key historical developments and changes.

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